This writing assignment will be given after students have read “The Day I Learned Shame,” “Learning to Read,” and “Taught Me Purple.”
Students will be asked to think about important lessons they’ve learned in and out of school. After thinking and listing, students will rank-order the five most important lessons, looking for possible connections. Each student will choose one of his/her top five to write about, keeping in mind:
Simply stated, what lesson was learned?
What circumstances prompted the lesson?
How has it proved to be valuable?
Who taught you the lesson?
Students should choose the form they’d like to use: Straight narrative; poem; dialogue; letter. These writings will be shared with the class.
