Alphabetical Autobiographies

Lesson Plan for Writing Autobiographies and Memoirs

Jun 12, 2008 Dulcinea Norton-Smith

When setting a school project to write an autobiography this lesson plan both provides prompts and makes a sometimes dry task into a fun one.

This lesson plan can be adapted to use with any age as it is both fun enough to keep younger children interested and practical enough for high school learners to benefit. For the very young learner (age 6 – 8) it is a useful tool to also prompt them to think about the alphabet and what letters words begin with.

How Does an Alphabet Autobiography Work?

Each of the twenty six letters must be used in sequence to create the autobiography. The autobiography can be one page, twenty six paragraphs or twenty six pages depending upon the size of the project and the age of the student.

The letters are used to inspire memories to add to the autobiography.

Tips for success:

  • Decide in advance what word count and format to set for the students
  • Decide whether to set the project as an autobiography (their whole life) or a memoir (can be about a more specific period of their life)
  • Allow the X word to be a word containing x not necessarily just those which begin with x
  • Suggest that the students first think of a word for each letter and then once this is done begin to fill in the blanks

A Short Example of an Alphabetical Autobiography

Here is a fictional and very brief example of how an Alphabetical Autobiography could read.

My Aunt Eliza died on the day I was born. I was born in Canada in the December of 1978. When I was eleven we moved to France to be nearer to my Grandmother, Helena. When I was eighteen I enrolled at the Institute de Jaquard where my best friend, Kate, and I studied Life Drawing and Museum Studies. It was here that I met my future husband who was posing as one of our nude models. From the moment we met we felt a connection and by October of the following year my husband to be had proposed and shortly after Quentin and I were married. Robert, our first son, was born just eleven months later and two years after that saw the birth of our second son Sam. Until I had my boys I just didn't know what unconditional love was. When the boys were at high school my Aunt Victoria died. We inherited her house which prompted the family move to Wisconsin. The boys were not as excited as Quentin and I as they thought they would miss their friends but the lake near to our new house inspired their daydreams of yachting. We have lived in our Wisconsin dream house for five years now. With a house containing two adults, two teenage boys and a veritable zoo of pets, life is never quiet.

Reference:

With many thanks to Allison Anderson. Mother, teacher and creator of the original lesson plan which inspired this article.

The copyright of the article Alphabetical Autobiographies in Writing Memoirs is owned by Dulcinea Norton-Smith. Permission to republish Alphabetical Autobiographies in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
Alphabet Blocks, by mcconnors at morguefile Alphabet Blocks
   
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