Memoir/biography/autobiography

• Engels
• Further Education (Key Stage 5)

Goals for today 

Stucture in paper 2 responses 

Teams materials 

Paper 1 text type example and exploration questions 

Vocabulary acquisition 

Examiners' feedback on this text 

Plan a paper 1 

1. What text type is this? Give evidence which confirms your decision. 

2. Comment on the prison metaphor. 

3. Comment on the handwritten text and the interplay between that and the rest of the text. 

4. Why could you describe this text as didactic? What evidence do you have to support that idea? 

5. Note a mood word that you think applies to this text. Is there a change in mood? If so, explain. 

6. Note any lexical fields that you can find in the text. 

7. Note any metaphors that you can find. What is the effect? 

8. What is the effect of the first-person narration? 

Guiding question

Comment on the writer's values and assumptions. How does the writer's handwritten note complement the rest of the extract? 

Vera 

Tilly 

Annefleur

Eva 

Simar 

Guusje 

Luuk 

Viola 

Eliza

Joel 

Kristof

Juul 

Mitch 

Emma 

Goals for today 

Structuring and writing a response to a memoir extract 

Exploring the guiding questions 

Getting feedback on your thesis statement 

Getting feedback on your topic sentence 

Rate the word 1 to 4

1. I do not know the word, and I have never seen it before. 

2. I've heard or seen the word before, but I'm not sure what it means. 

3. I know the word and can recognise and understand it while reading, but I probably wouldn't feel comfortable using it in writing or speech. 

4. I know the word well and can use it correctly in writing or speech. 

Etymology 

Word of the day

Etymology (n) - the study of the origin and history of words, or a study of this type relating to one particular word

the suffix 'logy' is from Greek origins and means 'the study (of)'. For example biology

Lowery Sims said that the root of the word to curate is to care, and people love to talk about what that etymology means.

Non-fiction memoir 

A memoir is a non-fiction book that presents a firsthand retelling of a period in an author’s life. It does not document the memoirist’s entire life story but rather a selected era or a specific multi-era journey. Alternatively, a memoir may concern its author’s entire life but through a particular lens—such as the events leading up to and surrounding their professional career. As such, a memoir is comparatively focused when considered side-by-side with an autobiography.

Adapted: Masterclass.com 

Literary non-fiction: memoir 

Read the memoir.

Pick out a word from each paragraph that reflect the childhood feelings or choose your own descriptor. 

Two parts to the guiding question: 

1. Formulate the childhood feelings.

2. Identify techniques that convey these feelings. 

Childhood feelings 

Nervous

fear 

anxiety 

otherworldly 

incomprehension 

overwhelming 

 

Two parts to the guiding question: 

1. Formulate the childhood feelings.

2. Identify techniques that convey these feelings. 

Guiding question 

• There are two parts to the guiding question that need to be addressed in your response. 
  
• What are those 'parts'? 
  

Two parts to the guiding question: 

1. Formulate the childhood feelings.

2. Identify techniques that convey these feelings. 

Similes and metaphors 

• "hurts him as keenly as a cut on the arm"
  
• "like a man in an old Dutch painting" 
  
• "like a ship's hulls under pressure from the swell" 
  
• "the plain door a portal or time machine"
  
• "like moondust on an astronaut" 
  
• "like square-rigged sails"
  
• "oak chests were dark blocks the size of tombs" 
  

Two parts to the guiding question: 

1. Formulate the childhood feelings.

2. Identify techniques that convey these feelings. 

sensual imagery

• "spiky lighting rigs" 
  
• " rich bass clonk of the bolts" 
  
• "sudden breath of cold wind" 
  
• "door by the piano clicks open" 
  
• "cold in his clothes a trace of that other region" 
  
• "grandfather clock ticks implacably" 

Two parts to the guiding question: 

1. Formulate the childhood feelings.

2. Identify techniques that convey these feelings. 

euphemism/ vague language 

• ""elsewhere" 
• "other region" 
• "disappears into the other end" 
• "ceremonial rhythm" 
• "shutting the house up" 
• "from one room to another" 

Two parts to the guiding question: 

1. Formulate the childhood feelings.

2. Identify techniques that convey these feelings. 

Goals for today 

Structuring and writing a response to a memoir extract 

Exploring the guiding questions 

Getting feedback on your thesis statement 

Getting feedback on your topic sentence 

Rate the word 1 to 4

1. I do not know the word, and I have never seen it before. 

2. I've heard or seen the word before, but I'm not sure what it means. 

3. I know the word and can recognise and understand it while reading, but I probably wouldn't feel comfortable using it in writing or speech. 

4. I know the word well and can use it correctly in writing or speech. 

Eulogy 

Word of the day

Eulogy (n) - a formal speech or piece of writing praising a person or thing, esp a person who has recently died. 

Sharon gave the eulogy at her father's funeral at the request of his second wife, Emily.

Thesis statement 

Write a thesis statement that answers both parts of the guiding question. You must also include what your claim is regarding the childhood feelings about his home. 

Two parts to the guiding question: 

1. Formulate the childhood feelings.

2. Identify techniques that convey these feelings. 

Thesis statement 

Similes & metaphors 

sensual imagery - all senses 

Euphemism/ vague language 

other techniques that convey childhood feelings 

MPO

Multiple paragraph outline 

complete your MPO

- include your thesis statement

- your 3 topic sentences 

- sufficient evidence per paragraph topic ( at least 3) 

Each paragraph is a different topic not a different technique

Hook 

The name of the extract is stated

The author or originating source is given

The text type is clearly identified without elaboration

Where the text appeared is stated (if known)

When it was produced is stated (if known)

The content is discussed: what does the text actually say (brief summary)

The intended audience/reader is stated (if definable) 

The purpose(s) is stated

The social, cultural and temporal context is addressed (if available)

The thesis: what you find most important about the text (without elaboration) (main idea/main theme) & structure of your analysis is stated (global stylistic choices per paragraph) 

Introduction

Hook
The name of the extract	Extract from The Music Room
Author or source	William Fiennes
Text type	Literary non-fiction memoir
where appeared	The Music Room
when produced	2009
content discussed	The author describes the emotions he felt whilst growing up in a historic English Manor House and and the impact that experience had on him as a child.
intended audience	Readers who are interested in the life of William Fiennes/ readers who are interested the English Manor House where William Fiennes grew up.
purpose	entertain/ inform/ persuade/ convey the emotion of ...
social cultural & temporal context	published in 2009/ English heritage/ traditional/ conservative
Thesis statement
Plan of development

The infamous run-on sentence

Body paragraph 

1. Study the example extract from a BP
   
2. Construct your own BP for one of the topics you identified in your thesis statement. 
   
3. Get feedback from a peer on your paragraph. 

Chat GPT prompt 

You are a DP1 English literature HL student you have the following extract and guiding question. You have formulated this thesis statement... Give feedback on how to improve this thesis statement. Do not rewrite the thesis statement. 

Two parts to the guiding question: 

1. Formulate the childhood feelings.

2. Identify techniques that convey these feelings.