Memoirs, Personal Narratives, &
Autobiographies
Created by N. Guerra
Modified by: C. Cordova
•What are the
structural patterns and
features of literary
nonfiction?
• An autobiography is a TRUE story about someone’s WHOLE life
and is written and narrated by the person it’s about.
Making Connections:
Have you ever read a book or
seen a movie about a real-life
person? Explain.
Think-Turn and Talk!
• A memoir is a TRUE story about PART of someone’s life and is
written and narrated by the person it’s about. It could be just
about their childhood, their adolescent (teenage) years, their
adult life, or their life in old age.
• A personal narrative is a TRUE story about ONE EVENT in
someone’s life, like their first time experiencing something, facing a
fear, being successful at something challenging, or overcoming an
obstacle. Personal Narratives follow the story mountain diagram.
These are like your small moment stories.
Making Connections:
Has your teacher ever asked
you to write a personal narrative?
Explain.
Think-Turn and Talk!!
• “Literary” means “qualities of literature”. That means that even
though autobiographies, memoirs, and personal narratives are TRUE
like nonfiction texts, they have qualities like fiction, such as:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Themes
1st person Point of View
Figurative Language
A narrator/ protagonist
Setting
Author’s Purpose
Narrator’s /character reactions to events
Plot (personal narratives)
Narrator experiences changes
Reflection/ Lessons learned
Time period is the past
Text structure is chronological/ sequential
So, literary nonfiction
is REAL like expository text,
but looks like FICTION?
Interesting!
• What is the setting?
• What is the point of view?
• Did the author use
figurative language?
• Did the narrator react to
an event?
• How does the narrator
feel?
• What is the theme?
• What is the text structure?
Let’s discuss as a class!!!!
CPQ: How is this text like fiction?
• “Your abuelito is dead, Papa says early one morning in my room. Esta
muerto, and then as if he just heard the news himself, crumples like a
coat and cries, my brave Papa cries. I have never seen my Papa cry and
don’t know what to do.
• I know he will have to go away, that he will take a plane to Mexico, all
the uncles and aunts will be there, and they will have a black-and-white
photo taken in front of the tomb with flowers shaped like spears in a
white vase because this is how they send the dead away in that country.
• Because I am the oldest, my father has told me first, and now it is my
turn to tell the others. I will have to explain why we can’t play. I will
have to tell them to be quiet today.
• My Papa, his thick hands and thick shoes, who wakes up tired in the
dark, who combs his hair with water, drinks his coffee, and is gone
before we wake, today is sitting on my bed.
• And I think if my own Papa died what would I do. I hold my Papa in my
arms. I hold and hold and hold him.”
Chapter titled, “Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark”
• STAAR Question Stem:
•What can the reader tell about the
narrator’s feelings for her father?
•Think-Turn and Talk with a partner.
•Please write a brief answer in your
Cornell Notes.
• What is the setting?
• What is the point of view?
• Did the author use figurative
language?
• Did the narrator react to an
event?
• How does the narrator feel?
• What is the theme?
• What is the text structure?
Let’s discuss as a class!!!!
Personal Narrative
CPQ: How is this text like fiction?
• “We paraded out into the yard where we, the sixth graders,
walked past all the other grades, to stand against the back fence.
Everybody saw me. Although they didn’t say out loud, “Man, that’s
ugly,” I heard the buzz-buzz of gossip and laughter I knew was
meant for me.
• And so I went, in my guacamole-colored jacket. So embarrassed, so
hurt, I couldn’t even do my homework. I received C’s on my quizzes,
and forgot the state capitals and the rivers of South America, our
friendly neighbors. Even the girls who had been friendly blew away
like loose flowers to follow the boys in neat jackets.”
• ~Excerpt from “The Jacket” by Gary Soto
• STAAR Question Stem:
• Read the following sentence from the selection.
• “I received C’s on my quizzes, and forgot the
state capitals and the rivers of South America,
our friendly neighbors.”
• From this sentence, the reader can conclude that—
•Think-Turn and Talk with a partner.
•Please write a brief answer in your Cornell
Notes.
• What is the point of view?
• Did the author use
figurative language?
• How does the narrator
feel?
• What makes this example
so different from the first
two?
• What is the text structure?
Let’s discuss as a class!!!!
CPQ: How is this text like fiction?
• “It is with a kind of fear that I begin to write the history of my life. I have, as it
1 were, a superstitious hesitation in lifting the veil that clings about my childhood like
a golden mist. The task of writing an autobiography is a difficult one. When I try
to classify my earliest impressions, I find that fact and fancy look alike across the
years that link the past with the present. The woman paints the child's experiences
in her own fantasy. A few impressions stand out vividly from the first years of my
life; but "the shadows of the prison-house are on the rest." Besides, many of the
joys and sorrows of childhood have lost their poignancy; and many incidents of
vital importance in my early education have been forgotten in the excitement of
great discoveries. In order, therefore, not to be tedious I shall try to present in a
series of sketches only the episodes that seem to me to be the most interesting and
important.
•2 I was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, a little town of northern Alabama.
•3 The family on my father's side is descended from Caspar Keller, a native of
Switzerland, who settled in Maryland. One of my Swiss ancestors was the first
teacher of the deaf in Zurich and wrote a book on the subject of their education-rather a singular coincidence; though it is true that there is no king who has not had
a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.”
• ~Excerpt from “The Story of My Life” by Helen Keller
• STAAR Question Stem:
• Why did the author include
paragraph 2 the selection?
•Think-Turn and Talk with a partner.
•Please write a brief answer in your
Cornell Notes.
• Fictional adaptation means to take a TRUE story’s facts and use them
to make fiction. For example, The Diary of Anne Frank is TRUE and
considered a MEMOIR. In class, we’re going to read a FICTIONAL
ADAPTATION of that memoir because someone has taken the TRUTH
from Frank’s MEMOIR and turned it into a PLAY. As you know, a play
is considered fiction.
• Absolutely. Speeches use literary elements all the time, particularly
literary devices, such as figurative language and imagery.
Speeches use literary devices to help appeal to audiences. For
example, Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is FULL of
literary devices.
• I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true
meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all
men are created equal."
• I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of
former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit
down together at the table of brotherhood.
• I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state
sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of
oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
• I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content
of their character.
• I have a dream today.
• ~Excerpt from “I Have a Dream” by MLK
• Answer the Essential Question:
• What are the structural patterns and features of
literary nonfiction?
•Sentence stems to help you; use both.
• The structural pattern of literary nonfiction is...
• The features of literary nonfiction are...
• Think, turn, and talk to a partner.
• Please write a brief answer to end your notes.
For teacher use.
• What can the reader tell about the narrator’s feelings for
______________?
• Why did the author include paragraphs ____ and____ in the
selection?
• When _______ and the narrator ________, (people, audience,
spectators, witnesses, etc.) were______?
• Read the following sentence from the selection. (INSERT QUOTE
FROM TEXT) From this sentence, the reader can conclude that—
• The figurative language in paragraph __ helps the reader
imagine—
• The reader can best identify this selection as a memoir because it—
• The author organizes this selection by—
• What can the reader conclude about ____’s relationship with ____?
• ____ wrote this selection most likely to—
•Take out a sheet of paper and
prepare it for Cornell Notes.
•You will only copy the YELLOW
words!!
•Please write neatly and leave
space to answer questions.
For teacher use.
• (6.7, 7.7, 8.7) Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/ Literary
Nonfiction. Students understand, make inferences and draw
conclusions about the varied structural patterns and features of
literary nonfiction and provide evidence from text to support
their understanding.
• 6.7A (Supporting)-identify the literary language and devices used
in memoirs and personal narratives and compare their
characteristics with those of an autobiography.
• 7.7A(Supporting)-describe the structural and substantive
differences between an autobiography or a diary and a fictional
adaptation of it.
• 8.7A(Supporting)-analyze passages in well-known speeches for
the author’s use of literary devices and word and phrase choice
(e.g., aphorisms, epigraphs) to appeal to the audience.