Lesson 6: Memoirs

Module 1 | Lesson 1 | Lesson 2 | Lesson 3 | Lesson 4 | Lesson 5 | Lesson 6 | Lesson 7

Lesson 6

Memoirs

Word Splash: Defining the Genre
Article: The Stranger in the Photo is Me
CBC Podcast: Kiwew Episode 1 “Effie”
Video: Dear Younger Self
Twine Audio-Narrative: Shell Song
Discussion #5: WPS Exploring Memoirs

Defining the Genre

Your life has marked you in unique ways, and these marks – whether you know it or not – will determine how you live your life, what quests you pursue, and what you are equipped to say with passion and authority.

Michael Rabiger
The power of autobiography: Djola Branner at TEDxHampshireCollege

Word Splash: Understanding Terms

After watching Djola Branner’s TEDx Talk above about the cultural agency and personal freedom afforded by first-person narratives, let’s explore the following terms in a Word Splash: autobiography, biography, memoir, and personal narrative. Click on the discussion board below. Add words, questions, associations, thoughts, examples on the sticky-notes (double-click) to extend our collective understanding of these creative forms – how they are related and different from each other.

Discussion #5: WPS Exploring Memoirs

Click on the Interactive Memoir Exploration below to read, watch, traverse, and listen to four different memoirs in varying forms. Then, join the discussion to make your thoughts about the selections visible using the WPS: Word – Phrase – Sentence Routine. Review your annotations of the texts, and for each text, select a:

WORD that captured your attention or struck you as powerful.

PHRASE (can be shorter or longer than a sentence) that moved, engaged, or provoked you.

SENTENCE that was meaningful to you, that you felt captures a core idea of the reading selection.

Record your WPS quotes with a brief explanation of why you chose them on the digital sticky-notes in the discussion space within the interactive memoir exploration below.