MATERIALS NEEDED
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Writer’s Notebook
Brain
Ears
Heart
WRITING PROMPT
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What has been the most important thing
that has happened in your life so far that
makes you who you are today?
What would be reasons a person might
choose to lie?
WRITING PROMPT
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Define the word “gang.”
Why would people belong to a gang? Are
gangs good or bad? Explain.
GANG
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Definition: a group of persons working together,
Alsoa group of persons working together in unlawful
or antisocial behavior; a group of antisocial
adolescents.
Antisocial-hostile or harmful behavior, acting
against the normal behavior of society.
MEMOIR
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A story written about a personal
experience; based on memory of an event.
IRONY
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When something is the OPPOSITE of
what you would expect it to be.
“I Escaped a Violent Gang”
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Read storyDiscuss “John’s mother’s tears became my
mother’s tears.”
Stop at “But my story starts way before
then.”
Discuss what we know about the narrator
so far.
Make a prediction about what happens.
Flashback
FLASHBACK
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When a narrator stops a story to go back
in time to tell us about something that
happened before the part of the story we
just heard.
“I Escaped a Violent Gang”
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Stop at * page 105
What does it tell us that she mentions her
mom crying three times already in the
story?
Page 105-What does it tell us about her
that she could only see her mom four
times in eight months?
PAGE 106
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What kinds of things do we know about
her by the sentence “I started thinking
about getting out of the gang.”
“I said it for myself”=
“I said it for my mother”=
“…and for Ms. Gruwell”=
WRITING PROMPT
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What do you think her message is to her
readers?