Time Of Your Life

Fall is such a great time of year to have students write autobiographies. I understand that there is a big push to have students write about the nonfiction pieces that we are analyzing together in class. I get that. But let’s be honest, sometimes you just want your students to write. You want the words, sentences, and paragraphs to come pouring out of them. What better way to do that than to have them write about themselves. 

Yeah! My favorite topic...ME! 

Plus, I get the added bonus of finding out more about my kiddos. Teachers know that the better they understand where their students come from, the more equipped they are to reach them. With that in mind, I created a pre-planning journal for my students to use as the first step in gathering notes and information that they will eventually turn into their autobiography.

I am offering it as a Freebie on TPT.

It includes a take home portion where students interview a family member and concludes with questions about their future goals and dreams.

As always, I like to begin new topics with a song or video clip to get students thinking 
about bigger themes and ideas. 

I play Green Day’s Good Riddance video.

       

I ask students to think about what message they think the songwriter was trying to convey.  Students write ideas down on sticky notes and then we have a discussion afterwards.

Our interactive map might look 
something like this.

This is my attempt to get students thinking at a deeper level beyond, “I love my DS and recess”.