A Biography is a detailed description or account of someone elses life written by someone other than the subject.

Read a biographical narrative of your choice and construct a response to the following tasks using evidence from the text. Presentation Format: A website, an E-book (look at Resources to find out how), a movie, a series of 6-8 blogs. Before you begin reading do some research on Biography as a literary genre and form responses to the following questions: Research: What are the conventions of biography? What are some of the stylistic elements commonly used in biographies? What are organizational features in texts? Now read your chosen biography and then answer the following questions using evidence from the text. Text Response: Why did the subject have a biography written about them? Who is the target audience?

Using evidence from the text construct a detailed timeline of the major events in the persons life. You will need to include a summary of each event/ achievement explaining When it happened: Who was involved: Where it took place: Why it was important: How it affected the persons life: What is your personal response to the text? Consider how you felt about the events in the text, whether your perception of the person changed, and what your interpretation reveals about your own attitudes and values Text Analysis: When answering these questions look back at your answers for the Research section: What were some of the stylistic elements you identified in your text? What effect do they have on the story presented? What effect did they have on you? What kinds of

organizational features were used in your text? What effect do they have on your chosen text? What kinds of issues were presented in the text? What did the biographer (author) have to say about them? Use examples from the text. How does the tone and language used by the author position you in regard to the issues presented? What do you think about these issues? Would you recommend this book to other people?

Extension: Construct a Venn Diagram to show the similarities and differences between Autobiographies and two other text types, i.e. Procedural writing, exposition, discussion, literary recount, review, narrative, etc. Task: Research Questions Text Response Questions Text Analysis Questions Extension Activity Bibliography documenting all sources used (Easy Bib) Completed

Suggested Texts: Text: On Warne: Shane Warnes Life Story Black Caviar: The Horse of a Life Time Katy Perry Beyonce Elizabeth Taylor: There is Nothing Like a Dame Marilyn: A Biography Malthouse: A Football Life The Master: A Personal Portrait of Bart Cummings Barassi: The Biography The Fastest Man Alive: The True Story of Usain Bolt Evil Angels Author: Gideon Haigh Gerard Whateley Noam Friedlander Andrew Vaughan Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince Norman Mailer Christi Malthouse Les Carlyon Peter Lalor Shaun Curtis

John Bryson