WRITERS’ WORKSHOP
Mentor Text:When I Was Eight, by Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak-Fenton / Genre:Memoir
Based on the true story of Margaret Pokiak-Fenton’s experience in residential school in Aklavik, Northwest Territories.
Text form:Narrative - Memoir / Audience:School wide audience
Learning goal:
Understand how to craft personal memoirs and narratives from mentor texts.
Voice: Use first person to achieve a strong voice. Write with a unique perspective in a way that speaks directly to the reader. / Writing task:
Biographical sketch: Interview an adult. Write about a memorable school experience from the point of view of the person interviewed. Make a connection to Olemaun’s experience in residential school.
Additional skills goals: F & P Writing Continuum of Literacy Learning Writing Skills Continuum: Narrative – Memoir, Grade 3:Understand memoir as a reflection of a memorable experience or a person. Select small moments or experiences and share thinking and feelings about them. Use small experiences to communicate a bigger message. Describe characters by what they do, say, and think and what others say about them. Select meaningful topics. Reveal something important about self or about life.
Curricular outcomes:
Outcome: CR3.1: Comprehend and respond to a variety of grade-level texts that address: identity, community, social responsibility and make comparison with personal experiences.Describe similarities between experiences and traditions encountered in daily life and those portrayed in various texts including First Nations and Métis texts.
Outcome: CC3.1
Compose and create a range of visual, multimedia, oral, and written texts that explore: identity, community, social responsibility and make connections across areas of study.Create a variety of narratives.
Treaty education:
TR31: Treaty relationships: Examine the relationships between First Nation peoples and the land, before and after the signing of treaties. Describe the lifestyle changes of First Nations peoples prior to and after placement on the reserves.
TPP3: Treaty Promises and Provisions: Examine how cultural and language differences resulted in misunderstandings about the spirit and intent of treaties.
Background knowledge / Research:
Legacy of Hope Foundation: We were so far away – The Inuit experience of residential schools: The website includes a slideshow, timeline and survivor stories.
THE LEARNING PLAN
READ / Read like a writer—Analyze a mentor text with the learning goal in mind. The Mentor text can be a book, excerpt or teacher written text.Before reading: Locate Olemaun’s home in the Inuvialuit community in the High Arctic (a tiny island near Banks Island) and trace herfive day journey to residential school in Aklavikon a globe or a map. The followingWikipedia link: shows photos of Aklaviktoday as well as photos from the early 1900s.
Discuss and assess students’ knowledge of residential schools in Canada and provide some historical background information.The Legacy of Hope Foundation website: We were so far away – The Inuit experience of residential schools: includes a slideshow, timeline and survivor stories.
Explain that When I Was Eight is a memoir and that a memoir is a true story about someone’s life. Discuss how this might change the way you read the book. Use “See think, wonder” thinking routine as you explore the book. The scrapbook of photos at the back of Fatty Legs could also be used to provide context.
Read the book aloud.
Be alert to how the writer used a first person narrative to create a strong voice and convey her perspective.
During and after reading allow time for discussion about the themes and big ideas in the book. Select some of the questions from the National Reading campaign fatty legs study guide “during and after reading”: for discussion (turn and talk with partner or small group discussion)
THINK / Think about the writing task and make your thinking visible.
Sentence – Phrase – Word Thinking routine(Making Thinking Visible, Ritchart, Church & Morrision, 2011)
- Set up – After reading the story aloud provide a copy of the text to learners.
- Select a sentence – phrase – word. Identify a sentence that is meaningful and helps you gain a deeper understanding of the text; a phrase that moved engaged, provoked, or was in some way meaningful and a word that captured your attention or struck you as powerful.
“But my name is Olemaun (that’s OO-lee-maun), the stubborn stone that sharpens the half-moon ulu knife used by our women.”
“cut me down to size”
“unyielding”
- Share selections. Learners share and record their choices explaining their reasoning in small groups beginning with the first person who shares her sentence, explains why she chose it, records and invites others to comment and discuss. The sentence is recorded and then the next person shares, records and discusses until everyone has shared their sentences. Then the group moves to phrases and finally words. The discussion flows and deepens until the chart is complete.
- Reflection on the conversation: Each group looks at its documented responses and identifies common themes and implications that emerge from the responses. Add any aspects of the text that were not represented in their choice of sentences, phrases and words. Use a three column format (sentence, phrase and word) and three horizontal rows to record themes, implications and what was in the text.
- Share the thinking. Post the documentation from all groups. Provide time to look at the sentences, phrases and words chosen and themes and implications drawn. Brief reflection from each group member on how thinking routine contributed to or influenced their understanding of the text.
TALK / Explain your ideas for the writing task and your thinking to a peer or your teacher:
Interview someone outside of your classroom (from school or in your family) about their experience in school when they were approximately eight years old. Ask them to talk about a significant event or series of events that took place when they were in school that has remained with them.
Either create questions collaboratively or use the following:
What do you remember about being in school when you were about eight years old?
Is there a particular memory that stands out for you? Do you think there are any lasting impacts from that experience?
DRAFT / Write – Apply new learning to the writing task.
Provide small group or individual guided writing instruction during the drafting and crafting phases of the writing process. Guided instruction should be based on individualized strength-based goals coming out of “Look Fors” assessment of student writing.
Writing task for students: Write the story in first person as if you were experiencing it. Include the sensory imagery that comes to mind as you describe the experience. The quick write might be a snapshot or a short vignette.
Connect and compare the story you are writing with Olemaun’s experience.
Share your writing with the person you interviewed and revise based on their feedback.
CRAFT / Revise your writing and continue to revise based on feedback
Continue to revise your writing based on guided instruction above and / or a peer editing process.
EDIT / Polish your writing
Teacher or peer final editing process.
SHARE / Share your work with your audience
Additional writing extensions:
Imagine you had to move far away to attend school. Write a letter home to your family telling them about what it is like, how you feel and what you hope will happen.
Write from the point of view of someone else in the story such as the Raven.
Write about what life was like for Olemaun and her family before she went to residential school.
Write a character sketch of Olemaun.
Write about how you think Olemaun’s experience in residential school changed her life.
Find out more about the history, languages, geography and stories of the Inuvialuit community in Canada. Create a picture book or photo essay to demonstrate what you have learned.
Do a “book talk” about When I was Eight for another class in your school. Hold the book and talk about why it is an important book. Read your favourite part.
Process and Prompts for writing task in the Learning Plan above.
When I was eight
Writing task:
Interview an adult (either in the school or your family) about their experience in school when they were about eight years old. Ask them to talk about something important that happened when they were in school that they still remember well. Ask them to compare and contrast their story to Olemaun’s experience in school.
Write their story in first person as if you were experiencing it. Use all of your senses to describe what comes into your mind as you tell their story of the moment they remember.
You can begin your story like Olemaun if you want to:
I knew many things when I was eight…
But I did not know….
Behind the teacher’s desk sat…
Writers workshop planning template, K. Carlisle, Living Sky School Division