Authoring pandemic personal narratives: Middle level students’ representations of life during the 2020-21 school year

Abstract

In this article, the authors share an account of an eighth-grade personal narrative unit designed to support students in composing accounts of life during the 2020–21 pandemic school year. The article provides an overview of the four phases that comprised this nine-lesson unit and the materials and resources used. Students’ voices, perspectives, and details from their compositions feature throughout the article. Implications for practice include considering the importance of life writing for both self and audiences and the meaningfulness of making space in middle level curricula for students to process their lives and respond to events in their world.

Keywords:

• life writing
• middle level curricula
• multimodal composing
• personal narrative

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephanie F. Reid

Stephanie F. Reid, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Literacy Education, School of Education, University of Cincinnati, Teachers-Dyer Complex, 2610 University Circle, Cincinnati, OH 45245. E-mail: [email protected]

Rita Thorson

Rita Thorson, M.A., is Dean of Students, St. Croix Preparatory Academy, 4260 Stagecoach Trail North, Stillwater, MN 55082. E-mail: [email protected]