Reflection of a Memoir

Writing a memoir was a fun but tough process.  I wasn’t sure how to start out, and it was difficult coming up with an idea.  I feel like the brainstorming process really helped me focus on memories and choose a good one to write about.  Once I got started I really enjoyed the rest of the process.  Making the digital storytelling video was a  lot of fun.  It took me hours to put it together, but I didn’t mind because I wanted to show my story through the video.  After I was done, I even took it home and had my sister and mom watch it, because I was proud of it.  I think it’s good that I got to a point with my writing and digital storytelling that I was excited about it and I wanted to share it.

Wanting to share a piece of my writing isn’t a feeling I often have.  However, my memoir was something that I actually wanted to share, and I was happy to share it with my classmates.  After I finished my final copy I got into a group and shared it with three of my classmates.  I first showed the digital storytelling video, which would have been better if the computers had sound.  I felt like the songs I had chosen for a video really helped tell the story, so it was disappointing that they couldn’t hear that.  While I was reading my memoir the people in my group were all very into the story.  They gasped and laughed at certain parts, and it made me happy that they were enjoying reading it as much as I enjoyed telling it.  Afterwards they all told me that it was written well and was a good story.  They really couldn’t think of much to criticize, and it made me feel good that all my hard work during the writing process had payed off.

I think using the 6 traits of writing really helped me along the way.  I kept my writing focued on the main idea, and I organized the information in a way that made sense and was easy to read and follow.  I feel like my voice really comes through in my memoir.  I didn’t want to write it like  stiff college paper.  I wanted my personality and voice to be apparent to the reader, as if I was actually telling them the story myself.  I also tried to make the words and sentences flow well, and I checked over the paper after I was done to make sure there were no grammar errors.  I also had a couple other people read it as well to make sure they agreed that I had all those elements.

I feel like this memoir shows a very good writing performance from me.  I used the writing process to brinstorm, draft, and write my memoir.  The writing process I used really helped to strengthen my writing, and it let the story flow out of me.  I feel like I definitely grew as a writer throughout this process.  I learned so much about the 6 traits of writing and how to use them effectively.  My eyes were truly opened to how important the writing process is, and my experience and growth through writing this memoir will by far make me a better teacher in the future.

As a teacher I will now be able to encourage students to share their thoughts not only through their writing, but also through a digital storytelling version of their writing.  I will be abe to guide them through the writing process, and they will learn to use the process to grow as writers themselves.  I can instill in them the importance of the 6 traits, and help them to incorporate them into their writing.  I will be a better teacher because of this experience, and I will be able to help students create writings that they will be proud to share.

My Finally Finished Memoir

After a long process I finally finished my memoir!  Below are the final versions of my digital storytelling video and my memoir entitled The Day the Beach Played Rough.

Digital Storytelling of Memoir

The Day The Beach Played Rough

Memories are a funny thing.  Sometimes the moments in life you think will make the biggest memories actually turn out to be not so important.  Sometimes it’s the little things, which may not seem so important at the time, that end up leaving us with lasting memories.  Then there are those other times when a moment you never expected just kind of jumps up and grabs you, and you’re left with a memory you never intended to have.  That’s what happened to my two sisters and me one day when we were at the beach.  You know how people are always saying to try new things?  Well in this case, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea.

It was a warm summer day just like any other.  My family and I were in Daytona Beach, Florida, a place we had been vacationing every summer since before I can remember.  By this time the beach was like an old friend.  Of course, we had had our rough tumbles in the ocean, and I’d be lying if I said I had never been burnt a few times by the friendship.  Nevertheless, I loved the beach, and the good times far outweighed the bad.  On that day, however, the beach decided to play a little too rough with my sisters and me.

It all started when my younger sister Jenna saw something in a store that she desperately wanted: a skim board.  Now to tell you the truth, I don’t know where this whole skim board interest came from.  Being seven, Jenna was no tremendous sport fanatic, and I had never even heard of a skim board before.  I personally think she just wanted it because it was pretty tie-dye colors, but being the baby of the family she got everything she wanted.  My parents bought it for her, and that was one purchase they later regretted.

When we got back to the hotel, being young and naive, my sisters and I couldn’t wait to go down to the beach and master our new toy!  The three of us got on our bathing suits, lathered up in suntan lotion, got our board, and headed to the ocean.  My older sister, Heather, carried the skim board and got to try it first because “I’m the oldest,” she would say, which apparently in her eyes made her the queen of the world or something.  I’ve got to admit that watching her awkwardly try to balance on this thing while the tiny waves knocked her over was a bit enjoyable.

We took turns trying to figure out how this skim board thing worked.  We tried to go beside the waves, into the waves, and every way we could think of, but none of us could really get it moving.  Then we realized that if we went to the very edge of the ocean with the shallowest water, we could skim just a little.  The problem with our thinking was that we didn’t think.  We never thought about what would happen when the water went back down.  Well let me tell you, when the water goes back down the board stops dead in its tracks, which was something I was about to learn.

It was my turn, and I was ready this time.  I saw the wave coming, felt the sand under my feet, and grasped the board tight in my hands.  I threw the board and it left my hands with the power of a rocket.  I quickly followed it and matched my stride to its speed.  Then I jumped on.  For a split second I was on top of the world.  I was doing it!  I was riding the wave like a champion!  Then something happened so fast I didn’t even know what had happened.  One second I was on the board, and the next I was on the ground.  Before I even had a chance to open my eyes I could hear my sisters running over.

“That was AWESOME!!!” they yelled.

It sure didn’t feel awesome.  I was flat on the ground, and had landed with the board under my hip.

“Christa, you did like two complete flips in the air!” Heather informed me.

At this point I was still lying there dumbfounded.  The sand was hard, and my hip really hurt.  I looked down and saw blood gushing from my leg.  All the skin on my hip was completely gone, and I started freaking out.  I jumped up and didn’t know what to do so I started to cry.  Heather told me to go run in the ocean to clean it out.  In complete hysteria, I listened.  If you don’t know, salt water really stings an open wound.  Especially one that is the size of a watermelon, at least that’s how big it seemed to me.  As quickly as I had run in there I ran back out.

My sisters helped me back up to the room, and my parents were stunned at the commotion of us coming through the door.  We had only been gone a half hour at the most.  My dad ran over to the drug store and got me some major Band-Aids.  They were the biggest Band-Aid I had ever seen, and they were uncomfortable.  They were however, waterproof so after I had composed myself, I was able to go back down to the beach.  One thing was for certain, I was not getting back on that thing again!

To this day I still don’t know why my parents didn’t take away the skim board at that point.  I thought my leg was a pretty good reason never to ride that thing again, but my sisters apparently weren’t as scarred by my experience as I was.  So I laid on my warm soft towel on the sand and watched them make fools of themselves on that board.  I watched them stumble and fall, it was actually quite entertaining.  It was like I had a front row seat to a very impressive comedy show.

Then I saw Heather try to catch a big one.  It happened fast, but it looked like slow motion.  The board stopped in the sand, but Heather was still moving.  Her feet went up into the air, and she came straight down on the board right on her behind.  It looked like it hurt!  She got up eventually and hobbled around for a while.  Then it was Jenna’s turn.  I watched as the same thing happened to her, but this time she came down hard on her elbow.  My mom, who was sitting beside me finally decided enough was enough.  She got up and took the board away, however it was too late.

Later that night Heather couldn’t sit down at all.  I thought it was kind of funny to be honest.  My mom said she probably bruised her tailbone.  The real problem as Jenna though.  She held her arm like it was in a cast.  She wouldn’t move it for anything.  The next day my parents took her to the hospital and as it turned out a cast was just what she needed.  She had broken her elbow when she fell down that last time.  That night was the last time we ever saw that skim board.  My dad took it out to the dumpster, and none of us ever rode on another skim board again.

The beach had not been such a good friend that day.  It took a while for my leg to stop leaking out this icky fluid from my watermelon-sized “strawberry,” as my dad called it.  Heather ended up getting a pillow to help her bruised bottom not hurt so much to sit on.  And poor Jenna was stuck in a cast for weeks.  Eventually our scrapes, bruises, and breaks healed though.  The beach and I mended our friendship the next summer when we visited again.  Looking back I really don’t know if it was such a good idea for us to try out skim boarding.  It may not have turned out well for any of us, but it was a very memorable experience for each of us.  Memories are funny that way.  I don’t necessarily remember all the great times we’ve had at the beach, though there have been lots.  This particular memory was one of those that, even if you don’t want it to, jumps up and grabs you, or in this case knocks you down pretty hard.

The Drafting Process.. The red pen is your friend :)

When writing my memoir coming up with a topic was only half the battle.  The next step in the process of writing my memoir was to write a draft.  Before writing the draft I brainstormed details I could write about the story.  Because I chose a story that I was very familiar with, coming up with what to add wasn’t very hard.  I used my writer’s notebook to keep all my prewriting and drafting exercises together.  As a teacher, I will have to make sure my students have some kind of writer’s notebook to keep themselves organized.  It really helps out during the process, because then you don’t have to worry about losing anything.  Anything you want to write goes into the notebook, and then you will always have it there to refer to later in the writing process.

Once I had come up with the main points, I then focused on the introduction.  I really needed a way to start off my story well and get readers interested.  I have always felt like the introduction is the hardest part of writing a paper.  Once I get started, then usually I can keep writing, but getting started is hard for me.  There are so many ways to start a paper.  Here is a helpful site I found on writing an introduction.  Asking a question usually hooks readers.  A quote can make them feel interested and make a connection to the topic.  I wanted to use something that would keep my audience thinking and wanting to know what happened on that particular day.

After a few “dead end” intros, I was able to come up with one that I thought was a good way to open my paper.  Then it was time to start writing.  I actually found that writing the memoir was quite easy and enjoyable.  The words just flowed out of me, and I felt like I was telling a great story.  This is exactly how I want my students to feel as they write.  I don’t want to constantly give my students topics to write about where they have no idea what to say, and it takes them hours to get words down.  This is very frustrating for students and a big reason of why a lot of students hate writing.  They are forced to write about things in school that they don’t want to write about, therefore the writing is hard and they learn not to like it.  If we give them topics they enjoy, writing about them will be more enjoyable, and students won’t develop such a negative view of writing.

With my draft neatly printed on pristine paper, I was ready to share it with my group.  Peer reviewing is a great way to edit papers, and I believe it should definitely be used with students.  It not only gives the writer feedback on how to improve their paper, it gives the peer reviewer experience editing a paper and also critiquing another paper.  My peer reviews showed that my group liked my paper, but there was some helpful criticism that I needed to make a few changes. 

I liked the peer review process that we used in which we were to give three positive feedback points and then a push, or something to improve.  This is a good exercise to use with students, because I think often when a student’s paper is edited all they see are a bunch of marks made in a red pen.  The red pen points out everything that the student did wrong and can sometimes completely tear a paper apart.  This can lead students to feel inferior about their work.  Giving positive feedback lets students know that their work is good.  The “red pen” isn’t something that is meant to break your paper down.  In fact, it’s meant to build your paper up.  Any first draft can be improved, and it’s important that students realize just how imperative the drafting and editing process is to get a well written final paper.

Writing a Memoir… Where to begin?

Writing a memoir can be a daunting task.  My first thought was, “My life isn’t interesting enough to write a memoir.”  I couldn’t think of anything good to write.  My family doesn’t really have any stories that have been passed down, or that have followed me thoughout my life.  Of course I have plenty of memories, but none that I could think of that I could really make a memoir out of. 

Before I began the process of writing a memoir I thought that you had to have had a great experience that was important and life changing enough to deserve the recognition that a memoir would give to it.  This turned out to be a major misconception I had.  A memoir doesn’t have to be a great life changing experience.  A memoir can really be about any memory you have, even if you think it’s small and unimportant, that memory could turn into a great memoir.

Even after realizing that I didn’t need to have a fantasticlly important memory to write about, I still found myself stuck on where to start.  In all honesty, this was the most challenging part of the entire memoir writing process for me.  I had no idea which memory to choose, and I felt like I had tons of memories bouncing around in my head and I couldn’t find a good one to use.  What I really needed was to get my thoughts organized.

I have recently been using EverNote as my writer’s notebook.  It is a site where you can keep an organized notebook online.  I really like using it, because it’s simple and available to me on any computer that I’m using.  In class we looked at some examples that a class of students had written that included six word memoirs.  I never thought that such small sentences could make such powerful statements.  I wrote a couple of my own to get my juices flowing.  One that I came up with was “That one single day changed everything.”

Now, I had a day in mind, but in the end I didn’t go with it.  I continue by writing a 25 word story about it and decided that it wasn’t the direction Iwanted to go with my memoir.  So I went back to the drawing board and tried a different approach.  I made a list of important people in my life, and it of couse included my dog.  I began to brainstorm ideas about what I coud write about him.  I was led to the first night I got him and he ended up getting lost.  But then I looked back at the list and thought about my sisters.  Instantly this one memory of us at the beach popped into my head, and I finally had my memoir topic!

I began by getting down the main ideas on paper using just words, then putting those words into sentences, and fnally having the beginning of my story.  It took a while to think of a good topic, but after much brainstorming and memory searching I finally came up with one!

Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is a great way to get students excited about writing and showing their writing in a digital fashion.  Digital storytelling is pretty self explainitory.  It is simply telling a story digitally, using technologies that include pictures, video, voice, and music.  You can use some or even all these components to bring your writing to life, and it allows students to be creative and have a deeper connection with their story and their writing.

Digital storytelling is a fantastic tool to use in the classroom.  Sixth grade teacher, Kevin Hodgson, created a helpful site that introduces digital storytelling, gives some examples, and even gives some resources for creating your own digital storytelling videos.  One tool to use with students that Hodgson highlights on his site is voicethread.  Voicethread combines image and voice.  You simply arrange pictures and/or video to tell your story and then add your voice to them.  The best thing s that it’s simple for students to use, and it’s something they will have fun doing.

I used digital storytelling for the first draft of my memoir.  I liked being able to plan out the story with the video first as opposed to just starting on the draft.  The video an pictures really helped the story unfold naturally, and it made the process of then beginning  write my actual paper much easier.  As a teacher I would definitely consider using this approach with my students.

Before I began, I first had to choose a resource to use to create my digital storytelling video.  I was surprised at how many there were to choose from.  One that I had used before for my about me video was animoto.  Animoto is very easy to use.  It allows you to upload videos and add music, but if you use the free version it limits your video to 30 seconds, which is somethin to consider with students.  I also checked out Little Bird Tales.  This is intended for younger students, but I think older students may enjoy using it as well.  This allows you to upload pictures or video and add either your voice or text. 

Although I looked through many resources onine, I found myself having trouble fining one where I could add elements and minipulate my story the way I wanted to.  The program I ended up using was Window’s Movie Maker, which is a program included on Windows computers.  Although this program is a bit more confusing than many of the online ones, once you get the hang of it, it’s really not that hard.  This allows you to add pictures and videos, written text, music, voice, and you can really do a lot with it.  You can even add transitions and title slides.  I tried to include all four aspects, image, video, voice, and music to my digital storytellin memoir draft, however I didn’t have a microphone available to use, so instead of using my actual voice I used text to still incorporate my voice into the video.  I then uploaded my video to YouTube so I could link it to my blog.  To view my digital storytelling draft click on the link below. 🙂

Click here to watch my Digital Storytelling Draft!