7E – Language Arts Lesson            Wednesday, November 3

Today’s lesson will be a review of the key concepts of your memoir. As a part of this lesson, you will be copying and completing a series of questions about your own memoir. By answering these questions, you will have a better understanding of not only the memoir as a piece or writing, but also of your own topic.

One of the first concepts we dealt with, is how a memoir and personal narrative are different. Which leads us to question # 1:

How is a “memoir” different from a “personal narrative?”

Once you have answered the above question, please answer whether or not you have done what the answer above suggests you should do in a memoir. If “yes”, how did you do so?

The next concept we covered was “epiphany.” We discussed how in most memoirs, the writer has some sort of epiphany. Which leads us to our next question:

What is an epiphany? How does an epiphany help the writer or reader?

What is your epiphany in your memoir?

The next lesson we worked on in class had to do with the importance of our memoir to the writer and the reader. Which leads us to our next question:

Why are the events in your memoir important? (Remember: your event should be something that is important enough that you would want to write about it and important/interesting enough that someone would want to read about it).

The next lesson was on introductions – how to begin your memoir. In this lesson we mentioned “a hook” – something that would engage the reader/make them interested in our piece.

What is your “hook” in your memoir?

One of the last things we worked on in class was a conclusion. We discussed how a good conclusion should be an “echo” of your introduction, but with a stronger voice.

What do mean when we say “a conclusion should be an echo of your introduction?”

Hopefully, the above questions have given you a better understanding of your own memoir.

Remember: All of this work will be handed in when schools reopen. That means small tasks like the one above should be completed as asked (questions should be copied and completed, and should be neat and organized).

The next part of our lesson will be spent on the following quick writing prompt:

Describe, in detail, a piece of media that you watched or listened to recently. This could be a song or artist you listened to, a movie or tv show you watched, a podcast, an online article you have read, etc. Remember: when you are writing about something you watched/listened to, you should act as if the reader doesn’t know anything about your subject. (10 minutes of quiet write time. Feel free to share this piece with someone at home when you are finished)

The third part of our lesson will be silent reading. Please spend at least 20 minutes reading your library book, or something else you have at home. So long as you are reading, you are meeting this goal.

For the final portion of our lesson, please click the link below to listen to the second half of chapter 2 from “City of Ember.”

After you finish, please come up with a list of key points from the chapter, similar to the list I included (in Monday’s lesson) for the introduction and chapter 1. Your list should included at least 7 or 8 items.

Good Luck !

Chapter 2: Listen aloud