starting strong with memoir– the how

I recently wrote about why starting strong is a crucial part of any type of instruction on where we are building voice: writing and research being the two things I most frequently teach.

Just a day after I posted that piece, one of my students restarted an important writing piece that he’d been working on for months because he’d realized that he’d been slaving over a topic that didn’t work for him.

I am reminded why starting strong matters every day – especially after those days when I forget and both my student and I find ourselves on the painful journey of starting over.

As a memoir teacher, I use a variety of tools to help ensure that day 1 brainstorming is as fruitful and robust as humanly possible. Here are some of the tools I use:

Nancie Atwell’s writing territories lessons

In Lessons That Change Writers, Nancie Atwell includes lessons that help students brainstorm topics for many genres, but I especially love her writing territories lessons that she uses at the beginning of the year. These lessons are dependent on good modelling – I as a teacher spend some time every year ensuring that the sample of territories from my own list that I share with students is varied, authentic, and useful. I walk through my topics, sometimes adding on extra context or intentions, and then ask students to generate their own lists. Staying pretty close to Atwell’s lessons, I ask them to come back the next day and share their ideas with each other. I believe that specificity begets specificity, so just listening to each other will remind them of even more ideas that are near and dear to them.

I should note that I have used Atwell’s territories lesson plan across a wide variety of demographics and I have really found it successful every time. I have used it with middle school and high school, teachers and education leaders, small groups, large classrooms, and one-on-none. Every time, the idea that my specificity inspires their own, and they in turn inspire others, has held true in magical ways

The annoyingly skeptical uncle or auntie

Another way I elicit memoir topics with high school students is by invoking the character of the annoyingly skeptical auntie/uncle. We have all experienced something close enough that the visual works as a push to generate some great ideas. Here’s how it works:

Option 1: I ask students to describe themselves in five adjectives. I model with my own five adjectives and have a few I ban from their vocabulary. Lazy and argumentative are the two that I most frequently hear that I disallow – I don’t think they are useful self-concepts for teenagers to hold; they are rarely true; and most importantly they are usually descriptors placed ON them by adults in their lives more than they are true parts of their identity.

If a student really struggles with coming up with five, I send them to their friends to get more or I ask a parent to jump onto the call. Whenever another person weights in, I make a point to mention that only positive adjectives are allowed – teenagers are often self-critical enough without the help of a parent or a friend.

Once they have their five adjectives, I bring in my annoying elder. I ask students to imagine that they are at a dinner party with this person, who overhears them describing themselves as _____ (one of their adjectives).

If they had to turn around and prove that they are in fact ____, what stories would they tell?

Again, this works best if I model. I usually pick one of my adjectives and list anecdotes.

It’s important in my modelling, both for Atwell’s lesson on writing territories and for the adjective/anecdote exercise above, both of which I try to do fresh and unscripted every time, that I showcase specificity: no general ‘I always think like this/act like this in lieu of actual anecdotes situated in a real place and time, and nuance: these are ways that this adjective is still part of a journey I am on or here are the tensions I experience.

Then, I ask students to brainstorm their own stories for each of their adjectives. I ask them to aim for at least 5 stories for each of their 5 adjectives, because quantity is often a prerequisite for quality.

Option 2: I ask students to list around ten beliefs they hold true/believe are true. I might give them a mix of serious and silly examples, like “Ice cream is the best dessert” or “I believe kindness is more important than intelligence” and then ask them to list as many as come to mind for them. Then, I gain adopt the persona of the aunty and ask them to convince me that these beliefs are true – either using examples from their life or from books, TV shows, songs, or other media that they love and that helped build their worldview.

Note: Facilitation is really important here – I must listen carefully and, over time, have built my ability to ask the right questions of young people. Too invasive too quickly and they will clam up. Too shallow and they’ll just say what they think is the right answer, which keeps them distant from a memoir topic that is resonant and illustrative of who they really are.

Stay tuned for starting strong with research projects!