My Life Story

Curriculum Links

Learning Area: English
Year Level: Year 6
Australian Curriculum Reference:

• Language: ACELA1518 – Understand how authors often innovate on text structures and play with language features to achieve particular aesthetic, humorous and persuasive purposes and effects.
• Literature: ACELT1613 – Identify and explain how choices in language, for example modality, emphasis, repetition and metaphor, influence personal response to different texts.
• Literacy: ACELY1714 – Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, choosing and experimenting with text structures, language features, images and digital resources appropriate to purpose and audience.

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WALT (We Are Learning To)

• Understand the features and structure of autobiographical writing.
• Use language to express significant personal memories and themes.
• Begin to plan and draft our own autobiography using clear and purposeful language.

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Lesson Duration

30 Minutes

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Learning Intentions

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

• Identify key language features of autobiographical writing.
• Brainstorm important personal memories and choose one to write about.
• Begin drafting a short, themed autobiographical paragraph.

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Success Criteria

Students will be successful when they can:

✅ Identify at least three features of autobiographical writing (e.g. first person, emotive language, past tense).
✅ Brainstorm a significant personal memory connected to a theme (e.g. resilience, change, belonging).
✅ Write a coherent paragraph about this memory using autobiographical conventions.

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Resources Needed

• Lined writing book or digital writing tool
• Whiteboard or chart paper
• Dyslexia-friendly printed reference sheet (OpenDyslexic font if printed) with word bank and structure outline
• Personal memory brainstorm prompt cards
• Images or objects for memory prompts (optional for visual learners)
• Highlighters or coloured pencils for editing

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Lesson Structure

1. Introduction (5 mins)

Hook:
Teacher shares a 1-minute autobiographical story titled "The Day I Fell in the River" (modelled with humour and clear language features).

Discussion Prompt:

• What made this story feel personal?
• What clues did you hear that showed it was an autobiography?

Mini Whiteboard Brainstorm (if available):
Students write or draw what they think the word “autobiography” means.

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2. Explicit Teaching (7 mins)

Focus: Features of Autobiographical Writing
Use a visual anchor chart or projected slide to explain:

• First person voice (I, me, my)
• True events from one's own life
• Descriptive language to show feeling and detail
• Clear theme or message (e.g. family, change, achievement)

Model: Re-read a sentence from the opening story and highlight descriptive language or emotion. Ask student:

• “What feeling does this sentence create?”
• “How does this help us see what the writer is thinking?”

Introduce a short word bank and sentence frame in dyslexia-friendly font.
Examples:

• Emotions: proud, scared, excited, nervous
• Sentence starters: “I remember when…”, “One day that changed me was…”, “I’ll never forget…”

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3. Guided Activity (8 mins)

Task: Memory Brainstorm & Theme Discovery
Introduce student to three personal memory prompt cards (you can use cards or slides).
Examples:

• “A time I had to be brave”
• “A place that feels special to me”
• “A moment I felt proud”

Allow the student to choose one and spend 2–3 minutes jotting ideas or drawing scenes.
Guide the student to identify a theme from their memory (e.g. courage, family, change).
Provide sentence scaffolds as needed.

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4. Independent Writing (7 mins)

Task: Paragraph Drafting
Student begins drafting one autobiographical paragraph (5–6 sentences), focusing on:

• First-person narrating
• Describing the event clearly
• Connecting to a theme

Support with guiding prompts:

• “What could the reader see or hear?”
• “How did you feel before, during, after this moment?”

Offer dyslexia-friendly printed writing templates with larger dotted lines and key vocabulary side margin.

Optional: Use audio dictation tool or talk-to-text for students with writing challenges.

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5. Reflection & Sharing (3 mins)

Student reads their paragraph aloud (if comfortable), or the teacher reads it back to them.

Reflect using guided questions:

• "What part of your writing are you proud of?"
• "What is one thing you might add tomorrow?"

Celebrate effort and connection to a meaningful theme.

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Differentiation

For Diverse Learners:

• Use sentence scaffolds and visual cues (drawing or timeline of the event)
• Provide choices in prompts (written or visual)
• Allow dictation or oral storytelling before writing

For Dyslexia-Friendly Classrooms:

• Use OpenDyslexic or similar fonts
• Keep printed texts high-contrast with minimal clutter
• Use coloured overlays if needed

For Extension:

• Student writes a second paragraph reflecting on What they learned from the experience
• Begin experimenting with metaphor or simile to enhance descriptive language
• Introduce concept of “author’s voice” and ask student to find a line that sounds like “them”

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Assessment (Formative)

✔ Observation during brainstorming and paragraph writing
✔ Student’s ability to identify autobiographical features
✔ Review of written paragraph for structure, emotion, and theme alignment

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Teacher Reflection Prompts

• Did the student connect to the task emotionally?
• Were the language features applied in context?
• What support did the student respond best to?

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Next Steps

In future lessons, build on this foundation by:

• Exploring famous Australian autobiographies or memoirs (e.g. Anh Do’s The Happiest Refugee)
• Focusing on narrative structure (beginning, middle, end)
• Revising with peer feedback and publishing for a class "Life Stories" showcase

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Let this lesson be a chance for students to discover that their own lives hold powerful narratives worth telling.