Telling our stories: An invitation to memoirsts
For me, it all began with memoir. I had been teaching English for six years, but I had never felt good about writing instruction. I was at a loss for how to approach writing instruction in a way that worked. As a result, my students did a lot of reading, wrote and discussed about what they were reading, but they didn't grow much as writers. During the summer of 2004, I read In the Middle and Lessons that Change Writers by Nancie Atwell. The first book gave me a new idea of how a writing class could look and function, and the second book gave me the specific tools that I needed to make it happen in my classroom. I made a decision to completely change my approach. I started by following Atwell's lessons, one by one, and write my first memoir. At the age of 28, all I had ever written were essays. All I had ever taught were essays. But I had never been proud of anything like I was proud of that memoir. I knew that if Atwell's ideas and lessons could work for me, they would work for my students.
For my teaching demo, I chose to use the first lessons that inspired me to see myself as more creative and more willing to try genres I never would have tried otherwise. Memoir was the first genre that I taught using a workshop approach, and it opened my eyes to what my students were capable of as writers.
For my teaching demo, I chose to use the first lessons that inspired me to see myself as more creative and more willing to try genres I never would have tried otherwise. Memoir was the first genre that I taught using a workshop approach, and it opened my eyes to what my students were capable of as writers.