Learning Resources
Required Resources
- Course Text: Literature and the Child
- Chapter 9, “Biography and Memoir” (you may skip “A Close Look at Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave,” pp. 286–288; “A Close Look at The Notorius Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, & Treachery,” pp. 289–290; and “A Close Look at Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream,” p. 292-293)
- Chapter 10, “Nonfiction”
- For this week’s Application, read one biography or one nonfiction book. When making your selection, choose a person for your biography or topic for your nonfiction book that is meaningful or significant to you. If you wish, refer to the booklists at the end of Chapters 9 and 10 (pp. 297–301 and pp. 326–329 of the course text). Make sure that your selection is classified as intermediate or adolescent (there will be an “I” or an “A” in parentheses next to the title).While making your selection, refer to the quality guidelines outlined in your text
Content Review
Directions:
- Respond to each item. Each response should be concise and between 2–3 paragraphs in length.
- Use MS Word to write your responses, and submit your answers to all three questions in one Word document.
- Copy and paste each question within the document, so that your Instructor can see which question that you are responding to.
- Identify and explain at least three differences and/or similarities between biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs.
- Your course text makes the following statement with regard to writing biographies: “As is true of historical fiction, accuracy is a complex criterion” (Galda, Sipe, Liang, & Cullinan, 2014, p. 283). Explain, in your own words, what you think is meant by this statement, whether or not you agree with it, and why.
- As Chapter 9 discusses, quality biographies possess some essential underpinnings. Choose someone about whom you would like to write a biography—someone that you know someone that you admire, someone that you are interested in, or even yourself. Then, thinking of the person that you have chosen, describe an example of each of the components listed below:
- Primary source material that you might use to help ensure accuracy
- At least one detail or description that would help the reader better understand the person and illustrate the social climate of the times that influenced that person’s life
- One defining characteristic or accomplishment of this person that would support the theme of your biography, such as love of family, triumph over adversity, achieving specific goals, demonstrating principles, struggle to realize talent and present an inner vision, or a life of dignity and strength that may have helped change the world one person at a time
- Whether you would cover the entire life of the person or a certain age and related events, and what drives your decision.
