Students have been digging into personal narratives as expressions of personal and cultural identity. These, like the World History projects, allow students to see the diverse stories of the people in our world and in our classroom.
Last week began with students engaging in a visible thinking routine, in which they annotated Amy Tan's narrative "Fish Cheeks." Students searched for Tan's techniques for sharing her story, including tone, imagery, conflict, and more.
By putting their discoveries together, the students found a rich collection of annotations for this brief text. Students then practiced writing about Tan's techniques and the themes in her piece. As we moved into this week, students read several more narratives (all voiced by members of our community of readers!) to consider the many ways in which published authors tell their stories so that students can work towards writing their own personal narratives later this month! 
