How to Write An Autobiography

Or at least teach someone else to

For years when I was employed as a reading specialist, I would also teach full group writing lessons in the classrooms. I had many teachers I worked with who was intimidated by teaching writing. I started to make assignment sheets just for organizational purpose. One assignment for about three years was an autobiography in fifth grade. It ended up being a traumatic experience with one fifth-grade class.

The idea originally came from an assignment given to me by my therapist in the late 90’s. She knew I could write and what she requested for was me to write my story — an autobiography.

The assignment sheets became work products of my teaching practices. I had discovered great value in writing out assignments for students. This also worked well because I had a written record of exactly what I had assigned to the students. I often just had the students write what struck me from what I was reading or from an assignment I had given myself. I am organic in that way. Sometimes a child centered discussion would dictate a writing focus which was always valuable but sometimes hard to track.

I wanted to incorporate choice but also have a format for a longer piece of writing. I wanted to scaffold for them so they were not intimidated by a longer piece. Writing about…