AHA, Chapter 9 Bio/Memoir

 Biographies and memoirs  are narratives  of  a specific event or the lives of people throughout history.  Biographies and  memoirs  have several sub categories under the genre  in itself. I never realized how many different types of  biographies and memoirs  exist . There are several important aspects  of these books that  are essential in  making  sure that the books are not only accurate  but that they honor the person  that the story is being told about.
 In order to assure that these books are   written with quality there are  five aspects  to these stories that need to be  the main focus for the author. the  first  is the  accuracy and  social details. The  details  in the  story must  be  facts and   the  sources of the  facts must  be  noted. It  is very important that the author integrates the  facts into the  story line in a seamless matter. The  facts  must  be linked to the subject's accomplishments and  should be vivid and accurate. Then  comes the portrayal of the subject. While writing the story the author must be sure to honor the subject by  avoiding stereotypes, paying close attention to  the development of the character and making sure to make the subject multidimensional. Next is the style, the author has to  make sure the story is comprehensible and engaging while  paying close attention to the explanation of the complex topics that  tend to arise in these types of stories. Then there is theme , there is always an underlying theme which tends to highlight the special qualities of the subject being portrayed . The final aspect for biographies for children's books   the illustrations. The illustrations   must  be  used to help the children be able to understand the time period and place of the subject. they are also used to help the reader  understand the character of the subject. 

      One  idea  that I really liked from this   chapter was to use  biographies and memoirs to help the students study a time period or era  to help students gain an understanding of the people from that time and  learn more about the  struggles faced, the  events going on  during the period and learn about the people in general. In stead of  having  students read a chapter of their history  or science books they  could read about a specific person fro the period to become experts on their person them present their person to the class. the class could  take notes on each person and then have a test on the  different people they learned about the  the accomplishments of each person.