MEMOIR:TELL A LITTLE PERSONAL TRUTH IN YOUR CLASSROOMKathryn Campbell

St. Paul Academy and Summit School

1712 Randolph Avenue

St. Paul, MN 55105

www.spa.edu

kcampbell@spa.edu

651-696-1459

DIPPING OUR TOES IN THE WATER

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Smith Magazine has several projects that allow students to write creative nonfiction, win contests, and be published:

The Moment is another great Smith writing project for memoir, and asks writers to share stories (in 750 words or less) of a moment that changed their life in profound ways.

http://www.smithmag.net/themoment/

I learn most when I teach.

IT IS TIME TO DIVE IN

A Song of the DegreesEzra Pound IRest with me Chinese colours,For I think the glass is evil. IIThe wind moves above the wheat-With a silver crashing,A thin war of metal. I have known the golden disc,I have seen it melting above me.I have known the stone-bright place,The hall of clear colours. IIIO glass subtly evil, O confusion of colours!O light bound and bent in, soul of the captive,Why am I warned? Why am I sent away?Why is your glitter full of curious mistrust?O glass subtle and cunning, O powdery gold!O filaments of amber, two-faced iridescence!

http://www.wordle.net/create

RESORT TO THE TRUTH

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PostSecret is a community art project that invites participants to create a postcard that includes a personal truth and mail it anonymously to the artist, Frank Warren:

Postsecret

13345 Copper Ridge Road

Germantown, MD

20874

Postcards are published on the website, on Facebook, and in books.

MAKE WORDS IN THE WORLD

BloggerBlogger is a user-friendly, advertisement free site where students can publish their work.

OpenZineThis magazine site allows students to link other published works from blog, music, photo, or video sites to the pages of their self-published work. It also allows for multiple editions of published work (i.e. weekly or monthly updates)

FacebookAll students have them; it can be a great tool to talk about persona and self as character.

TwitterProvides an excellent space for frequent updates; wonderful exercise in telling a concise story. (140 characters)

LULU BOOKSwww.lulu.com

THOUGHTS RIPPLE LIKE WATER

SUGGESTED READING

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolf A Moveable Feast by E. Hemingway I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by M.

Angelou Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt The Florist’s Daughter by Patricia Hampl Blooming by Susan Allen Toth A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah Sickened by Julie Gregory Hunger of Memory by R. Rodriguez Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

GRAPHIC NONFICTION PICTO-ESSAY

Old Friend from Far Away by Natalie Goldberg If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by S. King Bird by Bird by Ann Lamott

WRITING MEMOIR TEXTS

Stitches by David Small Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi Fun Home by Allison Be Syncopated (ed. Brendan Burford)

ONE MORE TIME

The Thingsby Donald Hall

When I walk in my house I see pictures,bought long ago, framed and hanging—de Kooning, Arp, Laurencin, Henry Moore—that I've cherished and stared at for years,yet my eyes keep returning to the masters of the trivial—a white stone perfectly round, tiny lead models of baseball players, a cowbell, a broken great-grandmother's rocker,a dead dog's toy—valueless, unforgettable detritus that my children will throw awayas I did my mother's souvenirs of trips with my dead father, Kodaks of kittens, and bundles of cards from her mother Kate.