Coming of Age example

Reading and Writing Workshop Example of Coming of Age Stories I had grown up poor and angry about it. I started working at 11. I was tall and had the face of someone who had seen too much too young so it was easy to lie about my age. I saved up money from my jobs in little knick-naks hidden all over the entranceway where I put my bed—which I euphemistically called my room. A porcelain turtle filled with tens, a little rabbit full of twenties. If I hadn’t hid my earnings my crack-head uncle or desperate-to-feed-her-babies-mother would have snatched it all. I gave them both a little so they wouldn’t be too suspicious of my stockpile. My goal with the money was two fold: to buy clothes for high school which would some how transform me from a loser into the weightless laughing alpha females on Saved by the Bell and 90210, and, to take a trip to visit to sets of Grand parents whom had moved to the Las Vegas area a couple years earlier. In the years since they moved I had transitioned at least physically into my awkward adult form but emotionally I still needed my grandparents. So I took a cheap flight to Vegas, the only unaccompanied 12 year old. I celebrated my 13th birthday in a casino where my grandpa was a lounge singer, ate at a lot of buffets, but mostly laid around restless while my grandparents worked. About two weeks into my trip they tried to counter my boredom with a day trip to Mexico where my aunt’s mother lived. I was too selfish to have any pre-conceived notion of Mexico or Mexicans. 6 family members in a rusted conversion van—not exactly a teenager’s idea of a good time. No one was interested in the culture—my family was excited to buy cheap prescription drugs and trinkets. I was used to being hot after two weeks in Vegas, but Yuma, Mexico was different. The heat was stifling, it oppressed breathe. Everything was dust colored, the faces, the carts selling cheap crap to Americans. The roads had no lanes and were mostly unpaved, which communicates a certain lawlessness: go whichever way you want, we’re not going to do anything. At some point my aunt and I lost the rest of our group. I was wearing a tube top and too short shorts; my aunt scolded me over and over for my outfit choice as we laced through the streets desperately scanning the horizon for my grandfather’s conversion van as strange men loomed too close behind us. After an hour of walking in 100 degree heat, with the unrelenting sun beating on our backs, we stopped at a corner store for a drink. The soda came in glass bottles, in a cooler you had to reach down into that gave you a tiny shock because it wasn’t grounded. On the wooden porch I paused to use the bottle opener on the exterior of the building. That’s when I saw him. His skin had become leather and was pulled tight over tendons and bone, like slightly bendable beef jerky. His eyes seemed completely obscured by bags of lid. The scent was human rot mixed with urine. Even if I spoke Spanish I doubt I would have processed what he said, his outstretched hand terrified my so. Minutes later I realized he was saying “por favor” softly, it was all he could he could manage. Please, in English. Please, please. In the years since, I have regretted not handing him the drink. I stood there instead motionless, waiting to understand this aberration. I was so frozen it wasseveral seconds before I realized the man I’d just bought the coke from was beating the thirsty man with a broom. The thirsty man didn’t move. He took the blows, and only let out tiny whimpers “por favor, por favor.” What happened next I’m unsure of, the memory stops here. Somehow my grandfather found us and I wasn’t raped or pillaged and all my family members got the heavily discounted cigarettes they wanted. I was quiet on the 6 hour drive back. That moment, those two decisions or lack thereof, not giving the thirsty man my drink and not protesting as he was beaten for the crime of asking for a drink, changed my life forever. I had been so worried about my own hurt, the petty grievances of poverty, want and resentment, I had not contemplated what it meant to really want. That day I developed a since of justice, a sense of empathy. It was the first time I understood I could make a real difference in the suffering of others. I also understood for the first time the invisible privilege I had as a white American. While I was worried about designer shoes, I never had to worry about eating, or drinking, or bearing a beating from a stranger because I have no one. After that day soda would never taste uncomplicated again.

Reading and Writing Workshop Final Exam Coming of Age Narrative Rational: the best way to evidence your understanding of theme is to convey it in your own writing. A narrative is also a useful means to evaluate the writing skills you have developed over the entire year and your ability to use the writing and revision process. Timeline Tuesday, May 29: Return Journals, Imagery and sensory detail lesson and queit write Wednesday May 30: Plot development timeline and lesson. Thursday May 31: Characterization, dialogue, setting and figurative language lesson and silent writing workshop EACH OF THE ABOVE DAYS YOU ARE CRAFTING YOUR ROUGH DRAFT IN CLASS AND FOR HOMEWORK! Friday June 1st: Explore test. Rough draft due by email. Monday June 4 and Tuesday June 5: Final Exam schedule. Final draft due, as an attachment, by email (emeckart@cps.edu). Class time may be used to submit draft by email. No late work will be accepted. Graded Components Final Exam is worth 10 percent of your semester grade!!!! Rough Draft-Including imagery and characterization journal, and plot timeline (200 points) Reading and Writing Workshop Final Exam Coming of Age Narrative Rational: the best way to evidence your understanding of theme is to convey it in your own writing. A narrative is also a useful means to evaluate the writing skills you have developed over the entire year and your ability to use the writing and revision process. Timeline Tuesday, May 29: Return Journals, Imagery and sensory detail lesson and quiet write Wednesday May 30: Plot development timeline and lesson. Thursday May 31: Characterization, dialogue, setting and figurative language lesson and silent writing workshop EACH OF THE ABOVE DAYS YOU ARE CRAFTING YOUR ROUGH DRAFT IN CLASS AND FOR HOMEWORK! Friday June 1st: Explore test. Rough draft due by email. Monday June 4 and Tuesday June 5: Final Exam schedule. Final draft due, as an attachment, by email (emeckart@cps.edu). Class time may be used to submit draft by email. No late work will be accepted. Graded Components Final Exam is worth 10 percent of your semester grade!!!! Rough Draft-Including imagery and characterization journal, and plot timeline (200 points) Final Draft-3 pages, double spaced, 12 point plain font, submitted as an attachment by email (300 points) Rubric Bonus points: Especially creative or well-written prose!

Welcome Freshman!

I created a blog just for your class. At the right you'll see a list of the blogs created by freshman in our class. If your blog is updated and you've emailed me your url (the address of your blog which appears in the top bar), then please read and comment on at least two of your classmates blogs.