Wednesday, October 9, 2013 Personal Narrative Day 3: "Powerful Personal Narratives" Think about your snapshot. Prepare to share one sensory detail about your snapshot. Do Now

Today's Objectives: We will: list and define the attributes of a powerful personal narrative. write independently.

Exemplar: Let's check out a former MAA scholar's draft personal narrative. We will work with this narrative throughout the unit. While listening think about these questions: “Grandmother” It was May, 24, 2011 and I was out residential in V.A. and my mother called me on the phone and told me the terrible news. When I heard her say your grandmother just died my mind went numb. I immediately broke down and start crying. I didn’t want to believe what I just heard. I couldn’t believe grandmother was gone and I felt like life was over. I don’t know, it really just felt like the world became all black. The staff was trying to calm me down but it didn’t work. I was feeling something I never felt before. It was a pill too big to swallow. I tried to use all of the coping skills I had, but it didn’t work. When I finally calmed down my head was spinning and it stopped spinning a little when my case manager told me that I can go to the funeral. You see my grandmother raised me. My mother has 10 kids so my grandmother raised me and my sister. When I was out in resi I had two home passes. I knew she was sick but I didn’t know how sick she really was. She always used to say son you know Imma be alright. I am worried about you so you don’t worry about me. So I thought she’s goning to be ok and she’s so strong nothing could ever break her. So I used my weekend passes to go chill with my men. I went home both weekends and chilled with them. Then on that day 2 staff and my therapist came and got me off the unit. I knew it had to be something bad and no family team meeting. This is when my mother was on the phone and told me on the phone. I was able to go to the funeral and what hurt me the most was seeing her casket. It finally hit me and I felt like it was real. I kind of came down not believing it. Then it hit me she was finally gone. This really changed me because I made my grandmother a promise that I was going to chill out, go to school, and not get locked up no more. Then when I turned around a year later I’m sitting in the same boat. I tried and there’s always something that took me off balance. But, this year I’m going to try my hardest and make it my goal to go day by day, month by month, year by year, and not get in trouble. I want to keep that promise to my grandmother. I owe her this and not a single minute passes How does his writing make you feel? How is his draft structured? AND underline or highlight interesting words the author uses.

Creating our Class Poster Powerful Personal Narratives Think-Pair-Share Think individually about the characteristics of the personal narrative we just read together and jot your ideas down on paper. Pair with your partner and discuss your ideas. Share your ideas with the rest of the class.

Writers at Work! Tasks at hand: Narratives (1) drafting personal (2) listing snapshot sensory details

List the attributes of a PN in your writing folders. Create an icon of your choosing for one to use as a mnemonic device. Make sure all of your work from today is dated and placed in your writing folder. Tomorrow we will use graphic organizers to visualize ideas and create an outline for our personal narrative. Wrap it up!