How I Won the Right to the Streets of Memphis
As a class we read "How I Wont the Right to the Streets of Memphis" by Richard Wright and staged a mini-play based on a scene of the narrative. In groups of four we decided what the most important moments of the scene were so we could act it out for the class. The purpose of this activity was to pay attention to detail and the importance of descriptive writing. For example, in the writing Wright describes him being jumped by saying "They came toward me and I broke into a wild run home. They overtook me and flung me to the pavement". This description could also be written as "They came towards me and I ran away. They caught me and beat me up", but clearly one is better than the other.
Initial Story Ideas
Before starting our narratives we spent a class time brainstorming potential narrative ideas. A few of my first ideas were: my trip to Cuba, moving to South Bay, coming to High Tech High Chula Vista, my first privilege walk, and (the story I ended up writing) meeting Josefina's family. Looking back at my initial ideas I notice that they are all very personal to me and have played a big role in making me the person I am today. I would've been happy writing about any of these stories but they would have not come out as well as my final narrative did.
Hero's Journey
A hero's journey is how we organized our stories. By following this story line we cover the basic necessities of a story.
There are a few pieces of a Hero's Journey you can find in my narrative like the call to adventure and resurrection but it does not follow all the parts of the Journey. When looking at life events I don't think it is helpful to always look at things with the lens of a Hero's Journey. That would mean that one thinks that everything that happens in their life happens for a reason or there is a lesson to be learned behind every event. I don't believe this to be true. Tragedies happen and trying to justify them as rational seems unhealthy. |
Shell Description
Each student in our class received a shell and with that shell we used every skill we had to describe it to the best of our abilities. After writing our descriptions we laid out the shells, randomly passed out our descriptions and had to look for the shell that matched the descriptions. Almost every student found the correct shell. With this activity I learned when and how to use similes and metaphors in narrative.
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