Memory Chain lesson

Memory Chains

This lesson is adapted from the RUAL/America's Choice curriculum.

 

Materials:

• George Street excerpt (p. 45) from Knots in My Yo-Yo String by Jerry Spinelli, copied and cut to size to tape into Writer's Notebooks
• Instructions for memory chain written on chart paper (I also created a chart with strips of construction paper taped to it, each strip written with the item that should go on it)
• Memory Chain worksheet
• Construction paper cut into strips
• Markers
• Stapler

 

Development of Lesson:

1. Have students tape the George Street excerpt into their notebooks.
2. Read the excerpt aloud.
3. Point out that Jerry Spinelli uses a sort of stream-of-consciousness approach, giving short, clipped details, one reminding him of the next.
4. Have students begin their own memory chains by completing the memory chain worksheet.  Download Worksheet
5. When students have completed the worksheet, check for spelling and brevity. There should be on detail for each strip, so if students combine details, break them down into individual pieces. Ideally, the memory is something that happened in a specific moment in time.
6. Print out each detail on the strips of construction paper. The first strip says "Remembering...", the second strip has the place, the third has the time or age and the fourth names a person that shares the memory. Subsquent strips are used for each detail of the memory.
7. When the strips are ready, link them into a chain by looping the strips, using the stapler to create the loops.
8. Display chains by threading them onto string or rope and hanging it up.

 

Assessment:

• Students are able to compose a piece of writing modeled by an author.
• Students are able to draw on their own experience as a writing source.

 

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