Writing• Writer’s tools: Idiom• Write a memoir using writing-process
steps
From Puerto Rico, 1937
From Colombia, 1969
Teacher’S Guide
Level U/50
Unit at a Glance
Day 1 Prepare to Read Day 4 Reread “From Colombia, 1969”*
Day 2 Read “From Puerto Rico, 1937”* Day 5 Literature Circle Discussion/Reinforce Skills*
Day 3 Read “From Colombia, 1969”* Days 6–15 Write a memoir using the writing-process steps on page 10
*While you are meeting with small groups, other students can:• read independently from your classroom library• reflect on their learning in reading response journals• engage in literacy workstations
• Ask students to turn to pages 5–7. Say: The United States was founded by immigrants, and immigrants helped the country grow and succeed. Read pages 5–7 to learn more about the immigrant experience.
• Have a student read aloud the background information while others follow along.
• Say: Hundreds of thousands of immigrants continue to come to the United States every year, just as they have for more than four centuries. What can you infer, or tell, from this? Allow responses. Prompt students to understand that the United States has a more desirable economic and political situation than many countries in the world.
Introduce the Tools for Readers and Writers: Idiom• Read aloud “Idiom” on page 4. • Say: Many writers use idioms to add color and the
rhythms of everyday speech to their writing. The memoirs in this book have examples of idioms. Let’s practice identifying idioms so we can recognize them in the memoirs we read.
• Model Identifying Idioms: The sentence contains the idiom keep his head. Kevin doesn’t literally keep his head. Instead, he stays calm rather than getting flustered or excited. Since many people use this idiom in their everyday speech, it makes the sentence sound like something people might say in conversation.
• Ask students to work with a partner or in small groups to identify the idioms in the remaining sentences, give the meanings of the idioms, and write their own sentences using idioms.
• Bring the groups together to share their findings. Point out that idioms can be unique to a region and that for a person learning English, idioms can be challenging.
• Ask the groups to read one of the sentences they wrote. Use the examples to build students’ understanding of how and why writers use idioms. Remind students that idioms give writing a natural, realistic quality.
• Ask the groups to hand in their sentences. Transfer student-written sentences to chart paper, title the page “Idiom,” and post it as an anchor chart in your classroom.
Prepare to ReadBuild Genre Background• Write the word genre on chart paper. Ask: Who
can explain what the word genre means? Allow responses. Say: The word genre means “a kind of something.” Comedies and tragedies are both kinds, or genres, of plays. However, each play genre has its own characteristics that we can use to identify it. In the same way, each kind, or genre, of literature has its own characteristics. As readers, we identify and think about the genre to help us anticipate what the writing will contain or what we will learn. As writers, we use our knowledge of genres to help us develop and organize our ideas.
• Ask: Who can name some literary genres? Let’s make a list. Allow responses. Post the list on the classroom wall as an anchor chart.
• Draw a concept web on chart paper or the chalk-board. Write Memoir in the center circle of the web.
• Say: Memoirs are one example of a literary genre. Think of any memoirs you know. How would you define what a memoir is?
• Turn and Talk. Ask students to turn and talk to a classmate and jot down any features of a memoir they can think of. Then bring students together and ask them to share their ideas. Record them on the group web. Reinforce the concept that all memoirs have certain common features.
Introduce the Book• Distribute a copy of the book to each student. Read
the title aloud. Ask students to tell what they see on the cover and table of contents.
• Ask students to turn to pages 2–3. Say: This week we are going to read memoirs that will help us learn about this genre. First we’re going to focus on this genre as readers. Then we’re going to study memoirs from a writer’s perspective. Our goal this week is to really understand this genre.
• Ask a student to read aloud the text on pages 2–3 while others follow along. Invite a different student to read the web on page 3.
• Point to your Memoir web on chart paper. Say: Let’s compare our initial ideas about memoirs with what we just read. What new features of this genre did you learn? Allow responses. Add new information to the class web.
• Post this chart in your classroom during your memoir unit. Say: As we read memoirs this week, we will come back to this anchor chart. We will look for how these features appear in each memoir we read.
Reflect and Review • Turn and Talk. Write one or more of the following
questions on chart paper. What is a literary genre, and how can understanding
genres help readers and writers? What did you learn today about the memoir genre? How can readers recognize idioms? Why can it
be hard for someone from another culture to understand idioms?
Ask partners or small groups to discuss their ideas and report them back to the whole group as a way to summarize the day’s learning.
Management Tips• Throughout the week, you may wish to use
some of the Reflect and Review questions as prompts for reader response journal entries in addition to Turn and Talk activities.
• Have students create genre folders. Keep blackline masters, notes, small-group writing, and checklists in the folders.
• Create anchor charts by writing whole-group discussion notes and mini-lessons on chart paper. Hang charts in the room where students can see them.
Before ReadingIntroduce “From Puerto Rico, 1937”• Reread the Memoir anchor chart or the web on
page 3 to review the features of a memoir.• Ask students to turn to page 8. Ask: Based on
the title and photographs, what do you predict this memoir might be about? Allow responses.
• Invite students to scan the text and look for the boldfaced words (trembling, petrified, spellbound, downhearted, devastating). Say: As you read, pay attention to these words. Try to use clues in the surrounding text to help you define them. We’ll come back to these words after we read.
Set a Purpose for Reading• Ask students to read the memoir, focusing on the
genre elements they noted on their anchor chart. They should also look for examples of idioms and think about how the author’s use of idioms adds to the conversational feel of the text.
Read “From Puerto Rico, 1937”• Place students in groups based on their reading
levels. Ask them to read the memoir silently, whisper-read, or read with a partner.
• Confer briefly with individual students to monitor their use of fix-up strategies and their understanding of the text.
Management TipAsk students to place self-stick notes in the margins where they notice examples of idioms or features of the genre.
After ReadingBuild Comprehension: Evaluate Fact and Opinion• Lead a student discussion using the “Analyze
the Memoir” and “Focus on Comprehension” questions on page 16. Then, use the following steps to provide explicit modeling of how to evaluate facts and opinions in a memoir.
• Explain: Memoir authors include many facts about their experiences, such as dates and places where events occurred. Facts are statements that can be proven. Memoirs also include the author’s opinions about what happened. Opinions are statements of belief or feeling that cannot be proven. Evaluating facts and opinions helps us better understand the author’s experience and how he or she felt about it.
Practice Text Comprehension Strategies for ELA Assessment• Remind students that when they answer questions
on standardized assessments, they must be able to support their answers with facts or clues and evidence directly from the text.
• Use the Comprehension Question Card to practice answering text-dependent questions.
• Say: Today I will help you learn how to answer Find It! questions. The answer to a Find It! question is right in the book. You can find the answer in one place in the text.
• Model. Read the first Find It! question. Say: When I read the question, I look for important words that tell me what to look for in the book. What words in this question do you think will help me? Allow responses. Say: Yes, I’m looking for the words parents moved to New York City. On page 10, I read “I didn’t know my mother and father. They moved to New York City when I was two years old.” These sentences answer the question.
• Guide Practice. Use the Power Tool Flip Chart to help you develop other Find It! questions.
Focus on Vocabulary: Emotion Words• Explain/Model. Read aloud “Emotion Words” on
page 4. Say: Emotion words reveal how someone feels. The writer of this memoir says that he was relieved when the boat finally arrived. Relieved is an emotion word that describes how the author felt when the boat trip was over. Paying attention to the emotion words an author uses in a memoir helps us understand how the author feels about the people, places, and events he or she is describing.
• Practice. Ask students to name emotion words they already know, such as elated, depressed, saddened, and dreaded. List the words on the board, and discuss times when people might experience these emotions.
• Say: Let’s find the boldfaced words in this memoir. What can you do if you don’t know what these words mean? Allow responses. Say: Besides looking in the glossary or a dictionary, you can look for clues in the text. By studying the situation and thinking about how a person might feel or react, you should be able to figure out what the emotion word means.
• Ask students to work with a partner to complete the “Focus on Words” activity on page 17 using BLM 3 (Focus on Emotion Words). Explain that they should use a dictionary and context clues to write their own definition for each word. This will help them be able to explain what the word adds to the memoir.
• Transfer Through Oral Language. Ask groups of students to share their findings. Then challenge partners to use the words in new sentences that tell about their reactions to experiences. Encourage partners to listen carefully so they can explain what the sentence helps them understand.
Day 2 (cont.)• Distribute copies of BLM 2 (Evaluate Fact and
Opinion) and/or draw a chart like the one below.
Fact Why It Is Basic to the Memoir
Author’s Opinion
How It Helps Me Understand the Author
Four people lived in one room in San Juan; the whole building had one bathroom.
Crowding shows a poor standard of living.
Baptisms were the only good thing about the Cathedral of St. John.
The pennies he could grab bought food. This emphasizes his poverty.
In August 1937, the author, Nicky, and Tía Manuela sailed to New York.
It was the beginning of a new life.
The sea trip was scary. Saying good-bye to friends was hard.
Leaving home and going into the unknown was very stressful.
The family rode uptown in an elevated subway.
The author was thrown into realities of city life.
Scared, he thought it would break apart.
He was not used to modern urban transportation.
The father worked for the WPA building roads.
Government jobs helped families during the Depression.
In his classroom, he felt lonelier than he had ever felt in his life.
Being with strangers who spoke a strange language isolated him.
The author saw snow for the first time that first winter.
He experienced a big change in climate as well as culture.
The snow was wonderful and fun until his feet got too cold.
Snow seemed magical to him, but he lacked winter clothes/boots.
• Model: The author describes his home in San Juan as a “one-room apartment with cracking walls and peeling paint” in a building that had one bathroom and shower everyone shared. We could prove this fact by checking city records and interviewing those who lived there. When the author says “The only good thing about the Cathedral of Saint John was the baptisms,” he is sharing his opinion. His feelings show that poverty dominated his early life, because the pennies thrown by godfathers allowed him to buy some candy or a piece of salami.
• Guide Practice. Work with students to identify and evaluate other facts and opinions in the memoir. Help them analyze the emotions behind opinions and understand how opinions show the effects of an experience on the author. Ask students to think about what the facts reveal about the era, the social climate, or the author’s family.
• Have students keep BLM 2 in their genre studies folders.
• Ask students to save their work in their genre studies folders to continue on Days 3 and 4.
Page Word Dictionary Definition
What does the emotion word add to the memoir?
10 trembling shaking with fear, agitation, or cold
It shows the children’s physical reaction to the spooky stories.
10 petrified motionless from fear or surprise
It shows how scared the boy was of the sea trip.
12 spellbound fascinated; unable to tear oneself away
It shows that such “luxury” was magical and unreal to the boy.
12 downhearted dejected and discouraged
It shows how hopes of knowing and loving both his parents had been dashed.
15 devastating so upsetting and distressing it overwhelms, ruins
It shows that the author understood his mother’s pain at having to leave her young children.
Reflect and Review • Turn and Talk: Ask partners or small groups to
reread the “Features of a Memoir” web on page 3 and decide whether all of these features are present in “From Puerto Rico, 1937.”
Fluency: Read with Characterization and Feelings• Have partners reread aloud the last two paragraphs
on page 10 and the last paragraph on page 13 in which the author describes two important first experiences of his childhood. Encourage students to discuss the traits and feelings the author reveals and to express them through tone of voice and pacing in their reading.
Note Regarding This Teacher’s GuideEach book provides an opportunity for students to focus on an additional comprehension strat-egy that is typically assessed on state standards. The strategy is introduced on page 4 (the third item in the “Tools for Readers and Writers” section) with text-specific follow-up questions found on the Reread pages. Some Reread sections also introduce an advanced language arts concept or comprehension strategy, such as protagonist/antagonist, perspective, or subtitles, because students at this level should be able to consider more than one comprehension strategy per text.
Before ReadingIntroduce “From Colombia, 1969” • Ask students to turn to page 18. Say: This memoir
is written in a different format from the other memoir we read. Notice the notes in the margins. First, we will read to understand the memoir, focusing on the author’s memories, thoughts, and feelings. Tomorrow, we will read this memoir like a writer and think about how the notes in the margins can help us write our own memoirs.
• Say: Let’s look at the title and photographs of this memoir. What do you predict it might be about?
• Ask students to scan the text and look for the boldfaced words (flustered, mournful, confronted, implored, legitimate). Ask: What do you notice about these words? Why do you think they appear in boldfaced type? (All these words express emotions felt or observed by the author.)
• Say: As you read, try to figure out the meanings of these words. Look for context clues that help you understand how a person might feel or react in that situation.
Set a Purpose for Reading• Ask students to read the memoir, focusing on
how the author’s memories and perceptions give insight into the effects of immigration on young people. Encourage students to notice the author’s use of idioms.
Read “From Colombia, 1969”• Place students in groups based on their reading
levels. Ask them to read the memoir silently, whisper-read, or read with a partner.
• Confer briefly with individual students to monitor their use of fix-up strategies and their understanding of the text.
After ReadingBuild Comprehension: Evaluate Fact and Opinion• Say: Yesterday we evaluated facts and opinions
in “From Puerto Rico, 1937.” Today’s memoir also has facts and opinions. What facts do we need to know in order for the memoir to make sense? What opinions help us better understand the author? Record responses on a whole-group chart like the one below.
• Discuss Facts and Opinions Across Texts. Lead a discussion using the following questions: How do the facts of their lives differ for the two authors? Which author had an easier time adapting to life in a new country? Why do you think this was so? How did both authors feel about leaving their
older cousin said that people in America were giants and that she could be crushed under their feet. On page 22, another cousin told her that New York City was very dangerous. One warning is an exaggeration, and the other is more realistic. By looking in several sentences, I have found the answer in the book.
• Guide Practice. Use the Power Tool Flip Chart to help you develop other Look Closer! questions.
Focus on Vocabulary: Emotion Words• Ask students to work with a partner to complete the
“Focus on Words” activity on page 29 using BLM 3.• Transfer Through Oral Language. Invite pairs of
students to discuss situations that make them feel the emotion associated with a target word. They should explain why the situation brings on that emotion and model facial expressions, gestures, and postures that could be used with each word.
Page Word Dictionary Definition
What does the emotion word add to the memoir?
19 flustered made confused or uncomfortable
The noise and confusion of so many people making a fuss over her disoriented the author.
20 mournful sorrowful The grandmother’s extreme reaction suggested that they will be separated forever.
20 confronted faced and challenged
The author felt angry and concerned for her grandmother and herself.
20 implored begged She was desperate to stay in Colombia, a familiar world she loves.
25 legitimate permitted or approved
She knew she had earned the right to be in third grade and felt she was being cheated.
Reflect and Review • Turn and Talk. Ask partners or small groups to
discuss the following questions and report their ideas to the whole group: What things are most important to a child moving to a new place? What is lost? What is gained? Why do you think the author learned English more quickly after she met Yola and Heidi?
Fluency: Read with Characterization and Feelings• Have students reread the memoir with a partner,
focusing on reading with appropriate expression. Students discuss character traits and feelings the author shows in the memoir. Then each student finds a passage that illustrates one or more of the traits or feelings and expresses them through the tone of voice and pacing they use in their reading.
Day 3 (cont.)home countries? What were their opinions about the United States? Where have the authors used idioms? How do these examples of idioms help you understand the memoirs?
Fact Why It Is Basic to the Memoir
Author’s Opinion
How It Helps Me Understand the Author
A large extended family lived in the neighborhood.
The author’s childhood there was busy and full of social activity.
Life was great and then she turned eight.
The author loved being surrounded by her affectionate family.
On her eighth birthday, her father told her they would move to the U.S.
It was an important day, including both happiness and sorrow.
She did not need new opportunities; her life was just fine.
She was very unhappy to leave behind a familiar, enjoyable life.
They arrived in October 1969 and were met by the author’s father at the airport.
Her father had arranged a home for them when he arrived earlier to work.
Hearing English and other languages spoken thrilled and frightened her.
She was intrigued and open to new challenges but still frightened by the demands it would make on her.
The apartment building where the family lived had many other immigrant families.
The atmosphere was welcoming and helpful to someone who had much to learn.
Things were starting to look up for her and her “foreign” friends.
She felt better once she had friends and was part of a community; she was a very social person.
She was placed in a first-grade class though she was eight.
This was a humiliating experience for a bright girl.
Moving to Mrs. O’Leary’s third-grade class made a huge difference.
Being with friends her age who were also learning English made her happy.
Practice Text Comprehension Strategies for ELA Assessment • Use the Comprehension Question Card to practice
answering text-dependent questions.• Say: Today we will learn how to answer Look Closer!
questions. The answer to a Look Closer! question is in the book. You have to look in more than one place. You find the different parts of the answer. Then you put the parts together to answer the question.
• Model. Read the second Look Closer! question. Say: This question asks me to compare and contrast. I know because it has the clue word different. Now I need to look for other important information to find in the book. I’m looking for what the author’s cousins told her about America. On page 21, I read that her
Before ReadingSet a Purpose for Rereading• Have students turn to page 18. Say: Until now,
we have been thinking about memoirs from the perspective of the reader. Learning the features of memoirs has helped us be critical readers. Now we are going to put on a different hat. We are going to reread “From Colombia, 1969” and think like writers. We’re going to pay attention to the annotations in the margins. These annotations will help us under-stand what the author did and why she did it.
Reread “From Colombia, 1969”• Place students in groups based on their reading
levels. Ask them to reread the memoir silently or whisper-read.
• Confer briefly with individual students to monitor their use of fix-up strategies and their understanding of the text and annotations.
After ReadingAnalyze the Mentor Text• Explain to students that the text they have just read
is a mentor text. A mentor text is a text that teaches. This text is designed to help them understand what writers do to write a memoir and why they do it.
• Read and discuss each mentor annotation with stu-dents. Encourage them to comment on the writer’s style, thoughts and feelings, and use of story elements and literary techniques such as idiom.
Practice Text Comprehension Strategies for ELA Assessment • Use the Comprehension Question Card with small
groups of students to practice answering text-dependent questions.
• Say: Today I will help you learn how to answer Prove It! questions. The answer to a Prove It! question is not stated in the book. You have to look for clues and evidence to prove the answer.
• Model. Read the second Prove It! question. Say: This question asks me to make an inference. I know because it says, “There are clues that tell you. . . .” Now I need to look for other important information in the question. What information do you think will help me? Allow responses. Say: Yes, I need to reread page 22. The writer tells about her grandmother giving her a lavender orchid on a bracelet, which she later presses into her diary. Then she says, “I still have that orchid and I take it out and look at it when I want to think about my grandmother or a family event.” I have located the clues I need to support the inference that the writer still misses her grandmother.
• Guide Practice. Use the Power Tool Flip Chart to help you develop other Prove It! questions.
Analyze the Writer’s Craft• Ask students to turn to page 30. Explain: Over
the next few days, you will have the opportunity to write your own memoirs. First, let’s think about how the author wrote “From Colombia, 1969.” When she developed this memoir, she followed certain steps. You can follow these same steps to write your own memoirs.
• Read step 1. Say: The first thing you’ll do is decide on an event or period in your life that you want to revisit and tell others about. The author of this memoir focuses on an unforgettable time in her childhood—her immigration to the United States. This move involved many changes and caused extreme emotions. What event or period could we write about? Allow responses. Write down students’ ideas on chart paper.
• Read step 2. Say: Next, decide who else to include in your memoir. In the memoirs we read, other family members and new people at school and in the neighborhood played an important part in the authors’ experiences. For example, in “From Puerto Rico, 1937,” the mother’s absence and her difficulty showing love to her boys cause real heartache. What other people will be important to our memoir? Let’s list them and describe the impact they had on the experience. Allow responses. Write down students’ ideas on chart paper.
• Read step 3. Say: Before you’re ready to write, you need to recall important details about the setting and events of your chosen experience or period. “From Colombia, 1969” starts in Colombia and ends in New York City—two distinct cultures. When you write your memoir, think about how you will describe the setting and events. How will you reveal the problem of your memoir and show how you felt and what you learned from the experience? Choose an event or period and some people involved in it that the class has brainstormed, and work as a group to construct a possible setting and events.
Build Comprehension: Identify Sequence of Events• Explain: In a memoir, authors describe what
happened in a part of their lives as a series of events. Paying attention to the order, or sequence, of events helps explain how the author reacts to and feels about an experience. It also helps us understand why some things are problems for the author.
• Model: In “From Puerto Rico, 1937,” the author describes his life in San Juan with his aunts and brother. Later, he explains that his mother and father had left for the United States when he was two years old. Since this event happened eight years earlier, we understand that he doesn’t really
Analyze & SynthesizePractice Text Comprehension Strategies for ELA Assessment • Use the Comprehension Question Card with small
groups of students to practice answering text-dependent questions.
• Say: Today I will help you learn how to answer Take It Apart! questions. To figure out the answer to a Take It Apart! question, you must think like the author.
• Model. Read the second Take It Apart! question. Say: This question asks me to evaluate the author’s purpose. I know because it asks, “Why did the writer . . .?” Now I need to look for other important information in the question. What information do you think will help me? Allow responses. Say: Yes, I need to reread the text on page 23 to recall what is happening. The text tells about the family landing at JFK airport in New York. They have never seen it before, and the father has been lonely without his family. They are flooded with strong emotions—love, relief, worry. I think the author included these details to give readers insight into how the author and her father were feeling at the time. Thinking like the author helped me figure out the answer.
• Guide Practice. Use the Power Tool Flip Chart to help you develop other Take It Apart! questions.
Summarize & Make Connections Across Texts• Engage students in a discussion about the two
memoirs in this book. Invite a different student to summarize each memoir. Encourage other students to add their ideas and details.
• Ask students to turn to the inside back cover of the book. Say: Good readers think about how literary works are related. We know, for example, that both of these memoirs share certain features. They both focus on an important event in the writer’s life—immigration to a new country. They both include the writer’s thoughts and feelings about the event. What else do they have in common? Allow responses. Say: Today we will think about the reasons the families had for immigrating, the challenges they faced, and the authors’ purposes for writing these memoirs.
• Ask students to work individually or in small groups to complete BLM 4 (Make Connections Across Texts).
• Class Discussion or Literature Circles. Facilitate a whole-class discussion or keep students in their small groups for a literature circle discussion. If you choose to conduct literature circles, share the rules for good discussion below. Each group should discuss and be prepared to share its ideas about the following prompts. How are the authors alike and different in their reactions to the United States? Which author’s memories can you relate to more strongly? Why?
know his parents. This fact helps us understand his fearful reaction when he is told he is going to New York and his deep disappointment still later when he learns that his parents have divorced. Putting the events in chronological order helps me better understand the author’s thoughts and feelings.
• Guide Practice. Invite students to work in small groups to list other events in both memoirs in sequence. Ask the groups to share and discuss how identifying the sequence of events helps them better understand the memoir.
Reflect and Review • Ask and discuss the following questions.
How is thinking about a memoir as a reader different from thinking about it as a writer? How is it similar? What new words have you added to your vocabulary this week? Which is your favorite? How does thinking about the authors’ opinions help you understand the experience of immigrants to the United States? How can you use emotion words and idioms as a writer?
Fluency: Read with Characterization and Feelings• You may wish to have students reread the memoir
with a partner, focusing on reading with appropriate expression to reflect the feelings and traits of the author. Ask students to discuss the author’s feelings about her home in Colombia at the beginning of the memoir and how they change as she gets clues that her life will change. Invite students to take turns reading aloud the first five paragraphs of the memoir, using tone of voice and pacing to dramatize the author’s emotions.
• Give partners old newspapers and magazines to scan for photographs that illustrate a situation in which their assigned emotion is appropriate. They may also draw pictures to create a collage that sums up the word’s meaning.
• Invite pairs to present their collages and explain how each photo or drawing fits the word. Ask students to vote for the collage that best depicts an emotion.
Reread for Fluency: Oral Reading Performance• Discuss with students the changing feelings of
the authors in the memoirs. • Say: The authors of these memoirs experience
extreme emotions, such as terror, loneliness, rejection, excitement, and determination. When you read the memoirs aloud, you can demonstrate your understanding of these emotions through your expression. This helps your listeners appreciate how important and memorable the experience of immigration was to each author and better understand their reactions.
• Invite individual students to read a section of one of the memoirs with expression that helps listeners understand the author’s emotion.
• Encourage students to have fun with their readings and to make them as dramatic as possible.
• As a whole class, discuss each reader’s interpre-tation. Think about alternate ways to interpret the emotions.
Review Writer’s Tools: Idiom• Ask students to look for other examples of idioms
in titles from your classroom library or the school’s library. Each student should select one title at his or her independent reading level. Ask students to read pages specifically to find examples of idioms.
• Invite students to share their examples with the class. Encourage students to discuss how the idioms add a natural or informal feel to the text. Point out that not all students will have found examples in the books they chose. Idiom is not a tool all writers use all of the time.
What lesson so you think the authors want readers to learn from these memoirs?
• Tell students that at the end of their discussion, you will ask them to share the important text-to-text, text-to-world, and text-to-self connections they have made.
• While each small group of students discusses the book, confer with individual or small groups of students. You may wish to revisit elements of the genre, take running records, or model fluent reading skills.
Directions: Use the chart to compare and contrast the two memoirs.
From Puerto Rico, 1937
From Colombia, 1969
Situation/Reason for Immigrating
to earn enough money to support family
to have new opportunities in the United States
Challenges in New Home
sadness over parents’ divorce; getting used to technology; feeling lonely; learning English; learning how to deal with snow
loss of supportive extended family; making new friends; learning English; proving she could handle third grade
Author’s Purpose
to look back on the difficulties, pain, and joy of a new beginning and show that it was positive for him
to show that, despite fears and sadness, the move was the right choice for a better life
Rules for Good Discussion• Pay attention to the person who is talking
and do not interrupt him or her.
• Think about what others are saying so you can respond and add to their ideas.
• Allow and encourage everyone in the group to speak.
• Be respectful of everyone’s ideas.
Reinforce SkillsIf time permits, choose from the following activities to reinforce vocabulary and fluency.
Reinforce Vocabulary: Illustrate Emotion Words• Pair students and assign partners a word from the
glossary.• Have students write their word in the middle of
a piece of posterboard using a style that suits its meaning. For example, downhearted might be written with lines that look droopy, or petrified could be written with lines that look stiff and frozen.
Write a Memoir• Use the suggested daily schedule to guide
students through the writing-process steps. Allow approximately 45 to 60 minutes per day. As students work independently, circulate around the room and monitor student progress. Confer with individual students to discuss their ideas and help them move forward. Use the explicit mini-lessons, conferencing strategies, and assessment rubrics in Using Genre Models to Teach Writing for additional support.
• Before students begin planning their memoirs, pass out copies of BLM 5 (Memoir Checklist). Review the characteristics and conventions of writing that will be assessed. Tell students that they will use this checklist when they complete their drafts.
• This daily plan incorporates the generally accepted six traits of writing as they pertain to memoirs.
Days 6–7: Plan • Ask students to use BLM 6 (Memoir Planning Guide)
to brainstorm the experience or period, participants, setting, and events for their memoirs.
• Encourage students to refer to the “Features of a Memoir” web on page 3 and to the steps in “The Writer’s Craft” on pages 30–31 of the book.
• Confer with individual students and focus on their ideas. Did students write their memoirs in the first person? Did they include thoughts and feelings about the events that show why they are important?
Days 8–9: Draft • Tell students that they will be using their completed
Memoir Planning Guides to begin drafting their memoirs.
• Say: Remember that when writers draft their ideas, they focus on getting their ideas on paper. They can cross things out. They can make mistakes in spelling. What’s important is to focus on developing the situation, people involved, and key events in the experience or period. You will have an opportunity to make corrections and improvements later.
• Confer with students as they complete their drafts. Use the Memoir Checklist to draw students’ attention to characteristics of the memoir genre that they may have overlooked. Focus on how students have organized their ideas and the voice of the writer. Did students focus their memoirs on a short period or time or several events? Did they include an ending that makes readers think? Does the memoir have a strong voice? Will the voice keep readers interested?
• Pair students for peer conferencing.
Days 10–11: Edit and Revise • Based on your observations of students’ writing,
select appropriate mini-lessons from Using Genre Models to Teach Writing.
• Remind students to use the Memoir Checklist as they edit and revise their memoirs independently.
• Confer with students focusing on sentence fluency, word choice, and conventions. Did students include both long and short sentences? Do the sentences read smoothly? Have students used interesting words and phrases? Did they use examples of idioms? Did they use appropriate spelling, punctuation, and grammar?
• You may want students to continue their editing and revision at home.
Days 12–13: Create Final Draft and Illustrations • Ask students to rewrite or type a final draft of
their memoirs.• Invite students to illustrate their final drafts with
one or more drawings that depict specific people or events in their memoirs.
• Confer with students about their publishing plans and deadlines.
Days 14–15: Publish and Share• Explain: Authors work long and hard to develop
their works. You have worked very hard. And one of the great joys of writing is when you can share it with others. Authors do this in many ways. They publish their books so that people can buy them. They make their work available on the Internet. They hold readings. We can share our writing, too.
• Use one or more of the ideas below for sharing students’ work:
Make a class display of students’ completed memoirs. Hold a class reading in which students can read their
memoirs to one another and/or to parents. Create a binder of all the memoirs and loan it to the
library so that other students can read them. Create a binder of all the memoirs for your classroom
Features of the Genre Checklist Yes No 1. My memoir has a strong lead. 2. My memoir focuses on one part of my life. 3. My memoir focuses on events the way I remember them. 4. I included thoughts and feelings about the events that explain
why they are important to me. 5. I included story elements (setting, plot, character development
problem/resolution) in my memoir. 6. My memoir is written in narrative form using first person
point of view. 7. My memoir includes dialogue. 8. My memoir is logically sequenced. 9. My memoir uses sequence words. 10. My memoir has a strong ending that makes the
reader think. 11. I use my own voice in the memoir.
Quality Writing Checklist Yes No I looked for and corrected . . .
IdiomDirections: Read each sentence. Underline each example of an idiom. Write the meaning of the idiom on the line.
1. When he saw the snake by his foot, Kevin knew he had to keep his head.
2. We raked and bagged leaves for five hours before we decided to
call it a day. 3. Jamie gets hot under the collar when someone criticizes
his team. 4. Helena hadn’t heard a thing because, as usual, her head was in
the clouds. 5. After staying up all night, I was so tired that I went through the
day in a fog. 6. We tried to plan a surprise party for Carlos, but he got wind of it. 7. Dad was quiet when he saw the mess, but I knew it was the calm
before the storm.
Directions: Write two sentences using an idiom in each.
Focus on Emotion WordsDirections: Reread each memoir. For each emotion word below, record its dictionary definition and what the word adds to the memoir.
Features of the Genre Checklist Yes No 1. My memoir has a strong lead. 2. My memoir focuses on one part of my life. 3. My memoir focuses on events the way I remember them. 4. I included thoughts and feelings about the events that explain
why they are important to me. 5. I included story elements (setting, plot, character development
problem/resolution) in my memoir. 6. My memoir is written in narrative form using first person
point of view. 7. My memoir includes dialogue. 8. My memoir is logically sequenced. 9. My memoir uses sequence words. 10. My memoir has a strong ending that makes the
reader think. 11. I use my own voice in the memoir.
Quality Writing Checklist Yes No I looked for and corrected . . .
