This Time It's Personal

This past Fall 2024 we published our classification essays. The idea of assigning a classification essay first came to me when I shared a short video of a Marilyn Monroe collector to my English composition classes  In our reading of William Inge's play Bus Stop,  I showed a few clips from Marilyn Monroe's film version, and then a lttle later, I  shared interesting tidbits about Marilyn's life and work (see above).  The collector in the video had amassed a collection of Marilyn Memorabilia over fifty years, and he was now ready to sell on the open market.  He had bought Marilyn's refrigerator at a yard sale.  He could identify it with a photo from the crime scene published in the newspaper the day after Marilyn's death.   He had a Marilyn dress he bought in the sixties for a few  hundred dollars that he was now going to sell  for $90,000.  The money was not what interested to me, however;  it was the passion that this guy showed for his collection.  The journalists who  interviewed him sat open-mouthed the entire span of the video.  The collector did all the talking, and we did all the listening.  When my students responded  in a lively classroom discussion by sharing collections they have started at  home,  I knew I was on to something.  This type of interaction doesn't happen every day.  I'm betting that the opportunity for my students to share and classify their own personal collections will open new doors for their writing.   ABOVE: That's me in my Mexicali home garden.  In my model for my classification essay, I break down and categorize the plants and shrubs in front of my house.