Brooklyn Community High School of Communications, Arts & Media (BCAM), Arts & Media, Bedford-Stuyvesant, District 13

Patricia McCormick, Purple Heart: A fiction writing workshop.

Visit 1: April 22, 2010
Visit 2: April 29, 2010

"If our innocence has been lost or taken from us, can we regain it?" This was the theme for Narrative Writing Program with Patricia McCormick, author of Purple Heart. Her book tells the story of a young soldier in Iraq who wakes in a hospital and starts piecing memories together to figure out what happened before his injury.

McCormick led a two part writer's workshop where students used one of their own journal entry that related to the theme of lost innocence and expanded it into a polished narrative. Students shared their work with the class and the author and offered feedback and comments. Most narratives dealt with difficult personal situations and the students and even the author herself opened up and shared stories about difficult times in their lives.

.Patricia McCormick participates in a trust exercise with the class.		Patricia McCormick speaks to the BCAM class.
AAA young man reads aloud from his work.		A student reads her work aloud to the class.
A student reads from Purple Heart.		The class poses with Ms. McCormick and their new copies of Purple Heart!

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