← Speeches & Workshops

Autobiographical Stories

or LEARNING TO TELL OUR STORY

One complaint that many children have when they face a blank piece of paper is that they don't know what to write about. Every teacher has heard the whining and forlorn chorus of voices; they have seen the fidgeting and lack of work. Yet every child's life is filled with stories waiting to be told. Each day is an adventure if viewed through the correct lens. (If Alexander Solzhenitsyn can write a full-length novel about one day in the life of Ivan Denisovich, it seems that each child should be able to fill a few pages from their life!) The trick is finding a way to mine the rich life that every human experiences. How do you inspire kids to want to tell their story? How do you help them to see the miracles and tragedies hidden in everyday existence? The truth is that everyone wants to be heard, everyone wants to tell his or her story. Who we are are the stories we tell. We are telling stories constantly, to ourselves, to our family, to everyone we meet. Every time we open our mouths we are telling stories. By using oral language development as a step towards reading and writing we play to our students’ strengths. The following lesson plans are guaranteed to motivate most every child to write, even the hard to reach student. Early elementary and adult education classes have all produced excellent work, beyond the required number of pages, when properly stimulated. (Of course the following lesson plan will need to be adapted broadly for different grade levels, but it has been used successfully with students grade two through twelve.) Based on the model of the writing process, first take some time with "deep memory" and oral presentation. If students can think it through and talk about it before they come to the printed page then their thoughts and ideas are much clearer. This oral process is an extended form of prewriting that produces amazing results. Tell it then write it. Start by modeling what you are asking them to produce. Tell a personal story, or read aloud an exciting passage from your favorite autobiography. Discuss autobiographies and how other people's lives can inspire and inform our own. Who are your heroes and role models? This is of the utmost importance! I am asking every teacher who uses this lesson plan to first tell a story from your life. It is important that students have good models of what makes a good story. Next, ask students to choose a partner and to sit in front of him or her. Students are then given prompts to spark vivid images and asked to take turns telling each other stories. The way it works is this: Ask one student to be the listener and the other to be the speaker. They will switch roles about half way through. Ask the listener to repeat after you when you read the prompt. This way the speaker hears the prompt twice and has more time to formulate a response. Ask the speaker to respond to the prompt with whatever comes to mind. They should simply begin speaking, telling the listener any tidbit of information or story that comes to mind. At this point they do not need complete stories, the goal is just to spark their memory. Give them only one or two minutes to respond then ask for silence (or ring a bell or clap twice or flick the lights, somehow signal the end.) The idea here is to simple open the floodgates of vivid memory. Read a second prompt. The same listener repeats the prompt and the speaker responds. Give each speaker four to seven prompts before asking them to switch roles. Repeat the process for the new speaker and listener. Following are two sets of prompts, but feel free to write your own. Make sure they are general enough to elicit a response from everyone, yet specific enough to get vivid images. Knowing your class and their common experiences, create prompts that will elicit a variety of responses. Tell me about your favorite aunt or uncle or some other relative. Tell me about a pet that you loved or some other animal you knew. Tell me about a family vacation, where you went and what you did. Tell me about your first day of school or some early school day. Tell me about your favorite food and the last time that you ate it.

Tell me about your grandma, grandpa or some other older person that you have known. Tell me about your favorite teacher and why you liked him or her. Tell me about a family holiday (x-mas, Hanukah, etc.) and what you do that is special. Tell me about your favorite game and how to play it; describe the last time you played it. Tell me about your favorite smell and the last time that you smelled it. (Notice the questions are about character, setting and plot.) After each student has had a chance to participate, ask him or her to free-write about their memories. Give them a limited amount of time and ask them to simply jot down a few sentences about each memory. They could also respond to their partner's memories if it reminded them of similar memories. Do not write down what your partner said, but if your partners story about their pet reminded you of your pet jot down a few notes about your pet. Next time they say, "I don't know what to write about," remind them that they have five or ten ideas on one sheet! If your class is a "writing workshop," ask the students to keep these notes in their writing folders for future projects. The next step is to ask them to choose their favorite short memory and to expand on it through what I call a deep memory. Have the students move so they are near their partner again. After they remember their story they will tell it to their partner, but this time with more detail. Explain to them the process of "deep memory" and how you will use this technique to help them recall important events and characters from their chosen life story. Deep memory is simply a tool for unlocking long "forgotten" details from the past using deep breathing and relaxation to clear the mind. Before you begin the process, ask everyone to sit up straight, close his or her eyes and begin to breathe deep quiet breathes. "Breathe in as much air as you can, quietly, hold your breath for one second, and then breathe out all of your air. Empty your lungs, without a sound, and hold the out breathe for one second. Continue to breathe like this at your own pace, breathe in and hold, breathe out and hold. Take ten deep breathes like this, in and hold, out and hold. With each breath relax a little more. RELAX. RELAX. Feel the breathe breathing you. Clear your mind. Think only about your breathing. And relax, relax." (Be quiet for a moment.) After they are fully relaxed, ask them to enter into their chosen memory. "Go back into that time. (Pause) First, I want you to be inside your body at that time. Were you bigger or smaller? What did your body feel like? What were you wearing? What were your feelings? (Pause) Look at the other characters in your story. Who else was there? Look them over one at a time. See each of the characters for a moment in your mind's eye. Think about all the things you know about them. (Pause) Now, be inside that place. Where did that story take place? Be in that place, look around you. What do you see? What does it feel like? Is it warm or cool? Light or dark? Moist or dry? Are there any unusual smells or sounds? Be in this place. (Pause) Now let the events unfold. Where does this story begin? Build towards the most important point. Where is a good place to end this story? For the next few minutes of silence, re-live this story. (Long pause) If you are finished begin to attach words to these feelings and images, but stay with the feelings and images. Create a clear beginning, middle, and a clear end. (Pause) Remember the story again, run through it in more detail. (Pause) This time imagine yourself telling the story, hold onto the images but focus on the words. (Long pause) If you need more time take it, keep your eyes closed. But, when you have the story locked in, come back into the present and open your eyes. (Pause) Take another minute and finish up. When you are finished open your eyes so we know when to go on. (Pause) OK, open your eyes." (Clap twice.) Ask them to turn to their partner and tell their story, taking turns. When each person is finished, their partner should give them one compliment: My favorite part was _______________, because ________________. And ask one question: Could you tell me more about _______________? You may wish to write these sentences on the board. Next, give them a sizable block of time to make a rough draft of their story. Remind them that at this point spelling, grammar and punctuation are not as important as they will be later. They should be trying to get their ideas down on paper. If they seem to finish early ask them to re-read it and add details, elaborate. If they get stuck, invite them to close their eyes and briefly review their memory. When they finish their first draft, ask them to trade papers with a new partner. As they read their new partner's paper they should focus on the strengths only at this point. They are not EDITING yet, but only looking at the clarity of ideas. Ask them to fill in the blanks on two of the following sentences:

When I read ________, I felt _________, because _____________. I would like to more about _______________. I knew ______________ was changing when _____________.

(These are only sample questions that are geared towards measuring emotional impact, encouraging elaboration, and noting plot development. Carefully worded questions could be written to encourage any aspect of story writing from setting and character development, to foreshadowing and resolution. Students could also fill in the blanks on their own stories.) Remind students that the writing process is circular and not linear; at any point they can go back to "deep memory," (prewriting), or free writing or rewriting. But now is a good time to move ahead to editing. The editing process can be done individually, in pairs, or in cooperative groups. It is usually best to get at least one other person to proof read a piece of writing. If done with a partner, they should simply trade papers, look over their partner's paper and circle each mistake. If the students have been taught proofreaders' symbols, they should be encouraged to use them. Or they could make notes in the margins on recommendations for corrections. It should be left up to the writer to actually correct the mistakes so they learn not to repeat them. Editors should focus on spelling, grammar and punctuation. If done in small cooperative groups, the papers could be passed to the left three separate times with each round of editing given a certain focus: the first paper received should be checked for spelling (with plenty of dictionaries available); the second paper received should be checked for errors in punctuation; and the third paper received should be checked for grammatical errors with emphasis on run-ons, fragments, verb tense, and other common mistakes. This way three people review each paper and each student checks three different papers. It also helps students learn what kinds of mistakes to look for in their own work. Allow students one last chance to make any revisions in their story, before making a final draft. Ask them to check and double check their paper one last time before turning it in for a grade. The next step could be an oral presentation of their work. Since so much emphasis has been put on the writing process, students could be encouraged to read aloud from their papers. Or, the teacher could read aloud a couple of the better works and ask the students to guess who wrote it. Another option is to allow students to tell, not read, their stories with dramatic interpretation. This lesson could be collected into a class book, be an introduction to a literature unit on autobiographies and biographies or introduce a unit on family stories and oral histories.

(This is a second or third draft of an article I plan to publish. If you have any suggestions for clarifying or expanding this article I would appreciate any and all comments. Also, if you would be willing to send me a few copies of some of your students’ work I would be grateful. Allow me to thank you in advance.)

To involve higher level thinking skills, ask them to EVALUATE their stories based on differing standards. Which is funniest? Which has the most feeling? Which has the most action? Which is the oldest? They could also evaluate their partner's stories and discuss where they agree and disagree. They could also compliment their partners on their favorite stories or parts of stories. Be sure to keep ALL commentary positive in these early stages.

PAGE

PAGE 1 Brian "Fox" Ellis * Fox Tales International P.O. Box 10800 * Peoria, IL 61612 * Phone 309-689-8000* www.foxtalesint.com