Memory/Self as Character

This piece of writing is designed to prompt students to practice the writing fundamental to "show and not tell."

We all love a good character—someone who is complex yet relatable, full of all the human foibles we are aware of and who may act differently from what we could ever anticipate. For this piece of writing, students attempt to write a kind of self-portrait and/or to draw on a specific memory and re-create it vividly. Students were encouraged to draw on their senses and attempt to include dialogue in an attempt to illustrate, or demonstrate the relevance of the memory without summarizing why it matters. Students were instructed to use a "device" to help them to move through personality traits, interesting qualities, or amusing actions to form a narrative that lets the reader see them at their best and their worst.

Students were given the following prompts to chose from:

1) Something, someone, some place that you loved, have loved, or hate or have hated?

2) Something (a person or experience) that changed you