Laura Coral García de la Noceda: 2014

My Life: Autobiographies

Content Standard and Learning Expectative

UNIT 12.1- My Journey So Far

Listening/Speaking-

L/S.12.4 Expresses thoughts and opinions to evaluate text and to debate current events, concepts, and literary elements; makes predictions, inferences, and draws conclusions from listening to a variety of texts, performances, and multimedia sources; listens to sort and prioritize information.

Reading-

R.12.3 Classifies genre, analyzes plot, establishes cause and effect; makes connections, predictions, and inferences in a variety of texts; draws conclusions; analyzes and determines conflict and resolution; uses text evidence to validate responses.

Writing-

W.12.2 Evaluates and applies a variety of organizational techniques to write effective narrative, expository, and persuasive essays using the writing process; demonstrates a preferred style of writing.

Instuctions:

For the following section, we will be discussing Autobiographies in text, songs, and videos. Carefully read the lesson and observe the examples presented. Once you have studied the lesson, each student will write 3 autobiographical paragraphs of at least 5 sentences each discussing one realistic event from their lives. These assignments should be posted as comment replies to this primary post. Once you have posted your autobiographical experience, reply to at least 3 of your peers replies. These replies must be in-depth (OJO: Don't just say " I liked it" or "Good Job").

What is an Autobiography?

An autobiography is a story written by you about your life. It can be of a specific event in your life, as it could be about your entire life. The main point in an autobiography is that YOU are the author of your own experiences.

Words to Know:

Anecdote- A very short tale told by a character in a literary work.

Autobiography- The story of a person's life written by himself or herself.

Biography- The story of a person's life written by someone other than the subject of the work. A biographical work is supposed to be rigorously factual. However, since the biographer may by biased for or against the subject of the biography, critics, and sometimes the subject of the biography himself or herself, may come forward to challenge the trustworthiness of the material

Characterization- The method a writer uses to reveal the personality of a character in a literary work: Methods may include (1) by what the character says about himself or herself; (2) by what others reveal about the character; and (3) by the character's own actions

Diary- A book in which one keeps a daily record of events and experiences of their lives.

Diction- An author's choice of words. Since words have specific meanings, and since one's choice of words can affect feelings, a writer's choice of words can have great impact in a literary work. The writer, therefore, must choose his words carefully.

Journal- A daily record, as of occurrences, experiences, or observations. Can be of oneself or others.

Memoir-a written account of someone or something that is usually based on personal knowledge of the subject. Can be written by oneself or others.

Mood- The atmosphere or feeling created by a literary work, partly by a description of the objects or by the style of the descriptions.

Plot- The structure of a story. The sequence in which the author arranges events in a story.

Point of View- The speaker of a piece of literature.

First Person- Telling things from his or her own perspective.

Third Person- Telling things from the perspective of an onlooker.

Omniscient- When the speaker knows everything including the actions, motives, and thoughts of all the characters (all-knowing).

Limited Omniscience- If the speaker is unable to know what is in any character's mind but his or her own.

Setting- The time and place in which a story unfolds.

Style- The author's use of figurative language, diction, sound effects and other literary devices

Let's look at some examples of Autobiographies:

There will be two specific texts we will be looking at:

Firstly, James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. We will only be discussing Chapter 1, looking into Stephen's early childhood. If you do not have the book, here is a link to a pdf version of the story:

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (choose the HTML version).

The second text we will be looking will be at Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre. Here, will be discussing Chapter's 1-10, viewing Jane's life from Gateshead to Lowood. If you do not have the novel, here is a link to a pdf version of the story:

Jane Eyre (choose the HTML version).

Next, we will be viewing how autobiographies can be seen in songs and videos. Here are two songs and two videos of Autobiographies. Each representation is different, keep in mind the Words to Know from when observing and hearing them.

The Beatles- Hey Jude-