Five-Week Plan
This sequence moves from reading life writing to making it. Students begin with the different forms a life can take, then test how memory and evidence shape a version of events. They research a subject, choose a structure, analyse voice and representation, apply ethical principles, and draft a short profile supported by accurate evidence.
The shape of the unit
| Week | Focus | Core moves | Formative evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Forms and truth | Read short life-writing extracts; distinguish biography, autobiography, memoir and profile; identify factual, emotional and interpretive truth; begin a source log. | Annotated extract and a definition table. |
| 2 | Research and structure | Evaluate primary and secondary sources; verify a date or claim; compare chronological and thematic structures; outline a profile. | Source log with three sources and a structure plan. |
| 3 | Voice, character and context | Analyse tone and perspective; map a subject's wants, fears and contradictions; explain how context and representation shape the account. | One analytical paragraph and a character map. |
| 4 | Ethics and interviews | Apply consent, privacy and fairness principles; plan and conduct a practice interview; close-read a life-writing passage. | Interview plan, consent script and close-reading paragraph. |
| 5 | Draft and refine | Draft a profile; give and use specific feedback; revise for accuracy, voice and structure; reflect on the choices made. | Profile draft, revision note and short reflection. |
A typical lesson
| Time | Routine | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 5 minutes | Read a short passage or source extract. | Notice a voice, a detail or a gap before analysis begins. |
| 10 minutes | Model a decision. | Show how a writer chooses between fact, scene, summary and reflection. |
| 15 minutes | Workshop. | Research, plan, interview, draft or revise with the teacher moving between students. |
| 10 minutes | Write a short response. | Turn discussion into one paragraph or one planned section. |
| 5 minutes | Reflect and record. | Name one choice, one problem and the next step. |
Week by week
Week 1: Forms and truth
Start with two short extracts in different forms, such as a profile and a memoir passage. Students identify who is speaking, what the writer can know, what the form encourages and what it leaves out. Introduce the three kinds of truth and the difference between a verified fact, a remembered detail and an interpretation. By the end of the week, every student should have a source log with at least one entry and a working definition of life writing.
Week 2: Research and structure
Students choose a subject who can be researched from accessible sources. The subject may be a family member, a local figure, a worker, an artist or a community volunteer. The research question should be narrow enough to answer in a short profile. Teach students to record provenance, compare sources and mark uncertainty rather than smoothing it over. Introduce chronological, thematic, braided and pivotal-moment structures, then ask students to justify a structure for their own subject.
Week 3: Voice, character and context
Students analyse how a biographer's voice positions the reader. They compare detached, sympathetic and critical accounts of the same kind of event, then write one paragraph explaining the effect of a specific choice. A character map helps students move beyond a list of achievements to wants, fears, habits and contradictions. The week ends with a representation check: whose voice is centred, whose is missing, and what context is needed to understand the subject's decisions?
Week 4: Ethics and interviews
Introduce consent, privacy, fairness and the right of reply before students conduct any interview. Students plan a short interview with a willing adult, prepare open questions and test their recording setup. If a live interview is not possible, use a recorded public interview, a fictional transcript or a paired role-play. The close-reading lesson in this week gives students a shared passage for analysis and a model paragraph they can adapt.
Week 5: Draft and refine
Students draft a profile of 600 to 900 words, or an equivalent multimodal piece. The draft should contain at least two sources, one scene or quoted exchange, one explained piece of context and one deliberate structural choice. Feedback focuses on accuracy, selection, voice and ethics rather than on a single correct interpretation. The final lesson asks students to write a short reflection on what they changed and why.
Materials
- Short extracts supplied by the teacher from licensed texts, public-domain sources or original examples.
- A source log template and a structure planner.
- Access to a library, local archive, newspaper collection or approved digital collection.
- A recording device and a consent script if students conduct interviews.
- Printed or shared planning templates from this packet.
- A secure place to store notes and recordings.
What students produce
| Product | Purpose | Keep it manageable |
|---|---|---|
| Source log | Records where information came from and how reliable it is. | Five to eight entries, not an exhaustive bibliography. |
| Interview plan | Prepares questions, consent and recording. | Six to eight questions with two follow-ups each. |
| Character map | Shows what the subject wants, fears and contradicts. | One page with evidence beside each claim. |
| Close-reading paragraph | Practises analysis of voice, selection and language. | One paragraph with a short quotation. |
| Profile | Combines research, scene, context and reflection. | 600 to 900 words or an equivalent multimodal piece. |
| Revision note | Makes the effect of feedback visible. | Three changes with reasons. |
| Reflection | Names what the writer learnt about truth and representation. | One short paragraph or a recorded comment. |
Keep the subject small enough to research. A profile of a local volunteer, a grandparent's working life or a community organiser will usually produce better evidence and sharper writing than a profile of a famous person whose life is already packaged by publicists. The unit is about how a life becomes a story, not about collecting the most impressive subject.
Common planning errors
- Starting with a famous person. The sources are often secondary, repetitive and shaped by publicity.
- Researching without a question. A pile of facts is not a profile.
- Leaving ethics until the end. Consent and privacy affect what can be researched and written.
- Treating memory as fact. A vivid recollection still needs corroboration where possible.
- Writing a timeline. A life story needs selection, scene and meaning, not a list of dates.
- Asking for too much. A short profile with two good sources is better than a long biography with none.
Next, read the outcomes and skills to see what the unit builds towards. Teachers can find pacing, differentiation and sensitive-content guidance in the teacher notes.