Room 22 Collection of Narrative Biographies
Below are the slides which Alexis presented at one of our Team Folau meetings. She talked through the slides and the ideas that stood out clearly for me were; Imagery, Character developments, and Historical consciousness.
I applied the knowledge and skills that I have gathered from the PD with Alexis in the classroom. Students were able to do narrative biographies of people from their families. Below are the samples of some of the student's work.
A biographical narrative contains biological information, physical descriptions, action details, anecdotes, and personal interpretations of the subject. Authors of biological narratives typically choose people or characters that have personal significance to them. The point or direction of the narrative outlines the personal impact the subject has in the author's life. In a biographical narrative, the author highlights certain details to develop an in-depth impression of the person. Sensory details replace direct explanations. The author creates an emotional impact with the narrative using specific and highly descriptive words and phrases.
Thoughts and summaries expand upon the details and emphasize the turning points in the narrative. Personal perspective is a key aspect of a biographical narrative. The thoughts of the author relate the turning points of the subject to their own life throughout the narrative. The introduction and conclusion of the narrative tie the elements of the story together and summarize the overall meaning.
Writing a biography Biography: a story about a person's life. Short Vs. Long biographies. Biographies can range in size and detail from just the basic details about a person, their birth and death, and what they accomplished or did all the way. It is a written account of the series of events that make up a person’s life. Biographies analyze and interpret the events in a person's life. They try to find connections, explain the meaning of actions, and make arguments about the significance of the person's accomplishments or life activities. They are often about historical figures, but they can also be about people still living. While researching the subject, you should collect all the basic facts of your subject’s life experience. These include Date and place of birth and death Family information Lifetime accomplishments Major events of life Effects/impact on society, historical significance.
In researching simply to find an individual to create a biography, you should first look to find an individual that is interesting to you. The more you are interested in the individual the more apt you will be to recreate this individual's life in a manner that is engaging to the reader once your biography is complete. Be sure to look into not only the obviously important facts. Depending on the amount of information you have you may display your findings simply in chronological order of the individual's life, or you may choose to travel out of chronological order and explain events in a piecemeal fashion to back up logic or reasoning as to why other events occurred within the person's life.
The following questions should be considered in your biography: Was there something in your subject’s childhood that shaped his/her personality? Was there a personality trait that drove him/her to succeed or impeded his progress? What adjectives would you use to describe him/her? What were some turning points in this life? What was his/her impact on history?
Writing guidelines In a biographical essay, you write about the life and personality of a person who actually lived. A biographical essay should have the following characteristics: a real-life subject, a thesis statement that states a specific idea about that person’s life and achievements, an account of one or more major events in the subject’s life, a description of the subject’s key character traits.Prewriting Choose your subject: Choose a person whose life seems especially appealing to you. Once you have decided on a subject, take notes about what you already know- about his or her life and personality. Gather information: Once you have reviewed what you know, think about what areas of this person’s life you would like to focus on. Then, write down some questions to help you direct your research. Draw conclusions: Based on your research, make some decisions about your subject’s personality. What did he or she value most? Is there a connection between your subject’s character traits and his or her role in history? Write a thesis statement: You have learned more about your subject and reflected on his or her life and personality. You are ready to write a thesis statement. George Washington was not a very imaginative man, but he had a practical, steady mind—a quality that was necessary to give stability to our new nation.Drafting Decide how to organize your writing. The simplest way to organize a biographical essay is to cover the main events of the subject’s life chronologically. Another type of organization focuses on a few important events in the person’s life, building up to the one that you think is most important.
Rubric for Self-Assessment Score 1 Score 2 Score 3 Score 4 Organization Shows lacks of organizational strategy Chooses an organization not suited to the topic Uses a reasonably clear organization which but occasionally includes less relevant information Supports the thesis with a series of logically ordered paragraphs creating a clear impression of a real-life person, organized chronologically, by order of importance, or by character trait 
Use of Language Writes incomplete sentences; uses language poorly; sounds confused; includes many Uses the same types of sentences without varying them; repeats words; includes many mechanical errors Uses some variety in sentence structure and vocabulary; includes few mechanical errors Varies sentence structure and vocabulary successfully; includes no or very few mechanical errors
Above: Collection of Samples of Narrative Biographies by Room 22 students.
One thing that surprised me was the application of figurative language in non fiction writings. I have been wondering how can we apply figurative languages in non fiction writings when they are more suited for fictional writing. I was proven otherwise when I was showed an example of simile been used in an narrative biography.
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