Big Idea Overview and Resources

Part 1: The Power of Memory
Part 2: Quests and Encounters
Part 3: Keeping Freedom Alive

Part 1: The Power of Memory

Overview
In Part 2, authors share their own stories of growing up and trying to find their place in the world. Whether they are writing about another person’s life in a biography, or writing about their own life in an autobiography, these accounts speak honestly about the pains of feeling like an outsider and the struggles to make a new place feel like home. Other selections are reminiscences about the places and people that the characters or writers were forced to leave behind, but that continue to be cornerstones of their identities.

Authors of biographical and autobiographical works endeavor to do more than recount the facts of a person’s life; they strive to create continuity between the past, present, and future. These narratives remind readers that where they are going is greatly influenced by where they have come from. They also illustrate the power that memories have to teach us something that we did not know about ourselves and to create emotional ties to other people, both from the past and in the present.

Web Resources
Writing with Writers: Biography
http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/biograph
This Web site provides information about how to write a biography.

The Biography Maker
http://www.bham.wednet.edu/bio/biomak2.htm
This website contains a tool which helps students write a biography.

Writing an Autobiography
http://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonplans/unit_autobio9_12.htm
This website contains tips on how to write an autobiography.

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Part 2: Quests and Encounters

Overview
In Part 2, writers explore how quests and encounters are often disguised in everyday interactions and experiences. Writers describe the ways in which their encounters with animals, nature, and other people have transformed their perspective. In other works, writers explain their surprise at finding the familiar in strange and mysterious places.

Some of the reading selections in Part 2 are expository essays that explain ideas or provide information about a quest—for example, an author’s adventures at sea or at the zoo. Other selections are a personal essays in which the author is more reflective and shares a lesson about life.

Web Resources
Expository Writing: Personal Essay Assignment
http://www.goshen.edu/english/Academics/Expos204/assignments/persass.html
This website contains an assignment for college students. It provides information about how to write a personal essay.

Learning Resources: Essay Writing
http://www.jcu.edu.au/studying/services/studyskills/essay This Web site guides students through the process of writing an essay.

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Part 3: Keeping Freedom Alive

Overview
Despite the promises of freedom delineated in the Declaration of Independence and the laws that were created to fulfill those promises in the United States Constitution, countless American men and women have struggled to exercise their freedom to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. The nonfiction works in Part 3 represent the voices that spoke out against injustice and prejudice in American society. These voices challenged people to reexamine the beliefs and values on which the nation was founded.

Writers use various techniques to persuade their audience to think or act in a certain way. Powerful speakers know that their argument, or the manner in which they appeal to their audience’s sense of reason and logic, may be more effective than relying solely upon emotional appeals. Persuasive speakers and writers are also skilled at anticipating counterarguments that people in opposing camps may raise. The ability to address those opposing viewpoints adds strength to an argument.

Web Resources
The Writing Center—The Persuasive Essay
http://www.delmar.edu/engl/wrtctr/handouts/argument.pdf This Web site provides students with tips on how to write a persuasive essay.

Writing with Writers: Speechwriting
http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/speech/index.htm This website contains information about how to write speeches.

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