Background Information
Students in 10 th grade are ecstatic when I start with text- to -self connections as a way of introducing literature. Classrooms come alive when the discussions and readings revolve around their interests. So, I have found that that a first narrative is the genre that can engage students the most. To introduce the topic of biography, I will read from Voices from the Future, 7 a series of interviews of teens by teens, subtitled "our children tell us about violence in America." The text deals with mature issues and I will read sections aloud to the class. Students will then write responses and we will discuss reactions to the material and to the people in the interviews. In groups, students brainstorm what they would like to know and what they would like to tell others about the subject of the interview. Some of the discussion topics will also be supplemented with a video or short piece of nonfiction on the same topic. Students will then compare the video or text depiction to what we read Voices from the Future to see how realistic the stories are compared to what they know personally and their knowledge gleaned from reading other student's interviews on a particular subject.
The next component of the unit is to increase student awareness about the structure, stylistic devices and content that pertains to biography. Accordingly, students will read the section of Langston Hughes biography where he travels to Mexico to live with his father. This passage reveals the complex relationship Hughes had with his father and reflects his growth as a writer and as a young man. Students will use this passage as a model to write a detailed description of an impactful incident that occurred between a parent and grandparent or sibling. This description will later be included in the student's family biography. All too often students do not have family artifacts, mementos, or traditional milestone markers that would enable them to tell their stories. Thus, student's family biographies will serve as an artifact that preserves a piece of their family history through photos, text, and sound in digital storytelling format. This process will help them enlarge their thinking about telling someone's story. This expansion is necessary because when students reach 10 th grade English, most of them regard writing a sketch or biographical narrative as recycling their middle school "famous person" report and turn in a chronologically predictable narrative.
Oral histories provide an invaluable opportunity for students to examine primary documents, hone interviewing skills, and transcribe the information digitally. Furthermore, students will begin to debate whether small details or large patterns or dramatic actions should be used to present the subjects information to engage their reader. Combining oral and written modalities, I believe, is one of the best ways to incorporate comprehensive language arts skills while giving students an indirect approach to reading and analyzing nonfiction. Not only will my students learn to successfully portray a person whom they admire—by using narrative writing techniques such as vividly detailed descriptions, clear purpose, using appropriate tone —but they will also gather primary data through interviewing, researching family histories, and interpreting verbal and written photographs or other primary sources. In the process, many students will gain strategies for nonfiction reading and vice versa.
While reading and researching information on biographical writing, I found this genre of writing to involve a variety of forms: biography, memoir, biographical narrative, biographical essay, biographical sketch, oral history. For clarity I will use the terms biographical sketch, which I see as a shorter, more focused piece that can be done in less time, and biographical narrative, which contains more details and requires more development. The oral history project or essay is a biographical narrative. Unlike fictional narratives, biographical narratives must deal with factual events, accurate memory, and written documents that must be presented in a logical arrangement to make the writer's voice clear and distinct.
The well-written biographical narrative has the following characteristics
Characterization- the writer maintains a consistent attitude toward the subject.
Supporting Incidents- Incidents are specific rather than generalized occurrences.
Significance – the writer provides readers an understanding of the subject's importance to him/herself.
Tone- the writer establishes a tone that clearly and consistently reveals his/her attitude toward the subject.
Organization – the writer integrates the incidents, descriptions, and significance in a way that best conveys the intent of the essay.
In addition to the oral history, where the writer explores both the subject and himself, students will learn that writing biography is not akin to reality TV, YouTube, or social networking sites (Facebook/MySpace) where factual information is shared in real time. Rather they will learn to write biographical sketches of the protagonist and antagonist using contextual information for several required 10 th grade reading novels. Writing biographical sketches for fictional characters is a skill that will provide practice in the use of evidence, quotations, and carefully selected facts.
Finally students will research three significant events (think 9/11) which have shaped historical, political, and cultural events in the first decade of the 21 st century. The discussion of such events will enable students to include powerful descriptions in the mini biographies they will write about each other as their culminating project. In studying the style of writing the author used to convey to the reader the personality, appearance, actions, and beliefs of each event students will have a model upon which to base their writings. A challenge to the student writer lies in interpreting, examining, and relating the significance of the event to another student's life. Yet, each biographer must strive diligently to make the connection between their subject, their subject's pivotal moments, and certain events that had a lasting impact on their subjects' life.
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