Contemporary Memoirs: Annotated Bibliography

In “Contemporary Memoir: A 21st-Century Genre Ideal for Teens,” Dawn Latta Kirby and Dan Kirby argue that memoirs are an ideal genre for teachers to consider implementing into their instruction because they will improve students’ engagement with the texts, their understanding, and it will help them notice the writing conventions taking place on the page. Kirby and Kirby further explain, “[l]ooking for texts that exist outside of our instructional walls and the lead students to improve their abilities in sophisticated reading, writing, critical thinking, and inquiry strategies, we found CM to be a genre suited for teens of the 21st century” (22). Even though Contemporary Memoirs are not often read in the classroom, Kirby and Kirby explain that the same literary concepts and conventions exists within them. Furthermore, when teaching CM in the classroom “students also gain valuable abilities and perspectives for interpreting texts” (25) which in turn can help students to understand and create meaning of the text that they have read.

After becoming familiar with memoirs, they can apply what they have learned create their own memoir. Kirby and Kirby offer a practical and useful way to implement memoir writing into the classroom: “Mini-Memoirs—shorter, yet still effective, versions of full-blown CMs—allow student writers to explore multiple lenses for representing lived experience and for effectively construing form, theme, and purpose just as published authors of CM do” (26). Kirby and Kirby’s research shows how using CM’s in the classroom can create better readers and writers. Not only will students begin to comprehend meaning, they will be able to form their own memoir in which they practice correct grammar usage and form well-structured