The traditional autobiography writing project is given a twist as students write alphabiographies - recording an event, person, object, or feeling associated with each letter of the alphabet.

What is a “life” when it’s written down? How does memory inform the present? Why are autobiographies and memoirs so popular? This course will address these questions among others, considering the relationship between biography, autobiography, and memoir and between personal and social themes. We will examine classic authors such as Mary Rowlandson, Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and Mark Twain; then more recent examples like Tobias Wolff, Art Spiegelman, Sherman Alexie, Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Edwidge Danticat, and Alison Bechdel.

A rubric in student language written for elementary students to self-assess their autobiographies.

This lesson is meant to play with the genre of autobiography. It introduces two types of autobiography (reflective and factual) and asks the students to compare and contrast them. Students prepare to write their own autobiography, in the style they prefer. This is a modification of a lesson plan originally created for an intermediate-level Spanish course by Frances Matos Schulz, Jun Takahira, Yoko Hama, Camille Braun, Olga Salazar Pozos, and myself. 

A checklist in student language used by elementary students to self-assess their autobiographies.

A rubric in student language written for elementary students to self-assess their autobiographies.

This work (Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein) is free of known copyright restrictions.

What is a “life” when it’s written down? How does memory inform the present? Why are memoirs so popular? This course will address these questions and others, considering the relationship between biography, autobiography, and memoir and between personal and social themes. We will closely examine some recent memoirs: Tobias Wolff’s This Boy’s Life, Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father, Edwidge Danticat’s Brother, I’m Dying, Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel, and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home. Students will write two brief papers: a critical essay and an experiment in memoir.
As a “Sampling,” this class offers 6 units, with a strong emphasis on close reading, group discussion, focused writing, and research and presentation skills.

Complementary to 21L.001. A broad survey of texts - literary, philosophical, and sociological - studied to trace the growth of secular humanism, the loss of a supernatural perspective upon human events, and changing conceptions of individual, social, and communal purpose. Stresses appreciation and analysis of texts that came to represent the common cultural possession of our time. Enrollment limited. HASS-D, CI.
Readings this semester ranging from political theory and oratory to autobiography, poetry, and science fiction reflect on war, motives for war, reconciliation and memory. The readings are largely organized around three historical moments: the Renaissance and first contacts between Europe and America (Machiavelli, Cortés, Sahagún); the European age of revolutions (Voltaire, Blake, Williams); the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery (Stowe, Whitman, Lincoln). Readings from the twentieth-century include poetry by Lowell and Walcott and fiction by Ondaatje and O.S. Card.

In this project, students will describe and illustrate events from their own lives and find another person to provide another description of those same events. Students will then compare and contrast the two descriptions. The goal of the project is for students to recognize the ways that perspective can influence storytelling, an important thing to consider when analyzing events in history.

This multiple day lesson focuses on Booker T. Washington’s life as a slave and as a free man trying to receive an education.  Students will read chapters 1-4 of the text to gain an understanding of the obstacles that Booker T. Washington encountered and what motivated him to pursue his education.  Students will identify the central ideas in the text and participate in a discussion which will inform their routine writing. Image source: "Bookert T Washington" by Harris & Ewing from the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, Library of Congress.

This collection uses primary sources to explore Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

Description:

Original text written by Leonor López de Córdoba (c.1362-1430)

Spanish modernized by María-Milagros Rivera Garretas

Guided-reading edition prepared by Christopher C. Oechler

The students will create a woven scrapbook exploring and weaving different genres: poetry, narrative, expository/informative and argumentative/persuasive. In preparation for the book students will need to address literacy, rights and self advocacy. This lesson will pull into current events in the local community and make connections to global scale. As an extension teachers can digitize pieces from the individual books and tie into a longer documentary piece.

In this project, students will think about the meaning of history by describing and illustrating several events from their own life, finding a witness to provide another description of one of those events, and thinking about the similarities and differences between the two descriptions. 

This course explores the forms, contents, and context of world traditions in dance that played a crucial role in shaping American concert dance. For example, we will identify dances from an African American vernacular tradition that were transferred from the social space to the concert stage. We will explore the artistic lives of such American dance artists as Katherine Dunham, Pearl Primus, and Alvin Ailey along with Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, George Balanchine, and Merce Cunningham as American dance innovators. Of particular importance to our investigation will be the construction of gender and autobiography that lie at the heart of concert dance practice, and the ways in which these qualities have been choreographed by American artists.

This collection uses primary sources to explore Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.