To identify the basic text structure of autobiography, i.e.

introduction (setting the scene), event or events (chronological order) and conclusion (e.g. the difference this made to my life). To revise the features of a recount.

An autobiography is a recount of events in someones life, as told by that person. An autobiographical recount has three parts to it:
The first part is an introduction to what happened; The second part tells you what actually happened; The third part is the conclusion. Read the following extracts carefully and try to decide what they actually are:

As for me- the grass grew longer, and more sorrowful, and the trees were surfaced like flesh, and girls were nor more to be treated lightly but were creatures of commanding sadness, and all the journeys through the valley were now made alone, with passion in every bush, and the motions of wind and cloud and stars were suddenly for myself alone, and voices elected me of all men living and called me to deliver the world, and I groaned from solitude, blushed when I stumbled, loved strangers and bread and butter, and made long trips through the rain on my bicycle and the poems I made, which I never remembered, were the first and last of that time.

I was set down from the carriers cart at the age of three; and there with a sense of bewilderment and terror my life in the village began. The June grass, amongst which I stood, was taller than I was, and I wept. I had never been so close to grass before. It towered above and all around me, each blade tattooed with tiger-skins of sunlight. It was knifeedged, dark and a wicked green, thick as a forest and alive with grasshoppers that chirped and chattered and leapt through the air like monkeys.

When darkness fell, and the huge moon rose, we stirred to a second life. Then boys went calling along the roads, wild slit-eyed animal calls, Walt Kerrys naked nasal yodel, Boneys jackal scream.As soon as we heard them we crept outdoors, out of our stifling bedrooms, stepped out into moonlight warm as the sun to join our chalk-white, moon-masked gang. Games in the moon. Games of pursuit and capture. Games that the night demanded.

In pairs,decide in which order the texts come and give reasons for your choices.

Use flipchart to record feedback!

Key points in an autobiography:

An introduction, which sets the scene

a recount of events

Past tense

Describes events in the order in which they happen

Episodes may end with a closing statement

To identify the basic text structure of autobiography, i.e. introduction (setting the scene), event or events (chronological order) and conclusion (e.g. the difference this made to my life). To revise the features of a recount.