Autobiography Writing Project
The thing I absolutely LOVE about this project is that it includes having students interview their parents about before they were born and when they were little. It traces the student's lives from their parents finding out they were going to have a baby all the way up until their current age.
Students dive in one interview and piece of writing at a time. I usually start with the very earliest stage of their lives and work up to their current life. I send home an interview paper on the first day. They are supposed to interview their parents that night and return the information the next day. Then they use the questions and answers to create a paragraph that tells about their life. We repeat that process for several days, sending interviews and then writing the paragraph the next day. Toward the end, students can do their own work without needing to interview their parents. The result is a super sweet keepsake autobiography pocket book for each student to display.
I just LOVE this project so much! I learn a lot about each student and they learn about themselves as well. They take home a beautiful project that will be a keepsake for years to come.
This comes with so many different forms for different nationalities and looks of children.
Who is Books
This is another fun way to have students write about themselves and this is completely different from the last activity. The information in each is unique. First, I start by having the students write in 4 different ways about themselves. Here's what that looks like for me.
1. Bio Poem
This is a fun way for students to practice writing poetry without it being too challenging. This poem is a formula (just search bio poem in your search engine and it will pop up with directions for how to have students write this poem).
2. Hopes and Dreams (Goals)
Students write about things in school that they hope or dream for their year. This is basically a list of goals they want to achieve that are school-related.
3. One Little Word
Students choose one word to represent something they want to strive for this year. They also write about why they chose that word.
4. Favorites
Students write a list of favorites such as: color, number, sport, subject, animal, friend, etc.
Once the writing is done, I used AI to create book covers. Sometimes I have to play around with this for a little bit, but this is the basics of what I do:
Upload a picture of the front cover of a Who Was book from my library or on the web. I also upload a picture of one of my students and tell the prompt to create a Who Was style book. I tell it to name it using my student's first name. I also pick a theme if wanted. This time I had it create them in a sports pose playing their favorite sport and wearing their favorite color. That was about it. I made sure that it made the head big and the body small in each picture to match the actual artwork on these books.
Once I get an image, I save it and I upload it to a Powerpoint and center it on the right side of an 11x8.5 document. I type out the four pieces of writing (two on one slide and two on another). Then I print the writing front to back and print cover. I fold it all like a book and staple the single sheet inside the front cover and it's done. I hung these on the wall outside my classroom and got a lot of attention from other students and staff. Super fun...and free!
