Unit 1: Creative Nonfiction Unit Goal: Students will write a nonfiction narrative that engages the reader with vivid imagery and characterization.

Warm Up: Song in my Head Write a favorite song lyric that easily comes to your mind. Explain what the song lyric means to you? How do you feel about the song and why? Describe what was happening the last time you heard that song? What event or person does this song remind you of and why?

Mentor Text from East of Eden Notice how the listing of images builds of a clear view of the setting and the reader can clearly hear his feelings about this place and these memories without being told.

Student Sample I don’t know why I remember going fishing with my father. He’d come over to the apartment where my mother and I were living since the divorce, bringing a cup of coffee sweetened to the point of making me choke when I sipped it. Dawn would still be an hour or so away, but he insisted on getting started early because that’s when the fish would bite, he said. We’d drive from the grimy streets of Oakland out through the lush rolling hills of Alamo and Walnut Creek, and into the dry dusty Sacramento valley there existed a man-made reservoir. The water was a dull grey reflecting the dirty earth that rose, raw and bleak, from its edges. We’d join the band of early fishermen who were always there, standing on the edge of the gravelly beach, waiting patiently with their lines in the water. Most of them were drinking beer even though it was so early, crushing the cans and throwing them into a pile when they were emptied. My dad would drink two beers during the four hours we would fish, never more, never less. We never caught anything. As far as I remember, no one did. But we stood there, in wordless camaraderie, Saturday, for the two long years until my father moved to Arizona without me.

Exercise A: I don’t know why I remember 1.Gather materials: scan back to your life and think of events people, or objects that have stuck in your mind for no obvious reason. 2.Visualize those things in detail as if you were physically experiencing them. 3.Imagine your audience member is a close friend and trustworthy confidante. Describe them precisely and in detail using concrete sensory details, beginning each one with the phrase,” I don’t know why I remember.” 4.Don’t try to explain or interpret the meaning of these details or this memory, just put the reader there.

Exercise B: I am a Camera 1.Gather materials: scan back to your life and think of places that are important to your sense of self and your sense of belonging/marginality. 2.Visualize those places in detail as if you were physically experiencing them. 3.Imagine you are a camera lens and the reader is an audience member in a theater. Describe the place precisely and in detail using concrete sensory details, and focus on each according to the scene you want to pain. 4.Begin describing the place by writing “I am a camera. I see _____.” 5.Don’t try to explain or interpret the meaning of these details or this memory, just put the reader there and lead them through the feelings you have about this place through zoom ins and outs and rich details that connect through all the senses.

Exercise C: Things I was taught/ Things I Was Not Taught Exercise Goal: Elicit fresh and surprising insights into your relationship to family, friends, and community. 1.Make a list of important people or influences in your life. This could be family, friends, historical figures, artists, celebrities, etc. 2.Choose one to be the topic of your first entry. Create a list of things that person taught you. The list should be entitled: “Things that X taught me.” 3.Create a list of things that same person did not teach you. The list should be entitled, “Things that X Did not Teach me.”

Critical Feedback Artist: Set your goal Do I use enough imagery? Does the writing engage all FIVE senses? + Another question Peers: PROPS What pops? Answer question Ask a question: Turn and points of confusion and criticism into a question that will lead the writer to make their writing clear?

Exercise D: Where I’m from Short Story Exercise Goal: Elicit fresh and surprising insights into your relationship to friends, neighborhood, and community. 1.Get INSPIRED: Read mentor text, from Dark by Kenji Jasper 2.Gather MATERIALS: Freewrite beginning with I was the ______one. We all lived in a place… But ____ was a little different…

Exercise E: I’m from List Poem Exercise Goal: Elicit fresh and surprising insights into your relationship to friends, neighborhood, and community. 1.Get INSPIRED: Read mentor text, from George Ella Lyons “Where I’m from” 2.Gather MATERIALS: Freewrite after visualizations beginning with details from Room Home Neighborhood City 3.Organize and bond materials: Use “Where I’m From Template” to put together your poem. Think about how you begin and how the images of each space are interspersed or connected in each stanza. 4.Clean up and make your message clear. Consider spelling, commas, line breaks. 5.Give it a title!

Critical Feedback Artist: Set your goal Question: – Do I use enough imagery? – Does the writing engage all FIVE senses? – Is my characterization vivid and are my setting interesting? Peers: – ROUND OF PROPS & WHAT POPS – i.e. I really like _________. An image that popped is when you wrote____. Answer artist’s question Ask a question: Turn and points of confusion and criticism into a question that will lead the writer to make their writing clear? – For example: Is there a more accurate and more vivid word that you can use to describe your best friend? – What details can you add to help me picture the traditions that bring your family to the kitchen table?

Exercise F: I want to know why Exercise Goal: Identify gaps in your understanding or knowledge in order to generate raw material for short stories. 1.Create a list of at least ten items that fit into the category of things not known: “I want to know why.” 2.Focused Freewrite beginning with... I want to know It’s a mystery to me why I wish someone explained…