Lesson Plan: The Art of the Diarist

Lesson Plan

Before Exploring

Show students copies of any of Lucy Maud Montgomery's five posthumously published journals and read a few excerpts aloud. Explain that people keep diaries or journals for many reasons. Ask them to suggest reasons why Montgomery kept them. Although journals are a private form of writing, most diarists, including Montgomery, write with an audience in mind. Montgomery, again like most diarists, used her journals as a springboard for what became her published writings, as well as for self-examination.

Outline the Opportunity

Direct students to the clip "The Long Road to Fame" and the Additional Clip "I like to be kissed by the right kind of a man..." on the CBC Digital Archives website. As they explore the clips, students should make notes in point form about the journals, answering these focusing questions: When did Montgomery start writing journals? Why did she write them? What did she write about? How did the journals sharpen her writing techniques?

Revisit and Reflect

As a class, discuss what the students have found. Ask students to write their own journal entries inspired by the topic, "I like to be kissed by the right kind of a man." They can list anything they like, keeping an audience in mind. In small groups, have them read their journal entries aloud. Then have them look at their writing with their older self in mind, just as Lucy Maud Montgomery did. Ask: What has this writing revealed about who you are at this point in your life?

Extension

Encourage students to keep journals for daily reflection, writing workshops, and self-examination. Provide opportunities for students to discuss their reflections with others. Share your own journals, or the journals of real or fictional diarists, for reflection and analysis. For example, Montgomery's character, Emily Starr, in Emily of New Moon, kept a diary that can be read aloud to the class.

Besides journals, Montgomery also kept a scrapbook of found objects, photographs, quotations, and newspaper articles. Students can supplement their diary entries with quotations, newspaper articles, photographs, chat room dialogues, and so on, to mine for future writing assignments.

Material

• copies of the Journals of Lucy Maud Montgomery