PSA projects; Autobiographies

Please complete and upload your PSA projects to Youtube. Send me the URL link in the comment section below of this post.
Here's some help uploading if you need it:

• Upload video to Youtube (written instructions)
• How to Upload Video to Youtube

If your group has completed this step, please work on the following:

• Read your autobiography
• Prepare for your autobiography discussion
• Work on your autobiography reading group project:
• Find a review online for your group to read/discuss about your book
• Type up discussion questions into a single group list
• Find biographical information about the author, particularly info that is NOT covered in the book you are reading
• Start your optional (extra credit) non-fiction autobiography assignment (see below)

During the last 5 - 10 minutes of period 7, we will screen these film projects.

Student PSA's

• Tamaron, Karina, Isabella
• Alexis, Emily, Liana
• Sara, Carina, Alex, Kyra
• Thalia, Dan'nae
• Isiah, Nasmere, Sammy
• Jocelyn, Ellie
• Azana, Serita

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.

Extra Credit Projects are due by end of the marking period. But the sooner done, the better.

HOMEWORK: Continue reading your autobiography. Aim to complete by next week.