Autobiographies; Reading Club Project; Comic History

During period 7, please gather in your reading groups. Discuss your reading, then retire to the lab to work on and gather information for your Book Club project:

• An author bio (including the book's summary)
• A copy of the book's review
• A list of discussion questions
• A list of resources
• Autobiography extra credit writing
• Research Comic Art & Graphics history here. Read and take notes (see graphic organizer: KWL chart) on parts 1 - 4. 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY Extra Credit

Autobiographies, of course, are stories by writers about the writer's life or culture. You've probably been asked over the years to do a lot of these in English or creative writing classes. Even science, history, and language courses tend to throw this exercise at you. Writers should write what they know, after all, so who else knows your own life better than you?

This is an extra credit assignment because we've done similar assignments before. There are a few options for this, so here they are:

Some questions/prompts:

• What is interesting about the region where you were born or raised? How does your family history relate to the history of this region? Did your family come to that region for a reason?
• Write about your culture. Culture in this broad case is "the overall way of life, including the customs that come from your family's values and beliefs. Culture includes the holidays you observe, the customs you practice, the foods you eat, the clothes you wear, the games you play, the special phrases you use, the language you speak, and the rituals you practice."
• Think about the ways your family celebrates or observes certain days (birthdays), events (vacations, graduations, or holidays), and months or seasons. Tell your audience about these special moments. You could also write about your travels. For example: "What was the most special gift you ever received? What was the event or occasion surrounding that gift? Is there a certain food that you identify with a certain day of the year? Is there an outfit that you wear only during a special event? Have you ever ridden on a horse carriage? What about a hay wagon? A donkey or elephant? What about a limousine, train, mountain bike, eighteen-wheel truck, tractor, police car, power boat, sailboat, or ski lift? Where have you vacationed? How did this trip change or influence you as a human being?
• If you'd like, you can complete this project as a documentary. It need not be written traditionally, but you could make a short film of your experiences. Here's a student example of something you could do: Teen Point of View: Teens Around the World (2010) by former SOTA student Kadisha Phillips and Jack Scardino Travel Bowling. You could interview and record a member of your family, or even interview and film yourself! The possibilities are endless.

Tips/Advice:

• Your life is more interesting than you think it is. Enjoy telling a story about yourself.
• Use all your creative writing skills to tell your story. It's not the events that are necessarily important but how the story is told. Use imagery. Write well. Craft.
• Just like your biography project, the autobiography project should have a beginning, middle, and end. It should have dialogue and description and reflection.

HOMEWORK: Aim to complete your autobiography books (reading) by Monday, May 2. Complete reading and taking notes on Comic History (1-4). See above for link. Bring your notes to our next class.