What is a teachable moment? – loosely, the term refers to formative experiences, trials, adversity you’ve overcome; think back to instances in your life where you realized or learned something (the ‘epiphany’), which changed the course of your life (as you can tell, the concept of a ‘teachable moment’ is flexible — you are also free to explore the events in your life that led to your falling in love with your passions/interests). This assignment asks you to reflect on what led to such realization (causation), the surrounding circumstances (atmosphere, implication), the consequence of that realization, and how those consequences might be valuable to a broader audience.

The idea is not to replicate the moment exactly, but to refashion (augment, transform) it in a way that best speaks to your audience (it is not the absolute truth, but the vitality of the truth that counts ). You’ll have wide latitude in what you want to write about. Equally, you have full creative license to adapt your ‘teachable moment’ into a form (traditional or non traditional) that best suits it. Some forms to consider: short story (1st person, 3rd person, 2nd person), screenplay, video monolog, poem, essay, travelog, autofiction ( or choose some combination of these).