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Autobiography

Autobiography

Definition:

A narrative first person account of all or part of a person’s life (written by the subject of the work).

Purposes:

• To share achievements
• To convey a personal view of events
• To make the person widely known
• To help readers come to understand big ideas, lessons and themes provided through the author’s personal history
• To provide insights into personalities, interests and opinions
• To acknowledge those who have influenced the author’s life
• To explore a period of time and offer insights into conditions, values, or beliefs of an era
• To help the author reflect on his/her life, correct misinformation, highlight best traits, or justify actions

Characteristics:

• Narrative structure and elements
• Provides a history or partial history of the person’s life
• Diaries, memoirs, journals, personal letters, and annotated photographic albums of a variety of lengths
• Continuous narrative
• Disagreeable events are often glossed over
• Unreliable as a record of facts

Theme:

• Reflects the author’s perception of his/her life theme (s)
• Based upon what was learned from challenges in life
• Sub-themes, if present, are centered around milestones
• Evolution of the personal self
• Accomplishment
• Identity

Characters:

• First person account
• Varies in length
• May be subdivided into chapters
• Author is the main character
• Emotion-eliciting and reflective language
• Negatives often glossed over
• Often describes relationships
• Feelings and opinions of the author expressed from the author’s point of view
• Direct and indirect speech
• Biased focus on positive character traits
• Well developed character provides internal thought process and insights
• Author/subject portrayed as a whole person with strengths and weaknesses

Setting:

• Various settings fluctuate with the context of the author/main character’s experiences

Plot:

• The character may provide a setting in which s/he encounters problems through events and rising action leading to problem resolution
• May be divided into separate episodes, chapters, subplots
• May include flashback
• Often directly or indirectly implies cause and effect

Author’s craft:

• Narrative development and structure
• First person description
• Development of mood/tone, creation of tension, voice, point of view, imagery, figurative language (metaphors/similes) etc.
• Important elements related to history, characterization, literary artistry
• Accurately convey opinion
• Developing flashback
• Character is revealed through what is written, what is not written, and how it is written
• Includes narration
• Photos and illustrations augment meaning
• Includes some authentic, accurate, verifiable facts
• Subject
• Theme
• Unity

Grade Level Instructional Scope for COMPREHENDING the Genre and Text of Autobiography:

Booklists:

• Grade 4
• Grade 7

Access to the Documents:

Complete K-8 Genre Project
From the Michigan Department of Education

Complete K-8 Genre Booklist
From Kent Intermediate School District