Autobiographical Incident
People write autobiographical stories not only to remember and share certain events in their lives, but also to make sense of them. Writing about our own experiences helps us to better understand how we have shaped the perspectives through which we view the world, how we have learned to be the people that we are becoming, and why we have chosen the paths that we are making. Revisiting past choices enables us to find life's lessons and face our futures with wisdom.
As we write our Autobiographical Incident essays, we will focus on the following features:
A Well-Told Story choosing an interesting event
building suspense
creating tension
A Vivid Presentation of Scenes and People showing vs. Telling: Letting readers "see" and "hear" the people and places
An Indication of the Significance making a point
There are two parts to this assignment. The first is a written essay, and the second is a visual enhancement of the essay which can be done in many different ways (IE. artwork).
Part 2
Bringing your Autobiographical Incident to Life:
Once you have finished your draft, you will be ready to work on bringing your composition to life with additional detail. Here are some examples you may choose from, but you are free to create your own ideas.
Draw or paint a picture of the incident.
Create a collage of images from your incident.
If humorous, create a comic strip of your incident.
Find several published poems and/or songs that relate to your experience.
Write your own poem or song inspired by the experience.
Interview other people who were involved in your experience and write about how their recollections may
differ from your own.
Think of at least two other significant incidents (see your original brainstorm) and write a separate
Autobiographical Incident composition for each then put together a book.
Make a video-get your friends and family to help you reenact the experience.
If you think of your own idea, tell me about it before you begin. Whatever you decide to do, be sure to present it in some kind of display that includes your written composition (collage example: mount composition in center of poster board and create collage all around it).
DUE DATES
Power Point Presentation
In preparation for reading Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, we will explore what life was like in the American South of the 1930s in an effort to more realistically understand the novel's characters. Our topics of research will include education, racial segregation, the economy, politics, religion, social class, food, art, recreation, etc. Each student, with a partner, will be assigned one topic to research and present to the class. They will create their presentation using the Microsoft Office Power Point program which we will learn in class.
DUE DATES
In groups, we will use Power Point presentations to teach the class about various literary tools used in poetry (personification, rhythm, meter, figurative language, tone, etc.). We will also be doing some research this semester, and you will organize your findings into a Power Point presentation.
For more on our research assignment...
Comparison - Contrast Essay
How is football like soccer? How are you different from your best friend, and what do you have in common? You answer questions like these all the time. Without being aware of it, you're comparing and contrasting. Your ability to recognize similarities (compare) and differences (contrast) is what lets you recognize your dog in a roomful of dogs, or define a word, or explain how the Civil War was different from all other American wars... A comparison-contrast essay is one kind of expository writing--writing that explains or gives information.
Remember:
Comparing means "seeing similarities."Contrasting means "seeing differences."Comparing is often used to mean both comparing and contrasting.Block Method
Subject 1: Example--Mrs. Jones
Feature 1: caring, sincere, kind
Feature 2: invites boy to her home, talks honestly
Feature 3: makes kid feel accepted
Subject 2: Sister Zoe
Feature 1: motherly
Feature 2: makes immigrant girl feel accepted
Feature 3: gives private lessons
Point-by-Point Method
Feature 1: kind to young people
Subject 1: Mrs. Jones (show examples)
Subject 2: Sister Zoe (show examples)
Feature 2: motherly, teacher
Subject 1: Mrs. Jones
Subject 2: Sister Zoe
Feature 3: makes outsiders feel accepted
Subject 1: Mrs. Jones
Subject 2: Sister Zoe
(Elements of Literature--Third Course p. 614, 616)
For this assignment, you will compare two objects or ideas and discuss their significant similarities and differences in an essay. We will work on this essay both at home and in class so you must transfer your work back and forth. If you are working on a computer, use a floppy disk (school computers do not have CD burners).
DUE FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30th
to see Steps for Writing a Comparison - Contrast Essay and due dates.Jane Schaffer Terms, Essay Format
During the Fall Semester, we focus on expressing and supporting our opinions through a large number of well-organized, cohesive paragraphs (see Issue Paragraph). Spring Semester composition expands that paragraph structure into an essay format that you will use in all of your Hart High English classes through 12th grade. Following the Jane Schaffer essay format will help you organize and present, and support your opinions clearly and effectively.
Literary Analysis Essay
You all have read stories and poems and then completed written assignments based on the story or poem you read. These written assignments were most likely to summarize what you read, or express whether or not you liked what you read, or perhaps describe the main character, etc. Now that you are in high school, you are ready to dive deeper into what you read: You are ready to analyze it from many different angles, searching for meaning that lies beneath the surface of the story or poem.
In your literary analysis essay, you will develop a thesis demonstrating some new understanding of what you have read. For example, characters in a story often take actions that are not fully explained--the author does not tell us what the character was thinking when they made that choice. However, if you carefully examine (analyze) everything you DO know about the character, you will often find that you can come up with your own understanding of why the character took that particular action--you have a new understanding of the character and the story.
You would then write an essay to present, develop, and support your new understanding of the character in a literary analysis essay. This essay is based completely on your opinions, but must be strongly supported by examples and quotes from the story to show how you came to your new understanding, or thesis, and that it is well-founded.
We will use the Jane Schaffer essay format to write a literary analysis essay.
To see assignment... 
Research Essay
Think of some of the things you are interested in...what do you do when you hear that something new has come out in that field of interest? You look into it; you find out more about it; you learn all you can about it, right? That's research, and you do it all the time. What you probably do not do all the time is organize the information you have gathered into a written essay, which is what we will do in class.
Our Spring Semester research will focus on gathering background information for The Odyssey. When Homer first told his epic tale, his listeners (the ancient Greeks) were already very familiar with the many gods, immortals, monsters, heroes, and locations his main character, Odysseus, encounters. He did not waste the audience's time with details they already knew, but now, nearly 3,000 years later, we do not already have the background information they had. If we want to truly enjoy the great adventures of The Odyssey, we need to find out more about it...we need to do some research!