A Thematic Unit: Literary Selfies
Jeanie Cullip
EDUC 3322: Literature for Children
Idaho State University
In our textbook Essentials of Children’s Literature, Brown and Thomlinson (2005) identify a thematic unit as, “Organizing a study of literature by theme … Focusing on the multiple connections and interpretations” (p. 254). These series of lessons, incorporates several books across the genres; drawing into the main topic of the unit. This is commonly used within the classroom, as it is effective in engaging students with a variety of literature. Brown and Thomlinson (2005) states, “These units allow students the opportunity to read a set of books related to the theme and explore the theme through questioning, journaling, reflecting, discussing, writing, responding through drama and art, and further reading” (p. 255).
Literary
Selfies
My middle school English Language Arts
thematic unit is on literary selfies. A literary selfie is an amusing, relevant
term to describe an autobiography to students ages 11-14 years. I believe,
reading about the lives of extraordinary people through autobiographies and
personal memoirs is a great way to learn about their stories; not only to
receive information, but to inspire and challenge readers as well.
This unit will assist me in the classroom toward meeting the English Language Arts Common Core State Reading Standard 10 (2010); read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently. This unit will also assist me in the classroom toward meeting the English Language Arts Common Core Writing Standard 7 (2010); write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. Using several fiction and non-fiction books, online resources, related literature, and a variety of activities we will acquire knowledge about autobiographies and personal memoirs; then incorporate this material in a personal memoir writing activity.
This unit will assist me in the classroom toward meeting the English Language Arts Common Core State Reading Standard 10 (2010); read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently. This unit will also assist me in the classroom toward meeting the English Language Arts Common Core Writing Standard 7 (2010); write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. Using several fiction and non-fiction books, online resources, related literature, and a variety of activities we will acquire knowledge about autobiographies and personal memoirs; then incorporate this material in a personal memoir writing activity.
Books
There is an abundance of
incredible books that can be used in a literary selfie unit; after careful
consideration, I have chosen the following books for the students to read:
I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and
Changed the World by Malala Yousafzai
(Young Readers Edition). An autobiography of an inspiring story
that begins when she was only 10 years old. Malala’s region was taken over by
the Taliban; one of their many rules refrained girls from attending school.
Malala disagreed with these rules and stood up for her and her peers, fighting
for their education. One horrific day, Taliban fighters shot her as she
traveled home from school. No one thought she would survive the accident, fortunately
she did. Now she is a symbol of peace and become the youngest person to ever
win the Nobel Peace Prize. The Lexile Score for this book is 830L and Readability
Grade 5.Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Mud, Sweat, and Tears: The Autobiography
It's Kind of a Funny Story
a real experience, or the full story of their life, as a fictional account. In this book, Vizzini writes about his experiences of school and being hospitalized for depression through the character, Craig. Craig works extremely hard at being a good student and is aware that it is important to attend the right schools in order to be accepted at the most prestigious colleges. He does what it takes to obtain entrance in a top New York city high school; it is here that life is no longer the same and he finds himself an “average joe”. This brings upon several difficult, crazy experiences and Craig begins to see his perfect future start coming apart. The Lexile Score for this book is 700L and Readability Grade 4.
I Can't Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser. A non-fiction New York best seller with the idea to write a six-word personal memoir. From death to social-media, dating to parents, and getting into trouble to falling in love, these memoirs tell us that some of the smallest writers have the biggest stories to tell. The Lexile Score for this book is 850L and Readability Grade 6.
Resources
Throughout this unit, I will use a few
online resources; I found the following websites beneficial to our study on
literary selfies:
SixWord Memoirs Teens A Six-Word Memoir® is the story of your life, some or all of it, told in six words. At Six Words Teens, they provide a place to share your six words and provide daily prompts to share your six-word ideas on today’s latest topics. This site also includes a blog, resources, and a variety of ways schools can implement six words in the classroom.
SixWord Memoirs Teens A Six-Word Memoir® is the story of your life, some or all of it, told in six words. At Six Words Teens, they provide a place to share your six words and provide daily prompts to share your six-word ideas on today’s latest topics. This site also includes a blog, resources, and a variety of ways schools can implement six words in the classroom.
WritingCube Creator Provided by the website, Read Write Think, this tool helps students create four
different types of writing; biography/autobiography, mystery, basic elements
story, and create-your-own-topic.
Related
Literature
In addition to the books and online
resources in our literary selfies unit, we will use the following related
literature:
What's
a Memoir? by Shmoop. A fun, engaging YouTube video that teaches us about
personal memoirs. A memoir is a piece of literary non-fiction where the writer
is the main character and is written in themes reflecting on a moment, a day, a
portion of life, or a lifetime.
Six Tips for Writing Six-Word Memoirs. A short, fun YouTube video that includes tips for writing Six-Word Memoirs from SMITH Magazine, the creators of the Six-Word Memoir project and bestselling book series.
Six Tips for Writing Six-Word Memoirs. A short, fun YouTube video that includes tips for writing Six-Word Memoirs from SMITH Magazine, the creators of the Six-Word Memoir project and bestselling book series.
Activities
An introduction to the thematic unit to
engage the students into literary selfies, we will begin a K-W- L chart.
Starting a new unit with this graphic organizer enables the teacher to assess
student’s background knowledge of the topic, by answering the question what do
you know? Once this information has been identified and written in the chart we
will discuss what was found out about literary selfies. Next, we will address
the second portion of the chart, what do we want to know? In this class
discussion, we will generate a list of questions about autobiographies and
personal memoirs that the students are interested in learning during the unit. Now,
we will move on to the second activity as we have completed all that we can in
the K-W-L chart, we will return to it at the end of the unit to answer the
final portion of the chart, what have I learned? This will be an interactive
way to conclude the unit and assess the knowledge gained throughout the
lessons, activities, and readings.
The second activity we will complete will
help us learn all the new vocabulary we will be introduced to throughout the unit’s
readings. As a class, we will discuss the strategy
Context-Structure-Sound-Reference (CSSR) and create a wall chart as a reference
throughout the unit. In learning about CSSR, I will cover in detail about each
specific part and how it can help us find out what words mean that they do not
know. I will provide a sample passage that will allow us to practice this
strategy as a group and then offer another sample passage that will allow the
students to practice the strategy in pairs. Now, they will be instructed to
apply the CSSR as they read their required books independently.
The third activity we will complete during
the literary selfies thematic unit is participate in a literature circle. A
literature circle is a student centered, collaborative reading strategy that
gives them the opportunity to have an organized discussion on the books that we
are reading. Prior to the day of the literature circles, students will be given
reflection questions to answer on their own. This will give them the chance to
develop ideas toward the questions we will use to initiate the conversation of
the material they acquired while reading the books. During the literature
circle, students will begin with the reflection questions given, and the
teacher will assist the direction and motivation of the activity.
Conclusion
Overall, the literary selfies thematic
unit will provide students with an understanding of autobiographies and
personal memoirs. The unit began and ended with a K-W-L chart which allowed us
to assess prior knowledge and knowledge learned. We learned a new strategy that
will help us find out meanings of new words found when we read. We read five
books from different genres that helped us better understand the importance of
an autobiography; as well as being introduced to some incredible, inspiring
young people. After our readings, we discussed them within our literature
circles giving us the ability to see the books through the eyes of our
classmates, expanding our perceptions. Throughout the unit’s lectures, we
watched videos and visited websites that introduced us to writing personal
memoirs, specifically a well- known one with only six-words. In the end, we had
the opportunity to create our own six-word personal memoir, just as Ernest
Hemingway (1920’s) had been known to complete. He wrote,
"For Sale: baby shoes, never worn,"reminding us that in writing each individual word counts, an entire story can be written in just a half a dozen words.
References
Frank, A. (1952). The diary of a young girl. Garden City, NY: Doubleday
Grylls, B. (2011). Mud, sweat, and tears: The autobiography. London: Transworld
Publishers
Lynch-Brown, C., Short, K. G., & Tomlinson, C.
M. (2005). Essentials of children’s
literature
(8th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Oviatt, B. [Six
Words]. (September 8, 2010). Six tips for writing six-word memoirs. [Video
File].
Read Write Think.
(2001). Writing cube creator. NCTE. Retrieved from
Shmoop. (June 11,
2013). What's a memoir? [Video File]. Retrieved from
Six word memoirs teens. (2005 – 2016). Retrieved
from
Smith, L., & Fershleiser,
R. (2009). I can't keep my own secrets: Six-word memoirs by teens
famous & obscure. New York, NY: Harper Teen
Vizzini, N. (2011). It’s
kind of a funny story. New York, NY: Miramax Books
Yousafzai, M. (2014). I
am Malala: How one girl stood up for education and changed the world
(Young Readers
Edition). New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company

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