Exploring vivid childhood accounts
I can explore what makes a memoir particularly vivid and emulate this craft in my own writing.
Exploring vivid childhood accounts
I can explore what makes a memoir particularly vivid and emulate this craft in my own writing.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- Memoirs are historical accounts or biographies written from personal experience or knowledge.
- Helen Keller's memoir describes an idyllic childhood juxtaposed with description of the illness that changed her life.
- Keller uses sensory language and juxtaposition to make her childhood account more vivid.
- Sensory language can be made more vivid if we add adjectives and embedded clauses.
- Contrasting sets of words and phrases highlight the differing feelings attached to memories.
Keywords
Memoir - a written account of one's own life and experiences
Formative - having a profound influence on someone's development
Vivid - producing a powerful feeling or strong, clear images in one’s mind
Idyllic - extremely happy, peaceful or picturesque
Common misconception
Students might be used to writing their memories as a stream of consciousness, without stopping to consider craft.
Writing memories as a stream of consciousness is a good place to start. However, once one thinks about publishing work, editing and conscious crafting is necessary.
To help you plan your year 11 english lesson on: Exploring vivid childhood accounts, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 11 english lesson on: Exploring vivid childhood accounts, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 english lessons from the Non-fiction: teenage kicks unit, dive into the full secondary english curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
You will need the extract from Helen Keller's 'The Story of My Life'. It's available in the additional materials.
Content guidance
- Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
Lesson video
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Starter quiz
6 Questions
The sturdy vines tangled over the brick.
The bright days of summer soon melted into cruel, harsh November days.
The scarlet roses unleashed a honeyed fragrance.