Lesson Construction Template: The Story Of My Life

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Lesson Construction Template

Introduction and Objective

If you were to write a book about your life, so far, what would you include? What events, details and people have been important to you? You might write about riding a bike for the first time, or a favorite family vacation. Maybe you would write about scoring your first goal in a soccer game.

Now imagine if one of your parents wrote a book about your life. They might include your first words, first steps, the first time you saw fireworks. Even though you are writing about the same topic, you, the books would turn out differently with different facts. It all depends on your point of view.

Today’s lesson will look at why that happens and how you as a reader can

Now, imagine for a moment you have been assigned to write an essay about Helen Keller. You find an autobiography called The Story of My Life written by Helen Keller. You also find a biography of Helen Keller by Mary Wilkes called A Remarkable Life. So which do you choose?

Even though books have similar, or this case, the same, topic, that does not guarantee you will get the same information from both books. Biographies include mostly facts and are researched by an author and checked to make sure that there is evidence to support everything they write. Facts can be proven true with evidence.

Autobiographies contain facts too, but they are accounts of events in an individual’s life and even though they try to stick to the facts, often their own opinions are in the text too. An opinion is how a person feels about something. Writing an autobiography can be a personal thing and there will be a lot more words about feelings and emotions.

In the end, you will want to look at BOTH books for the information you will need. In the following activity pretend you are researching for that essay. Decide if the information is something you could find in an autobiography, a biography or

Some one was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness, as of something forgotten- a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free!

-From The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

For the final activity, you will compare and contrast the two texts. They will be available to look back at as you work.

Link:https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2014/08/26/09/28/hand-pump-427770_640.jpg

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Summary

There are many other examples of authors writing about similar topics and getting different results. Two soldiers fighting on opposite sides during the Civil War would have written letters home with different views of the same battle. In opinion columns in newspapers, people with different political views may write about the same topic with very different opinions. Watch for examples in your day to day life; you will find more than you think! Be sure to review your notes in your digital notebook and add any learning strategies from today you found