Why Biographical Narrative?

1. Why Biographical Narrative? Department of Secondary Instruction Fontana Unified School District Aug. 2010

2. 2010 District Writing Benchmark #1 • The first district writing benchmark for grades 9 & 10 will ask students to write a biographical narrative • It will be administered on September 23rd & 24th

3. Why biographical? • The only form of narrative students will be asked to write on the CAHSEE is a biographical narrative • Since the district benchmarks are focused on preparing students to successfully pass the California High School Exit Examination, it makes sense that students are exposed to a formal, on-demand writing task of this nature. Other forms of narrative can and should be taught in the classroom at grades 9 and/or10 (personal, fictional and autobiographical).

4. From the CAHSEE prep document:

5. What exactly is a “biographical narrative?” • A biographical narrative is simply the recounting of a story from someone’s life. • The topic will generally give the student a general prompt in which they can choose to write about someone they know personally or from history. • Example: Write about someone who learned an important lesson from failure. How did he or she fail and what lesson was learned?

6. From CDE CAHSEE prep materials:

7. Whether writing a fictional or biographical narrative, the following things must be included in the narrative: • Relate a sequence of events and communicate the significance of the events to the audience. • Locate scenes and incidents in specific places. • Describe with concrete sensory details the sights, sounds, and smells of a scene and the specific actions, movements, gestures, and feelings of the characters; use interior monologue to depict the characters’ feelings. • Pace the presentation of actions to accommodate changes in time and mood. • Make effective use of descriptions of appearance, images, shifting perspectives, and sensory details.

8. SampleBiographical Narrative Prompt from CAHSEE Sample essays and scoring commentary follows in the next three slides. *Sample prompt and essay taken from CAHSEE ELA Released Test Questions 2008 (available online)

9. Example of an advanced student response (score=4)

10. Cont.

11. Scoring Commentary

12. Cont.

13. Cont.

14. Proficient (score 3) students response

15. Scoring Commentary

17. Score 2 (not proficient)

18. Scoring Commentary

19. The district benchmark will look like..

21. The district writing rubric is now aligned to the CAHSEE rubric and is based on a 4 point scale: • 4= Advanced • 3= Proficient • 2= Basic • 1= Below Basic (or Far Below Basic)

23. Sample Prompt #1 • Write a narrative about someone who had to overcome fear in order to achieve a goal. It could have been the fear of something physical or a psychological fear. The person about whom you write might be someone you know personally, such as a family member; it could also be someone you have studied from history.

24. Sample prompt #2 Write a narrative about someone you know personally, or a historical figure, who discovered something new. It might have been a physical discovery, such as the location of a new place, or it may have been a personal discovery, such as the love for a new food or kind of art. What made the discovery important for the person and how did it change their life or the lives of others?

25. Please: • -share and discuss this presentation with your team. • -share and discuss it with your students. • -discuss the components of a narrative essay. • -discuss the differences between fictional, autobiographical and biographical narratives. • -review the way the district biographical narrative provides students with the chance to write about people from their own lives or from history. • -discuss this writing assignment with your students’ social studies teacher(s).

26. Questions or concerns? • Meet with your grade level or department to discuss and share ideas first. • If you still have questions, please contact: • Nazle Spence (bedrnm@fusd.net) • Daniel Todd (todddj@fusd.net)