Memoirs and Personal Essays

How can you teach a text to a group of readers who struggling with the language? The second in a set of three ESL lessons related to Theme 4: Problem Solvers engages English language learners by introducing vocabulary and grammar...

What is an oral history interview? What goes into the planning and what should be said? Why is it important that we know and learn from oral history? This is an excellent worksheet to support your young historians as they conduct...

Why did Henry Ford want to invent a car for the masses? Why did Henry Ford locate his factory in Detroit? Why did Henry Ford encourage the idea of a 5-day work week? Young innovators find the answers to these and other question in a unit...

A simple book report learning exercise requires young readers to write a short summary of their favorite Dr. Seuss book. It's up to you to decide how long the summary should be. Lastly, individuals illustrate the problem in the...

And now for the star witness! Scholars take a look at a model newspaper article and discuss the importance of eyewitness accounts. In groups of three, they take turns underlining text from eyewitnesses. They then regroup to talk about...

Writing is a process, and lesson planning is, too! A personal narrative unit stresses the writing process to pupils, who first examine various stories and poems as a model of autobiographical writing and then write their own stories....

S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders is well known for its relatable characters and plot, but don't forget how effective the book's figurative language can be! Check out an interactive resource that explores how figurative language comes...

Students analyze how personal diaries and memoirs record actual events. They compare and contrast diaries and memoirs from the Holocaust. They engage in journal or diary writing as a way to explore one's own feelings and self.

After reading and analyzing two narrative memoirs, middle schoolers engage in a variety of activities, including writing an essay, developing a story map, and creating character charts. They then compare and contrast story maps, and...

Get to know each individual through a memoir project. The lesson outlined here is a bit vague, but has some promising ideas for graphic organizers to help writers prepare their work. In order to succeed with the lesson, you will need to...