Mandatory Homework Assignment for Parents

Over the course of the next few weeks, we will be focusing on the genre of personal narratives and for writing instruction and independent writing practice. As discussed at Back-to-School Night,  here is a description of your (the parent with input from student) work.

The Assignment:

Over the next few days, construct a list of memorable events. These individual events should be about moments which occur across a time span of approximately 20 minutes maximum in length. Each event should have an identifiable emotion (or two) attached to it (fear, happiness, surprise).

Examples of events which will not work:

• My Day at Disneyland
• Christmas Morning
• My Birthday Party
• The Winning Game

Examples of events which will work:

• Meeting Cinderella
• Opening My Favorite Gift
• Breaking the Pinata
• Scoring the Winning Goal

Try to make a list of at least 10 memorable moments. We will refer to this list as our list of Memorable Moments. Hopefully your child will be able to construct at least 3 narratives from events in the list. They will eventually be choosing from among those narratives one which they focus on for elaboration, revising, and editing for publication.

Please finish your lists up this weekend. If all goes as planned we should begin work with our lists next week.