The Art of Biography

Hole In My Life

Hole in My Life is the autobiography of author Jack Gantos. It is a detailed account of his life from high school through adulthood. In this book Jack is faced with many obstacles. I plan to read this book in full with my students, mainly addressing: characterization, text evidence, inferring, and cause and effect while infusing the characteristics of perseverance and integrity.

Often, however Gantos arrives at points in his life that I look at as intersections; points where based on his decision, the consequences could take him down different paths. Did he act with integrity? Could Jack have persevered through this? For example, in chapter three, after graduating from high school, Jack discusses his 1971 visit to the University of Florida in Gainesville, which was the only school he applied to. He arrived early to give himself a chance to explore the campus. It did not take him long to decide that he did not want to go there. He did not like that as a freshman he could not have a car, that it looked like a big high school, and with all that was going on in the world, the campus was too quiet. "As I drove around I came to the conclusion that I wasn't going to go. I wasn't just going to bump along to grade thirteen and not go to a real school where I'd be roughed up and challenged."(7)

This appears to be a noble decision for Jack. The only problem is that he has no other options, and stops his pursuit of a college education right there. There are at least eight other places in the book where Jack is faced with opportunities like this, and he chooses the path that leads him down a road of trouble or in his case, more trouble.

"Other than explaining to students how authors developcharacters and then telling students to write an essay analyzing acharacter, the authors of the text do not provide students with any assistance for determining how acharacter'svalues may or may not change as a result of his or her experiences—and what they do offer does not seem to invite students to become engaged withliterature."(8) This tells me that I must guide students in pulling out their characterizations of Jack. Also with characterization, I want my students to take a look at themselves, so that during each activity, they will have the opportunity to view each other through the same lens. There are plenty of ways to teach characterization. I plan to use a few of them. With this book, we will do a characterization activity at least once a week.

1. Jack gives teachers a great starting point. Following the title page of Hole in My Life, there is a portrait of him.

I will pose the question, "What conclusions can we make about Jack based on this picture?" Then in groups, I will allow my students to discuss their answers with each other. For homework, students must take portraits of themselves and bring them in either physically, or electronically. We will ask and answer the same questions we answered about Jack.

2. At the beginning of class, I will ask students to give me one adjective about someone in their family and then list three reasons why. I bring their family into because it engages them in the activity, my students love talking about their families. It is also a simple way to give students an example of the activity. After going over this activity with my students, we will turn our attention to Jack for the same activity. For instance, one adjective we could use for Jack is irresponsible. Then students will have to give me three examples straight from the text, that display Jack's irresponsibility. Then students would write a short paragraph explaining how the textual evidence supports the conclusion that Jack is irresponsible. One example is "After a while he tapped me on my shoulder. "Good stuff," he remarked. I forgot I was driving. "Did I run any lights?" I asked in a panic. He grinned. "I don't know," he replied, and shrugged. "I wasn't paying attention."(9)

3. We will write letters from Jack's perspective. Based on what we know about Jack and what he is going through, what would he say to his dad? Mom? Writing letters from the character's perspective effectively shows that a student truly understands the actions, values, and motivations of a character. As we get deeper into the book, I expect the letters to show the growth and maturity of Jack.

I have been very successful using activities 2 and 3 to get students to understand character, no matter what text I am using. Activity #1 is a great activity that was learned in depth during my seminar "The Art of Biography" with Dr. Gaddis. He taught us that portraits can say a lot about a character; from people's facial expressions, to the other areas in the portrait that may give one a sense of context. For example, in the portrait of Jack Gantos, one may be able to conclude that Jack's portrait is a mugshot and that he has been to prison.

Also through my characterization activities I will be able to address the areas of textual evidence and inferring. It is very important that students are able to support their answers with textual evidence. It not only shows that students are not guessing, but it demonstrates understanding. A thesis not supported by solid textual evidence will be weak and unconvincing. There are many times when a student reaches some type of conclusion with no textual evidence to back it up. A student may give a response such as "Jack was intelligent." Then I will ask them "What in the text made you think of that?" Usually they just try to say something like, "It said it in the book." That is an unacceptable answer. They must return to the text and give the exact passage that led them to that conclusion. It is a skill that students will need for the rest of their lives. They will always have to support conclusions they make with some type of evidence. Also, supporting answers with evidence from the text forces students to read closely and with attention. "Close reading can reveal aspects of the text that might have been glossed over had you been reading passively. You have to talk back to the text, read with it, then read against it."(10)

The word inferring means to derive by reasoning; conclude or judge from premises or evidence.(11) When students make conclusions that from Jack's character that are not explicitly stated in the text, they are inferring. An example of inferring is stated above where Jack is believed to be irresponsible based on a passage in the text, where it was not explicitly stated that he was responsible. Inferring takes place simultaneously with characterization and giving textual evidence. They all work together and ultimately build higher levels of comprehension in students.

Cause and effect is the last skill that will be tackled heavily in Hole in My Life. This is where I plan to integrate the principles of integrity and perseverance. As I wrote earlier, Jack finds himself in many predicaments, and in these predicaments, I want my students to think of the consequences for Jack's actions. They will easily discuss how Jack is "immature and silly," not realizing they make similar mistakes. Asking simple questions such as "How could Jack have responded with integrity?" In which situations from Jack's life could he have persevered through that may have changed the outcome? These are samples of questions that I plan to discuss deeply with my students, where some of their own situations will come up and give opportunity for fruitful discussions about their own lives.

For the unit I will find 15 vocabulary words that I want students to learn and master. These words will be related to integrity and perseverance, words that could possibly lead them to attain these character traits. The words 'karma," "goal," and "experience" immediately come to mind. The success I have with vocabulary can be attributed to how I saturate my classroom with the words. I use the words in questions I ask students verbally and on assignments, I add them to a word wall in the classroom. I go out of my way to use the words when speaking to the whole classroom as well as individual students, and the activities we will use with the words.