Focus/Context

This essay is located in Unit 3 of the Sightlines 9 book but because of its relationship with the theme of war (i.e. connected to The Diary of a Young Girl) it has been included in the selections for this unit. At the end of this lesson, students will have a more intimate understanding of memoirs, the residual impact of wartime experiences and the use/function of italics in writing.

Specific Curriculum Outcomes

1. Students will ask questions calling for elaboration, clarification, or qualification, and respond thoughtfully and appropriately to questions.
   
2. Students will give and follow instructions and respond to complex questions and directions.
   
3. Students will demonstrate an understanding of how authors construct information texts for particular purposes.
   
4. Students will express and support points of view about issues, themes, and situations within texts, citing appropriate evidence.
   
5. Students will use writing and other forms of representation to explore, clarify, and reflect on their thoughts, feelings, experiences, and learnings; and to use their imaginations.

Activities

• Students will discuss the nature of entering into a new environment - connections to their graduating from Jr. High and moving into a different school; connections to Dicey's Song and the Tillerman's experiences in Crisfield.
  • What do they think the first day will be like (i.e. challenges/problems)?
    
  • How would their attitude towards the situation influence the experience?
  
  
• Students will discuss the nature of war in terms of the previous lessons (i.e. from the perspective of those who are fighting). Students will be reminded of the nature of cause and effect and discuss what kinds of influences war might have on the innocent (i.e. children).
  
• Students will be given (orally) the background information on the author.
  
• Students will listen and read along as Small Mercies: A Boy After War.
  
• Students will participate in a discussion about the use of italics in writing.
  
• Students will be asked to construct a story map for this memoir - they will identify the introduction, complication, rising action, climax and resolution. They will then participate in a discussion about how real-life situations have the same basic elements as fictional stories.
  
• Students will be asked to respond to the following questions:
  (i)What did Ernest expect he would have to do on the playground and why? What does this say about the influence of the war on his life?
  (ii)How did the other boys show Ernest he was welcome?
  (iii)How does the description of the teacher, the classroom, the surface of his desk, and the different smells at the school effect the reader's understanding of the story?
  
  
• Students will discuss the answers to these questions as a group.
  
• Students will be given a homework assignment to construct a memoir of their own. They will complete Workshop Master #26 (attached) and use that as a foundation to begin writing their autobiographical descriptions of an important event in their lives.

Assessment

• The memoir will be treated as a process piece of writing and will be assessed using the Analytic Scoring Rubric for English Language Arts. This rubric will be shared openly with the class - no suprises!

Resources

• Small Mercies: A Boy After War by Ernest Hillen (from Sightlines 9, page 241)
  
• Workshop Master #26 (from the Sightlines 9 Teacher Guide)