Amazing Autobiographies

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Amazing Autobiographies

Grades: K-4

Curriculum Connections: English language arts/writing

Standards Connections: National Council for the Teaching of English/International

Reading Association Standards for the English Language Arts:

Standard 2: Students read a wide range of literature from many periods inmany genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g.,philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.

Standard 6: Students apply knowledge of language structure, languageconventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurativelanguage, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.

Standard 7: Students conduct research on issues and interests bygenerating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather,evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print andnonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways thatsuit their purpose and audience.

Required Software: Microsoft PowerPoint version 2002, the Office XP

presentation solution; Microsoft Excel version 2002; Microsoft Internet Explorer

5.0/5.5

What's in this Lesson:

Teacher Guide (including How to Begin)

Resources

Student Activity, Step-by-Step:

o Step A: Remember and Research

o Step B: Create Your Timeline

o Step C: Write Your Life Story

o Step D: Share and Compare

Teacher Guide

Summary: They say writers should always start with what they know--and for

children in the early grades, what they know best is themselves. With this

autobiography project, students build on that foundation to explore the basic

elements of narrative writing.

Objectives:

To select, explore, and order key events from one's life.

To write a basic autobiography based on selected life events.


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To use technology tools to research, write, and share one's autobiography.

Prerequisite Skills:

Beginning research skills: formulating questions, gathering information

Basic writing skills: sentences and paragraphs

Introduction to Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Excel (teacher-assisted)

Time Allotted:

One to three class periods

How to Begin:

1. Use Internet Explorer to preview the Web sites listed under Resources, andselect those you would like your class to use. You can save copies of yourselected sites onto your computer hard disk by clicking Save As on the Filemenu and selecting eitherWeb Page Complete orWeb Archive as your filetype. Or you can bookmark the sites for live Internet access by selecting Addto Favorites from the Favorites menu.

2. If possible, gather and preview the recommended print material as well, andmake them available in your classroom library.

3. Under Resources, you will also see two Microsoft Office XP files--a Timelinefile in Microsoft Excel and a Milestones file in Microsoft PowerPoint.

a. Download each of these files to a location that is easily accessible toyour students, such as the shared drive of your classroom network ora floppy disk that students can pass around.

b. Print out the Milestones file for your students to use in hard copy asthey research the dates and details of their life events.

c. The Milestones file will also serve as the basis for your students'autobiography writing in Step C. Each student will be able to modifythe slide design and add or change various elements to personalizethe presentation. Younger students may need your help in makingthese modifications for Step C.

4. Launch the project with a brief class discussion about autobiographies. Writethe word fragments "auto," "bio," and "graph" on the board. Lead your

students to an understanding of each:

a. If "auto" means "done by oneself",

b. and "bio" means "life",

c. and "graph" means "write",

d. then "autobiography" means writing one's own life story.

5. Show students some of the examples you've gathered of online and printautobiographies. Read a few passages aloud.

6. Depending on your students' ages, you might also discuss the differencesbetween autobiography and biography, from a reader's point of view. What


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kinds of things might you learn from reading a person's autobiography thatmight not come through in a biography ... and vice versa?

7. Now tell students that they will be creating their own autobiographies on yourclassroom computers, following a simple step-by-step process.

8. If you have access to a scanner, digital camera, or both, you can helpstudents add art to their autobiographies. Line up these resources if at allpossible, and let students know the process you want to follow for scanningphotos from their past or snapping pictures of their faces today.

9. Distribute copies of the Student Activity pages, and let the life-story-writingbegin!

RESOURCES

Famous Autobiographies Online

The old-fashioned language in these may make them challenging for younger

students, but how fascinating to hear from these historical figures in their own words!

Benjamin Franklinhttp://www.earlyamerica.com/lives/franklin/

Thomas Jeffersonhttp://libertyonline.hypermall.com/Jefferson/Autobiography.html

Abraham Lincolnhttp://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/autobiog.htm

Booker T. Washingtonhttp://docsouth.unc.edu/washstory/menu.html

Autobiographies in Print

Students love reading about their favorite authors, athletes, and others. The

selections here are diverse examples of the autobiographical form.

Louisa May Alcott, Louisa May Alcott: Her Girlhood Diary, Bridgewater Books,1993

Eve Bunting, Once Upon A Time, Richard C. Owen Publishing, 1995

Eric Carle, Flora and Tiger: 19 Very Short Stories from My Life, PhilomelBooks, 1997

Helen Keller, The Story of My Life, Bantam Classic (reissue), 1991

Cal Ripken, Jr., Cal Ripken, Jr.: Play Ball!written with Mike Bryan, Dial Booksfor Young Readers, 1999
http://www.earlyamerica.com/lives/franklin/http://www.earlyamerica.com/lives/franklin/http://libertyonline.hypermall.com/Jefferson/Autobiography.htmlhttp://libertyonline.hypermall.com/Jefferson/Autobiography.htmlhttp://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/autobiog.htmhttp://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/autobiog.htmhttp://docsouth.unc.edu/washstory/menu.htmlhttp://docsouth.unc.edu/washstory/menu.htmlhttp://docsouth.unc.edu/washstory/menu.htmlhttp://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/autobiog.htmhttp://libertyonline.hypermall.com/Jefferson/Autobiography.htmlhttp://www.earlyamerica.com/lives/franklin/


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Milestones, Microsoft PowerPoint Version 2002 (134KB)

Student Activity

Description: What story could be more fun to write--and more interesting to read--

than the story of your own life? Follow these simple steps and youll end up with your

own amazing autobiography!

Step A

Remember and Research

Software: Microsoft PowerPoint version 2002, Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0/5.5

What to do: Begin by pulling together key dates and facts.

1. For this autobiography project, you will need to gather the date and details(plus pictures, if possible--ask your teacher about that) for some important

events:

a. Your birth: You know the date, but you may need to check with yourfamily about the exact time and the place.

b. Your first steps OR your first word: Your parents--or whoever wasclosest by at the time-- can give you the date and details on this.


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c. Your first day of school: Whether it was preschool, kindergarten, orfirst grade, you'll want to pin down the when and where.

d. A very happy event you remember from your life so far: If you're lucky,you have quite a few to choose from! Maybe you got a puppy, learnedto ride a bike, got a good grade on a hard project--any happy eventwill do. Pick one, and check with your family, friends, or teacher tofigure out the date and place.

e. A sad event from your life: Here's hoping you don't have too many ofthese. Moving, getting in an argument with a friend, or having a deathin your family are all guaranteed to make you sad. Choose your eventand track down the key data.

f. Two more important events from your life: You pick! These can bethings you remember, or things that happened when you were verysmall ... or one of each.

g. For one of the above, an event that happened in the world around thesame time. Use Internet Explorer and the links your teacher has setup to find just the right event. If you have trouble finding one, yourteacher can help you broaden your search.

2. Use the Milestones PowerPoint printout your teacher gives you to write downthe dates and details you find. Each event should have its own Milestonessheet.

3. When all your Milestones sheets are completed, put them in order by date,proofread them carefully, and show them to your teacher. You'll be usingthem for your next step!


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Step B

Create Your Timeline

Software: Microsoft Excel version 2002

What to do: Now youll turn your life events into a timeline.

1. On your classroom computer, open the Microsoft Excel Timeline workbookthat your teacher has placed there for you.

2. Save a copy of the timeline under your own name by clicking File, then SaveAs, and then typing your first name before the word Timeline in the File namebox.

3. On the timeline itself, your first job is to put your name in the title at the top.

Click on cell B1, and you will see the title text in the formula bar at the top ofyour screen. Select the text that says [Your Name]. In capital letters, typeyour name to replace it.

4. Next, refer to the Milestones sheets you created in Step A as you make yourfirst timeline entry.

a. Click on the first Date cell, and type the date of your first Milestone.The cell is set up to automatically show the date in number format tofit the space; for example, if you type "December 2, 1996," it willappear as 12/2/96.

b. In the Event cell connected to this date, type a short sentencedescribing the milestone. Keep it brief! You'll have a chance to includeall the details in Step C. If you really need more room just for thebasics, your teacher can help you expand the cell or adjust the fontsize.

c. Save your work.

5. Repeat this entry process for each of your own life events (you should haveseven of these, not counting the "world event" you pinpointed).

6. Next, fill in a brief description of the world event in the special cell provided.Then select that cell, click Cut on the Edit menu, click a cell below the life

event that this world event corresponds to, and click Paste on the Edit menu.Save your work.


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7. Proofread your timeline and check all your dates. Then print the timeline andturn it in to your teacher before proceeding to the next step.

Step C

Write Your Life Story

Software: Microsoft PowerPoint version 2002

What to do: Its time to dig into your autobiography.

1. On your classroom computer, open the PowerPoint Milestones presentationthat your teacher has saved for you. You will notice that this is the same setof sheets you filled in by hand in Step A--but now you are going to change thedesign and layout of these sheets to create your very own autobiographypresentation.

2. Save a copy of this PowerPoint file under your own name by clicking File,then Save As, and then typing your first name in the File name box.

3. Next, choose a new design. With the file open, click Format, then Slide

Design. The Slide Design pane appears on the right of your screen, with littlepreviews of all the available designs. Click one, and youll see what yourpresentation would look like with that design. Try a few others until you findone you like best. Then save your work.

4. Now add a title slide. Go back to the beginning of the presentation (in eitherNormal or Slide Sorter view), and click New Slide on the Insert menu. A slidelayout pane will appear at the right of the screen; if the new slide is not in TitleSlide layout form, you can change it by choosing the right layout from thispane. Then:

a. Give your autobiography a name. Type it in the main title area.

b. Add your full name and today's date in the smaller title area.


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c. If you have a picture or graphic you want to add, click Insert, thenPicture, then From file, and select the picture. You can then size itand move it around on your title page until it fits just right.

d. Proofread and save your work.

5. Now start filling in your life story on the slides that follow. Here are some tips:

a. For each milestone slide, think about changing the layout to give youmore room to write. Click Slide Layout on the Format menu, and thelayout pane will appear on the right. Choose a new layout by clickingthe small version. (You may need to delete text boxes on some slidesto get them out of the way.)

b. Type in the dates and details you have written by hand for eachmilestone--that way, you'll have all the basic facts in front of you.

c. Now, write at least three sentences about each milestone.

d. If you have a picture to go with the milestone, or if you want to add clipart, click Insert, then Picture, choose your pictures, and then size themto fit.

e. Have more to say about your life between these milestones? Goahead and insert a new slide wherever you need one. To do this, clickInsert, and then click New Slide.

f. Proofread carefully, and save often.

6. Now you will add two very important slides: an overview and a conclusion.First do the overview, using the timeline you created in Step B.

a. Scroll back to your title slide, and click Insert, then New Slide to adda new slide 2. Click Format, then Slide Layout, and choose a Blankslide.

b. Now open your Timeline file. Select all the cells that make up yourfilled-in timeline, and go to click Copy on the Edit menu.

c. Go back to the blank slide in your PowerPoint file, select Paste

Special on the Edit menu, and choose Picture as the format youdlike to paste in.


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d. You will need to resize this picture of the timeline to fit your slide. Justclick and hold the corner of the picture and drag to shrink it. Position itin the middle of the slide so it's easy to read. Ta-da! You've justcreated an overview. Save your work.

e. Next, go to the very end of your presentation, insert a new slide, andwrite a few summing-up sentences about your life so far. Include atleast one sentence telling your hopes for the future.

7. If you want to get fancy, you can now add transitions between your slides,such as Fade In or Dissolve. Scroll back to the beginning of yourpresentation, and click Slide Show, then Slide Transition. Using the previewpane on the right, experiment with different effects for moving from one slideto the next. Just remember: a little bit goes a long way, so keep it simple.

8. Preview your autobiography by clicking View Show on the Slide Showmenu. Then proofread, edit, and show your work to your teacher.

Step DShare and Compare

Software: Microsoft PowerPoint version 2002

What to do: Get ready to present your autobiography--and see your classmates'.

1. Your teacher will arrange a time for everyone in class to present his or herPowerPoint autobiography. Before it's your turn, be sure to:

a. Practice moving through the slides by using the arrow keys or the

mouse.

b. Even more important, practice speaking from your slides. You shouldnot read every word-your audience can read for themselves by lookingat the slides. Instead, add details that aren't on the slides, or say moreabout why you chose each event.

2. When it's your turn to present, have fun! Remember, this is one story thatnobody knows better than you do.

3. As you listen to your classmates' autobiographies, take notes about the thingsyour life stories have in common, and how they differ.

4. After everyone has presented, have a discussion about the similarities anddifferences you noticed.

5. Finally, print out your autobiography or save it on a disk, and give it to yourfamily as a special "thank you" for their part in your life story.

Amazing Autobiographies

Documents

Transcript of Amazing Autobiographies