Memoir, Jim Crow, and Class Meetings

First period began looking at what makes a memoir a memoir: it’s short-story-like quality, its highly-charged emotional feel, etc.

Second period began working on To Kill a Mockingbird. We started working on an anticipation guide and talked about the basic plot. We finished with a reading and discussion about the Jim Crow laws of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.

Fourth and sixth periods had class meetings, discussing how we could improve some troubling issues in class and what we might do to make things run more smoothly.

Homework

• First period: a list of 10-15 events/relationships that could serve as a topic for a memoir (in other words, has a high “so what?” value).
• Second period: chapters 1-4 of To Kill a Mockingbird.