Creative Writing Exercise:

How is memory is represented in media (flashbacks, memoirs, characters with amnesia). Are these accurate portrayals of how we really remember things? Why or why not?

Ask students to remember something that happened in their lives last week. Write down all the details they remember from this incident.

Share a memory in detail with the class. Discuss what details are missing from certain memories.

The Glass Menagerie is a “memory play” - the story is told by Tom Wingfield, who draws from his memories of his mother and sister to relay an incident in which, at his mother’s request, he brings a co-worker home to meet his sister. The play is not purely realistic, because the inputs to our senses are discarded, confused, or given greater emphasis based on their importance to us when the memory is created.

Try to remember your earliest memory. Write down all the details of this memory. Using this worksheet, fill in parts of the memory using your five senses. Are there smells, sounds, textures or
movements, sights, or even tastes you can recall?

I saw....

I heard....

I tasted...

I smelled...

I felt...