Personal Narrative:  Stress and Hard Times!!!

Content Connections:
Arts and Humanities
Social Studies
Epic of Gilgamesh
Dance Mania
Great Depression
Medieval Period


Choose one of the following activities to connect personal writing to content:

Activity A:   
When studying The Epic of Gilgamesh, I have my students complete a questionnaire on stress, being careful to note that it's just for fun.   We discuss the role of stress in our lives, and the way we cope with them.  Then, we look at Gilgamesh, completing the questionnaire for him and discussing his reaction to the stressors in his life up through the death of Enkidu.  Finally, we analyze his behavior after the death of Enkidu and discuss role of stress in those actions (not eating, not sleeping, striving for immortality).  

Activity B:
A giant asteroid will collide with the earth in 24 hours.  What will you do with your last day on earth?  List the top 10 things you would do.   After students complete their lists, place students in groups of 4 or 5.  
Write the following categories on the board:  
Friends/Family
Religion
Travel
Risky/Thrilling/Dangerous
Good Clean Fun
Other

Students work in group to 1) fit their individual responses into each category and then 2) come up with the number of total responses for each category.

Complete the following chart on the board:

	Number of Responses
	Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	Group 5	Total in each category (A)	Percentage (A/B)
Friends/Family
Religion
Travel
Risky/Thrilling
Good Clean Fun
Other
Total Responses (B)

It was amazing: in every class, 40% of the responses were Risky/Thrilling!!!

Students are then asked to respond to the questions, "Why do people engage in risky/thrilling behavior during times of great stress?"

We use this to plunge in to a discussion of the Medieval Ages or the Great Depression.


Pre-Writing
After discussing impact of stressful events in history/the arts, I ask students to list 10-15 stressful events in their lives.  I remind them that stress can be funny (After a particularly frenzied morning, I made it to the car still wearing my bathrobe) or serious.  Encourage students to write about those things they wouldn't mind sharing with you or a couple of students in class.  

Next, ask your students to select the three topics they find most interesting.  Student can then brainstorm ideas for those topics.  After brainstorming, encourage your students to select the one topic that most intrigues them. Remind them that they will be writing a personal narrative, and that the topic needs to be focused on one event.  

Drafting
Show students numerous models of personal narratives.  Give them at least one day to draft.