Education Autobiography
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CapstoneEducationAutobiographyslides.pptxThe Educational Autobiography
What is an Educational Autobiography?
The Educational Autobiography is a story of your experiences, both inside and outside of school, that have had an influence on your education, your growth, and your interest in pursuing your field of study.
For your paper focus primarily on college experience.
What do I actually write about?
The experiences that have led you to your current interest in a chosen profession or field of study.
Important people/events that have influenced your thoughts about:
The goals of education
The relationship between general education and major area of study
How an undergraduate education has led to, prepared you for, or shaped your professional goals
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What are some educational experiences?
Anything that impacted your education inside or outside of school!
Classes
Teachers
Sports/Dance teams
Clubs
Transitions between schools (high school to college; preparing for graduate school from college)
Extracurricular activities
This is where I could talk about some of the things I wrote.
Ask if anyone has any questions up to this point (of what I just said)
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Time to go back in time…
High School
What extracurricular activities were you involved in?
Was there a coach/teacher that influenced you?
What was your favorite memory from this/these activities?
Can you remember a time you had success?
What happened?
Was there someone that helped you along the way?
What about failure?
What did you learn from this experience?
Time to go back in time…
Freshman – Senior years of college
Think about the classes that you felt you learned the most…
Who was your teacher? What was her/his teaching style?
What was the environment like?
Did you have friends in the class? Did they have the same experience?
What was the most important thing you learned? (academic or not)
Who has influenced you? Good or bad
Peer, coach, or family influences?
Memories of teachers (loved or disliked, why?)
Favorite/least favorite school year, why?
Successes and failures in life, what did you learn?
Other things to think about…
When you write your paper, make sure your experiences are organized in chronological order.
Think about what was happening in the world outside of college: culturally, politically, socially.
How did the larger world influence your educational experience?
Tie it all together with a THEME!
Your theme is a metaphor that ties your whole paper together.
Carry your theme throughout your entire paper and tie it into the end.
Examples: ingredients in a recipe, a journey down a road, items found in a closet, crayons in a crayon box, your favorite sport.
Choose one that comes from YOU!
Find a theme that gets you excited to write your story.
When you start writing…
As you begin writing and memories come to mind, you may find your storyline shifting and sometimes changing dramatically.
Write whatever you feel comfortable enough to write about.
Does the story feel right? Does it capture you and your thinking? Is it true to your time here? To your character?
General Requirements
4-6 pages, double spaced, Calibri 11 or Times New Roman 12 pt. font, 1” margins on all sides.
Proofread!
Cite your sources if you use them; not required. (MLA style)
Title page that has the date, your name, the title of your Educational Autobiography that references your theme
Rubric: What you’re getting graded on
#1: Introduction
It should Introduce your theme.
The attention grabber!
This is your story, so don’t be afraid to make it sound like YOU!
#2: Theme
It should be suitable.
Interwoven throughout.
Carries the narration of the paper.
It’s YOU, it’s authentic.
Not just beginning, middle, and/or end
Be sure to connect it with your metaphor (NOT: “This experience was another piece that fit into my puzzle.” “Yet another piece.” “This was another piece.”)
Instead, be more subtle and creative in the way you weave it through your story.
Your theme is what pushes the story along.
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#3: Coverage
Covers time period from high school through college, with most of the focus on college.
A few earlier memories of education/discovering your interests may also be appropriate.
Organized chronologically.
Other experiences are welcome.
However, you can include experiences before and after if they’ve significantly impacted your education and interest in teaching.
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#4: Inclusion
Important people and critical events that impacted your path through college illustrated through specific detail.
Avoid generic, vague descriptions.
#5: Focus
Your paper focuses on NARRATING your educational experience as it is informed by your life story.
Your paper also analyzes and reflects on the meaning of those stories to you and how you set your current goals.
Narrating: telling the PERSONAL STORIES that got you here.
Analyzing: reflecting on the story’s meaning to where you are now and what your future goals are.
Shouldn’t spend a lot of time criticizing past teachers. Simply tell your story and how their decisions effected you.
(“My teacher didn’t follow Glasser’s 1987 model…. Blah blah blah)
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#6: Flow
The narration of the story flows, bringing your reader easily along with you.
The theme should help with this.
Reflections and analysis can include your opinions on how people should practice your particular profession.
#7: Self-Revelation & Reflection
Your paper is personal and authentic.
You demonstrate your willingness to stretch beyond your comfort zone, take a risk, and share the experiences that have REALLY shaped who you are and have led you to this capstone seminar.
Use only personal information that is appropriate to the theme, purpose, and audience for this paper.
Dates to Remember:
Hard copy of first draft due X for in-class peer workshop
Final draft due on Canvas on X
Presentations of Educational Autobiography will take place on X
