my life map assignment

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How To Create Your Life Map and Empower Yourself Today

In Why Am I Here? by Nathan To March 9, 2018 6 Comments

One of the most powerful reflections exercise I’ve ever done is called a Life Map. I see it as a helpful exercise of self-care during a tough time. In seasons of grieving , it offers a visual way to really dive into how I’m perceiving my life, and where I might want to take it from this moment forward.

There are all sorts of difference Life Maps we could do. Some reflect on what you perceive to be your key life milestones. That could be defined as those life obstacles and significant successes that stand out to you in your own life story.

While putting together this post, I came across a few nice examples of what a “Life Map” could look like. The picture below is something I actually added to my mental health-related  Pinterest boards . I have no idea who Christa is, but her Life Map appeared on both my Google and Pinterest searches, without any backlinks to where it came from. I haven’t been able to find Christa’s website online, so Christa, if you read this, please do contact me so I can properly reference you and give you a backlink.

Christa’s Life Map via Pinterest

Other Life Maps spin-off from that idea, but with a more spiritual orientation. Specifically, a spiritually-oriented map might highlight the role of the Divine in your life. For example, you can see how Reverend Mark Wheeler highlights the “Hand of God” in key life events on his life map from a Christian perspective.

Image of Pastor Mark Wheeler’s Life Map via his blog, “ On Target “

Here’s another life map example from good ol’  Oprah , courtesy of life coach Cheryl Richardson . This one is created out of different physical materials and pasted together into a unique collage. You can use magazines, catalogues, extra flyers and brochures you have laying around, pieces of the bag carrying your Meow Mix for your cat or absolutely anything you wish.

To be honest, I believe these are all fantastic.

That’s because the most important part of doing a life map is the act of doing and creating; the key is the self-reflection process itself.

Specifically, reflecting on how you’re currently perceiving your past influences how you’re living your present.

As you “observe” this (through the actual “doing” of the Life Map), you give yourself a powerful opportunity to choose how you want to author your future.

For me, the one I first learned to do was during an assignment for my Counselling Psychology class almost a decade ago. That’s the one I’ll be focused on here.

To be quite honest, I haven’t done a full, complete one in a long while (though I’ve done outlines, and never got around to finishing them). But after some recent eureka moments about my life purpose, I realized that it was time to, once again, do the hard work of intentionally deconstructing the problematic story that I tell myself. While/After doing that, I could also begin re-constructing (or “re-storying” in narrative therapy approach), the more life-giving story I’d like to tell myself.

The fascinating thing about a life map is that it invites us to observe and engage our own lives from multiple perspectives. It’s like being able to weave in and out of a birds-eye perspective and seeing the whole image of our life map in front of our eyes.

By gazing into my past, present, and future, my reflections offer me an opportunity to remember and validate my identity formation, and intentionally reflect on who I was, who I am, and who I hope to be.

A small disclaimer: Don’t be surprised if this life map makes you cry, smile, laugh, want to rip it apart, or inspire you with a gratitude for your life story (and all its ups and downs) in the deepest parts of your soul. It’s possible that you might feel all sorts of emotions while doing this. Of course, it also might not. Really, either way, is fine.

Such is the power and unpredictability of a raw and honest exercise of self-reflection.

So, here’s how you can do a life map too. To keep things simple, I’ll be providing instructions for life maps that you can do via drawing by hand.

The first phase consists of 6 preparatory steps.

PART 1: PREPARATION

Prepare Writing:

• Find those pens or markers or pencil and paper or notebook if you’re doing this on paper.
• Create time. Leave aside 30 minutes — 1 hour. You can always do less or more, but this is just a general guideline to thoughtfully reflect on the course of your life, its high and low points, as well as stable times.

PART 2: BRAINSTORM & LIST EVERYTHING DOWN.

3.  What might have been some Key Obstacles in Your Life?

These could be challenges or obstacles that people might encounter when they take a trip or journey. Items on this list might include: stop signs, speed bumps, traffic lights, dead ends, detours, highways, tolls, rest stops, etc.

For example, a dead end might represent a decision that did not yield the desired result.

4. What have been some Milestone Successes in your life?

 These are things that you might be proud of. For example, these might be the “green lights” of life, the serendipitous surprises, and whatever other life events make you happy.

E.g. A green light might represent getting approval to move ahead.

LIST EVERYTHING DOWN

5. Go ahead and just list out as many things as you can from your brainstorm.

During this time of reflection, list life events on a notepad first, keeping the below guidelines in mind:

• Include experiences that influenced your life and later successes, both positive and negative.
• A general rule of thumb is that we perceive significant life events at least every other year or so. For example, if you are 40 years old, you may have between 15 to 20 life-shaping shifts.

6. If possible, try to include both negative events as well as positive ones. But there’s not hard and fast rule to this. If you d notice yourself including more negative ones, do note that for your later reflections after you’ve finished drawing your life map. If you notice yourself putting in more positive ones, please also note this in your reflections too.

7. Imagine your life story as a novel.  This is particularly helpful if you get stuck at any point. So, you can think of your life story (and life map) in terms of plots, themes, characters, and all the different factors that may have influenced who you are today. E.g. This might include your big decisions that took you on a new path, small choices that led to unexpected discoveries or realities, the impact of overarching historical events or politics in your life, important relationships, goals, beliefs, and even aspects of human behavior (fear, conformity, prejudice, etc).

These are just some ideas–you don’t have to do all of these of course. Feel free to write as much or as little as you wish.

8. Try to put the events in chronological order.  Note down your (approximate) age at the time of a given event. There are other ways to order the graph, but doing so by time is probably the simplest option for now.

9.  Identify the positive and negative events. Place a “+” sign in front of events that are overall positive, and a “-” sign in front of ones that you perceive as overall negative– and then rate the positive or negative intensity of each event on a scale of 1 to 10, low to high. If it feels genuinely neutral, simply put in a “n” or a “0”.

PART 3: DRAW YOUR LIFE MAP

10. Draw out the life map with above instructions in your notebook or digitally. If you’re feeling stuck or need a bit of help at any point, feel free to reach out to me.

PART 4: NEXT STEPS: REFLECTING ON YOUR LIFE MAP

11.  When you’re done drawing the map, also feel free to take a break!

12. If you like, you can reflect on your life map after your break while it’s still fresh in mind. Here are some questions to reflect on:

• What factors influence the choices you make?
• What factors help you move forward and make progress?
• What factors set you back?
• There’s a common metaphor that says “life is a journey”. Do you agree with this? If so, why? If you disagree, what’s another way to describe “life” that better resonates with you?

(OPTIONAL) PART 5: WRITE A JOURNAL ENTRY

If you wish, please write a journal entry or essay explaining what you have learned from this life map activity.

Best wishes with this! As usual, feel free comment below if you’d like a hand with anything.

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Drawing a Life Map

Minilesson print.

A life map is a visual time line. It traces key moments in your life from the time you were born until the present day. The events and experiences you draw in your life map can make great starting points for writing topics, particularly for personal writing.

Your Turn Create your own life map.

• Start your life map with the day you were born.
• Record the dates of key moments in your life in time order.
• Draw each event to help you remember it.
• End your life map with the present day.

From page 37 in Writers Express

Teacher Support:

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Answers will vary.

Standards Correlations:

The State Standards provide a way to evaluate your students' performance.

• 110.4.b.12.A
• LAFS.2.W.1.3
• LAFS.2.W.3.8
• 110.5.b.12.A
• LAFS.3.W.1.3
• 110.5.b.13.C
• 110.5.b.13.D
• LAFS.3.W.3.8
• 110.6.b.11.B
• 110.6.b.12.A
• LAFS.4.W.1.3
• 110.6.b.13.C
• 110.6.b.13.D
• 110.6.b.13.E
• LAFS.4.W.3.8
• 110.7.b.12.A
• LAFS.5.W.1.3
• 110.7.b.13.B
• 110.7.b.13.C
• 110.7.b.13.D
• LAFS.5.W.3.8

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How to create a life map (With examples)

A life map is a way to trace your life's key moments in time order. It is all depiction of your life's occasions, regardless of sorrow or happiness. Indeed, a life map is a fundamental tool that helps you in all manners of your life. Life map could be fruitful for all what if it had been taught to us since childhood. But unfortunately, very few people know about it and its significance. Let's try to dive into its importance.

1. Memory Box

The most straightforward one is it acts as a memory box. It stores your precious moments visually that you have long forgotten.

2. Create a Personal Story

It helps you to write and create your personal story that could make others inquisitive about your crossroads.

3. Insights about Life

It could give you a probability to look at your life from several angles. Life map aids you gain different insights about your personality and improve them with time. It gives an edge of making your life decisions and put yourself at what is right for you.

4. Grasp Moments

Life map correctly enables you to put together the pieces of emotions and moments with your friends, family, and workplace fellowship. It thoroughly changes your perceptions, creating new narratives, and exploration about the labyrinth of life.

Drawing a life map isn't a piece of cake, but it's fascinating at a point. There are the following necessary steps that will help you to attain a life map. It is general and may vary from person to person.

1. Time Management

At least you have almost 30 minutes to one hour to think and write about your all high and low landmarks.

2. Preparatory Writing Steps

Collect all the colored markers, pens if you want them in a formidable form such as on paper or chart. The easier way is to download EdrawMind to have your life map in a mild form. EdrawMind gives you many templates to have your life map.

3. Brainstorm on Enlisting Elements

Brainstorm in all the elements and points you want in your life map regardless of their nature. Go ahead and collect your hundred ideas. EdrawMind also has a feature of brainstorming. In this, all you have to click F8 or on the brainstorming button. Set your timer, click on ideas, then add your map.

4. Use of Symbols and Scale

If they belong to your hard time, then it must have symbolic representation. You may use different traffic signals like speed breakers and tolls etc. You may rate them from 1 to 10 or use mathematics signs. If you want to present your successful dot ends or surprises and events, then the green color light can do it finely. EdrawMind offers you so many templates where you could put your flexible elements.

5. Thumb Rule of Change in your Life

By some thumb rule, every person goes through a change every year. If your age between 35-40, then there is a probability of having almost 15-20 shifting changes. Bunch all the good and worse fragments and write them down prominently. Take your life as a novel or story.

Your life is fledged with many people, playing different characters based on the nature of interaction or fellowship you have had once—some play a significant role in shaping your present future or devastating at the same time. Gain and write your all momentous incident in chronological order.

6. Finishing Step

Once you have done with the life map, it will raise many questions about life by the psychological effect, and you could write a journal quickly. EdrawMind helps you in having a perfect life map with a saving mode.

Some Quirky Tips for a Life Map

There are some pro tips to draw your life map quickly.

• Use such attractive templates that hit you and the people you want to target

• Draw it with different colors using signs too.

• It must be minimalistic and ideal that it must be engaging.

• Your loop whole must be connected to your goal eventually.

• Stay away from making life maps more complex.

Here are some life maps that will correctly predict the self-reflection of one's life.

1. Life Resolution Map

EdrawMind allows you to draw your life map of ambitions and goals with attractive templates. Your template of this life map must be designed in a way that perfectly depicts the ups and downs of life, roundabouts, breaks, and the transition flow. It finely should reflect your ultimate goals and struggles to meet your motives.

2. Life Fear Map

Source: Pinterest

Life fear map is one of the significant life maps dealing with several phobias. People fear outnumbered phobias due to some reasons. Phobia drawings would help them understand the basic rule of their life and adjust to their personality fears. This fear map is full of quotes of famous businessmen and private statements about things people fear. It is pouring overing shadows on fear factors.

3. Stress Map

A stress map defines all the elements of a perfect life. The best part of this map it establishes a pattern of healthy life using symbols and writing. EdrawMind could give you a chance to have this map in hard form and paste it on your room's wall. It is reflecting on how a healthy and stress-free one should look like and have priorities.

To conclude, a Life map gives you every time a way to construct, deconstruct, and reconstruct your life goals. It helps you to throw light on your life insights, giving you anticipation of downright changes in life-making decisions. Life maps should be included in our priorities. Take out some time for yourself and self-think because it's your primacy. Now you have the key to solve all the questionable points and factors of your life. Decide your journey and design it with your own hands.

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How to Create a Life Map

Creating a Life Map

Even though you might enjoy talking about yourself, you may be clueless as to what important life events you should include in an autobiography. A life map is a graphic organizer that uses pictures to represent major life events. You can use this map to inspire you before you write an autobiographical assignment, or you can simply create one to spark conversation with your friends. There are many examples and templates for life maps online, but here are some tips on their creation. Other words for life maps are mind mapping or life roadmaps.

1. Brainstorm

Write down and brainstorm about your important life events. Scholastic’s life map checklist has several major life event questions you can answer. If you’re in a group of people, such as a classroom situation, interview other students with the life map checklist. This can be an interactive process as you talk to others and see what the possibilities are.

These key moments and events can be seen as milestones, significant life changes, life goals, low points you may have already experienced, and key events in your lifetime that you can expect. Think of these life maps as a visual timeline of your life, so any ideas can be used as long as you have a starting point. Goal setting steps can also be used in this step as you think of what you would like to achieve for the first time and how to get there as a beginner.

2. Choose Photos

Determine what pictures you’ll use to represent your life’s major events. Once you have determined which questions you’re going to answer from the life map checklist, sketch small pictures on a scratch sheet of paper that represent each event. For example, if the day you were born is a significant event, you might draw a picture of a swaddled newborn or a pregnant woman. If the day you started kindergarten was important, draw a picture of a schoolhouse or a chalkboard.

3. Make a Draft

Make a first draft. On a blank sheet of paper, draw the major life events you’re going to include in your life map in chronological order. Draw arrows between the events so that viewers can easily tell in what order the events happened. While this creative process does require some project planning, it will act as your own life map and map of your life experiences to share your life story to others.

4. Gather Materials

Gather a large poster board, and using markers or colored pencils, complete your life map. Draw the pictures that represent your life in chronological order, just as you did in your first draft. Gather a large poster board, and using markers or colored pencils, complete your life map. Draw the pictures that represent your life in chronological order, just as you did in your first draft.

5. Display the Product

Display and share your life map. Tell your friends or fellow students why you chose the particular life events you did. Explain what your life map tells about you.

Another way to create a life map is to scour magazines for images that you think represent your life or anything that evokes feelings. Cut out those magazine images and paste them on a poster or bulletin board. With your group of friends, ask one another questions about each others' life maps. Do you see any patterns in your life map? What do you need to do to reach your life map’s goals? What feelings does your life map evoke? How does your placement of the images on the life map show what is important to you?

Students working on a life map could also include pictures from magazines instead of drawing. They should find pictures that represent major life events.

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• Oprah: Create a Life Map

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Life mapping exercise: ring in 2020 with a reflection.

• December 24, 2019
• Lily Capstick
• TEDxMileHigh

As 2020 approaches, I’ve been stressed. I keep looking at my absurdly detailed planner, trying to find a time to pencil in the reflection of the past year and decade. I’ve filled dozens of journals in my life, taken thousands of photographs, developed millions of memories. Yet, I often forget what I ate the day before. How can I adequately reflect on the past ten years of my life if I can’t remember the food I consumed earlier today? 

For the planners, writers, and organization nerds out there, you might share my struggle. For the rest of you, you might have time to reflect but don’t know how to start. I invite all of you to take 30 minutes to an hour to reflect on your life using this life mapping exercise.

Life Mapping

Life mapping is this ingenious little exercise to help you reflect using doodles, words, and arrows. The map “charts significant moments in your life that bring you to where you are now.” By the end of the exercise, you will have a visual representation of your year (or decade) that serves as a cute but compelling reminder of how far you’ve come, the things you’ve done, or the ways you’ve felt.

If this sounds terrible to you, why don’t you read this article on AI terms instead ?

But if this sounds fun, follow these instructions: 

How to Map Your Life

1. pick your timeline .

Would you like to reflect on the past decade or the past year? Or both? My suggestion is to choose one and complete the exercise. If it’s all just too much fun to stop, do it all over again with the other timeline. ( I did both.) 

2. Blank Paper or Template?

Decide if you want to use a blank piece of paper or a TEDxMileHigh Life Mapping template. 

Download the 2019 Life Map Template

Download the 2010 Life Map Template

If you’ve never made a life map before, why not start with the template? You can try a blank sheet of paper next time. Though, if you’re feeling ambitious and brave, skip the template!

3. Brainstorm

This part can feel overwhelming at first, but you don’t have to stick with anything you write down. Just let your mind go. Make a list of memories, things you’ve done, people you’ve met, places you’ve been, and ideas you’ve had that stick out to you. What have you done during your chosen timeline? What memories stick out? What experiences speak the loudest? What random anecdotes enter your mind without you wanting them to? 

How many should you write? As many as you want. But then cut it down to 15 or so of the most meaningful experiences. 

4. Put Events in Chronological Order 

This part is easy. Of course, if you aren’t into order in general, feel free to do your own thing.

5. Start Life Mapping

Using your first memory, represent the memory with a little doodle, accompanied with words if you like. Then follow the template arrow to the next area and do the same. Keep doing this until you have drawn out all of these little memories. Feel free to play some TEDxMileHigh talks in the background for inspiration.

Here are some examples of doodles I included in my life maps:

Pause and Admire Your Life Map

Look at your adorable map! And, all the events you experienced and things you accomplished. If it’s anything like mine, it’s messy, beautiful, ugly, silly, sad, and real all at the same time. It’s a map of my past. It doesn’t include everything, but it catalogs the things that have stuck out to me as important in this moment of reflection. 

Hopefully, this map serves as a reminder for all of the things that you have done leading up to this moment, making and shaping you into who you are right now. You’ve been through a whole year and a whole decade worth of experiences. That’s a big deal. You took the time to reflect on the good and bad memories. Perhaps it all feels nicely wrapped up now. You told your own story in your way. With this life mapping exercise complete, you can now focus your energy on being open to new experiences the next year and decade.

Put this map somewhere special and be proud of yourself! If you feel so inclined, share your life map with us on Instagram . We’d love to see what you did.  Happy (almost) New Year, everyone!

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Free Editable Life Mapping Examples

A busy life schedule often prevents an individual from enjoying the little blisses life has put on their path. Gratitude exercise, life paths can be a way to find those little things in life. A user can make a timeline. Here they write down their memorable events of life or milestone successes. They can also note down their challenges, happiness, perception of life in those life maps. As life maps are of different patterns, the users can check the life mapping examples before creating their life maps.

1. What is The Life Map

Life mapping examples are positive exercises that can help a person track down the things and ideas that they value in life. An individual can make a timeline to list down the important moments or activities they cherish. They can also plan their plan and challenges. These life maps allow a person to have an overall view of their life.

2. The Life Map Examples

Life mapping is a powerful self-catering exercise. A person can add their achievements, beliefs, challenges in those notes. It can help them to find the thought process that has impacted their life so far. The life maps can be of different types, and therefore a user can check life mapping examples before starting one of their own.

Example 1: Life Mapping Exercise

Although many people consider Venn diagrams a scholastic approach to complicated issues, a simple life map can also help in representing it. A person can record their way of life, resolution, thoughts through Venn diagrams. Here is a life mapping example that records some habits of a person’s life early starting of a day and some healthy ideas like valuing the warm embrace of love that they get at home.

Example 2: Half Life Mapping

A person may feel burdened with the thought of achievements if they have not planned them properly. Planning things and their proper timings are significant for success. An individual can use life maps to organize things to enjoy their work process without feeling troubled. Given example is a life map of a person. It consists of the lists of works a person plans during their college days.

Example 3: Life Mapping Example

Life maps are the visual timeline, and hence a person can create a whole map while describing some memorable moments of their life. These can help them remember the past things they have enjoyed or moments that have teared them up. A person can also include the events they think as important in their life. Here is a life map example where a person has recorded their best moments from birth till the present. The life map has helped them.

Example 4: Mapping Your Life

A person can use the neuron-like complex branched format for their life map. They can make columns like the past, present, change, challenge, expectations, etcetera., to find out their achievements and future endeavors.

They can also find their in-general view of life. The mind maps help in simplifying things for a better understanding. In the given life mapping example, the person has noted their milestone ideas.

Example 5: Diyfish Life Mapping

When a person is working on their life maps, they can use these branched mapping techniques. It will help them to create a timeline of their life. A person may also consider listing the ideas and thoughts they value in life. It can give them an idea about the keynote that plays the tunes of their life. Here is a life mapping example that follows the format of mind mapping.

Example 6: Mapping My Life

Life maps can show an individual how to value the moments of their life. When a person enjoys their activities and moments, there are chances that they can contribute to a happy and prosperous society. An individual can list their favorite activities, things that make them happy, their creative outputs, etcetera. It can help them to spot the positive thoughts that drive their life.

Example 7: Life Mapping Planner

A person can plan their overall growth over the years using this life mapping technique. An individual can have distinct goals for different chapters or parts of their life. They can unite them in a life map where they can list those ideas with classification. Here is a life mapping example that shows the person's goal. It includes varied segments such as attitude, education, public service, personal growth, career, health, wealth, relationships.

Example 8: Life Mapping Template

A life map can give an individual an opportunity to point out the things related to their identity. The person can write about their dreams, hobbies, creativity, family, etcetera in their life map. It can allow them to know their thoughts about life and how their perception sees different things. Here is a life mapping example that a user can take as a reference.

Example 9: Life Map Example

Anyone can use life maps to set their goals. A person can set their goals and work on them with the help of life maps. The given life mapping example shows how an individual can plan their life goals. Life goals can be of two types, personal and professional. The user can break down these two types of goals into smaller tasks, considering the minute details. They can also incorporate the ideas like enjoying the task and feeding the enthusiastic mind in their work-life mentioned in the life map.

3. Online Life Map Maker

As the life mapping examples can be of different formats and styles, making the life maps may seem tricky. The users can take the help of online life map maker tools. They can use EdrawMax online life map maker for this work. The application comes with some templates, which make it easier for inexperienced users to work with them. They also have their resource team, and the users can seek help if they need any.

Why Choose EdrawMax Online

• Create over 280 diagram types
• Supports team collaboration
• Personal cloud & data protection
• Print, share and download
• Powerful template community

4. Key Takeaways

Life mapping examples allow a person to have an assertive view of life as they can list down their thoughts and ideas which tune in their life. A user can make life maps with the help of online tools like EdrawMax. It is a user-friendly tool that can help them to create one very quickly.

In conclusion, EdrawMax Online is a quick-start diagramming tool, which is easier to make Life Maps and any other visuals. Also, it contains substantial built-in templates that you can use for free, or share your design with others in our Template Community .

Related Articles

It's My Life: Multimodal Autobiography Project

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

In this unit, students write autobiographies, illustrate them, and set them to music. Music is a powerful tool to evoke emotion, and students will carefully select songs to accompany the stories from their lives. Students brainstorm lists of important events in their lives, along with images and music that represent those events. They then create storyboards in preparation for the final PowerPoint project. After making revisions, they present their final projects to their peers in class. If PowerPoint is unavailable, students might create posters and play soundtracks using cassette or CD players.

Featured Resources

Stapleless Book : Students use this online tool to plan each slide of an autobiographical PowerPoint presentation.

From Theory to Practice

According to William Kist, "students should be able to both read critically and write functionally, no matter what the medium." We have "broadened the concept of literacy" (cf. Kist) to include multimodal projects so that no student will feel isolated, and every student will gain knowledge and understanding from the sharing of ideas. As the NCTE Statement on Multimodal Literacies states, "The use of different modes of expression in student work should be integrated into the overall literacy goals of the curriculum and appropriate for time and resources invested." This lesson plan encourages such integration by asking students to create multimodal presentations. Further Reading

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
• 8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
• 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
• It’s My Life Assignment
• Presentation Music and Image Planner
• It’s My Life Project Rubric
• Sample Multimodal Autobiography
• It’s My Life Self-Assessment

Preparation

• Arrange for the use of a computer lab, projector, and CD player.
• Familiarize yourself with PowerPoint. Visit the PowerPoint in the Classroom Website and the PowerPoint tutorials on adding sound and adding music for helpful information and guides. You may also choose to share these Web resources with your students.
• Create a model autobiography presentation for students to view (optional).
• Review fair use and copyright guidelines before having students use copyrighted music and images in their projects.
• Make copies of the Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines for School Projects , It’s My Life Assignment , Presentation Music and Image Planner , Sample Multimodal Autobiography , It’s My Life Self-Assessment , and It’s My Life Project Rubric sheets for your students.
• Test the Stapleless Book on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tool and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page .

Student Objectives

Students will

• examine the lyrics to songs and describe how the music and words relate to their life stories.
• organize their thoughts and express their stories by using PowerPoint presentations.
• improve technical skills by familiarizing themselves with PowerPoint.
• evaluate their own work.

Session One

• Present the PowerPoint autobiography assignment to students and explain the required elements. If you have created a model presentation, you can use it to present the concept to students.
• Students will select five important events in their lives. Using written summaries of these events, they will create PowerPoint multimodal autobiographies.
• Students may use recordings from the radio or their personal music collections.
• Students will follow guidelines for fair use of copyrighted images and music. (Explain that this topic will be discussed in detail in the next session.)
• Student will present their slideshows in class. Slideshows are limited to 5–10 minutes in length.
• Students will respond to their peers’ presentations in writing.
• First day of school (e.g., preschool, kindergarten, first grade, middle school, high school)
• A special family trip or vacation
• A family event or milestone
• A personal achievement (e.g., first place in a competition)
• A personal loss
• Explain that in this stage of the writing process, students should write down all of their ideas. If they are working in groups or with the whole class, lay ground rules that encourage all students to share their ideas with the group and that discourage students from critiquing their peers’ responses during this brainstorming stage. Explain that students will have the opportunity to evaluate their lists and select the events that they want to include in their autobiographies in later sessions.
• Have students view the PowerPoint presentation Finding Your Focus: The Writing Process . Discuss the stages of the writing process—including drafting, revising, and editing—and explain that students will go through each of these stages as they work on their autobiographies. The final stage will be the actual publishing of their autobiographies in the form of PowerPoint presentations.
• Ask students to select 8–10 events from their lists and write a brief paragraph summary for each one. Students may also include events that were not included on the lists they created during their brainstorming sessions.
• Have students set aside these summaries to use in a later session. If necessary, have students complete this activity for homework.

Session Two

• Initiate a class discussion by describing a significant event from your own life (i.e., birth of a sibling, parents’ divorce, first car). You can refer to the Sample Multimodal Autobiography for an example.
• Ask a few students to share an event from their own lists, and record each event on the board.
• Have students think about the events described and to connect songs to these events. For example, a student might associate a love song with a family member’s wedding ceremony.
• How does the song make you feel?
• What images come to mind when you think of this event?
• What images come to mind when you think of this song?
• Next play a song or two that you associate with the event from your own life that you’ve described. It doesn’t matter if the songs are not “current” hits; students will understand the feelings behind the music.
• Ask students to discuss how the song fits the event and to suggest other songs they might associate with the same event.
• Have students review the summaries they wrote in Session One.
• From the list of events they described, ask students to select five to include in their autobiographical presentations.
• Pass out the Presentation Music and Image Planner and have students list each of the five events they’ll include.
• Have students use the Presentation Music and Image Planner to write the title of a song and describe an image for each event they will include in their presentations. Students can work with a classmate or in small groups if they are having trouble generating ideas. You may wish to have students begin this activity in class and then complete their planners for homework.
• Be sure to discuss lyrics with students to assure that song selections are classroom-appropriate as determined by teacher and school policy.
• Emphasize that students should avoid using music that involves profanity or derogatory remarks towards any race, gender, and/or religious affiliation. Encourage students to discuss any questionable lyrics with you in advance. Point out you will either approve students’ choice of songs and images or provide suggestions for revision on their planning sheets.
• Have you ever downloaded music or other content from the Internet? What other Internet resources have you used?
• You will need to use music for your presentations. What are some ways you can get the songs you’ll need? From what sources can you download music? Are all of these ways legal?
• Is it OK to use other people’s music in something you are creating?
• Students can use 1–5 images from the same photographer or illustrator without permission.
• Up to 10% of a song can be used in a presentation. That translates to about 30 seconds from one song.
• Students must include a bibliography of any work used in their presentations.
• Before beginning Session Three, review students’ planners to ensure that they understand the assignment and have selected appropriate images and songs. Approve each plan, providing feedback, or make suggestions for revision.
• Meet with students individually to discuss any necessary changes.

Session Three

• Tape sheets of plain paper together along the short edges.
• Divide a large piece of blank paper into equal rectangles.
• Use a blank index card for each PowerPoint slide.
• Use the ReadWriteThink Stapleless Book interactive to plan each slide of their presentation. This tool provides space for students to write the text that will appear on the slide and information about the song they will include, along with space for a simple illustration.
• Before beginning their PowerPoint presentations, students should use the storyboards to lay out their text and images, and to write the titles of the songs and specific lyrics they will use for each slide.
• Have students add the text of the paragraphs they wrote in Session One to their storyboards in this drafting session.
• Remind students of the writing process and explain that they will have the opportunity to revise their text and other elements when they reach the revising stage.
• Allow more than one session of class time to complete this work if required. You can choose to extend this activity to the next class period or have students complete their drafts for homework. Students should also have any CDs or music they want to use available for the next session.
• Provide access to a scanner for students who wish to scan photographs or other images for use in their projects.
• Before moving to the next session, review students’ drafts and provide feedback.

Sessions Four through Six

• PowerPoint in the Classroom
• PowerPoint Tutorial—Adding sound
• Demo: Add music to a presentation
• Once students are comfortable with PowerPoint and have practiced with the software, have them begin creating slides using their drafts/storyboards.
• Remind students of the guidelines for using copyrighted music in their projects.
• Share this adding sounds page from PowerPoint in the Classroom with students, which details how to add portions of a song from a CD to a PowerPoint slide.
• Review students’ progress as they work and provide assistance to students who are having difficulty using PowerPoint.
• Allow additional time as needed for students to work on their projects in or out of class.

Session Seven

• Are slides arranged in an effective way? How are the events in my autobiography arranged? Sequentially? Thematically?
• Can I do a better job of describing each event? Will the reader/viewer understand what I’m trying to communicate?
• Do the images I’ve selected adequately represent the events?
• Does the song reflect my feelings about each event?
• Guide students in working through this stage of the writing process and encourage them to make revisions that will help them more effectively communicate the information included in their autobiographies.

Sessions Eight and Nine

• When students have finished making revisions, have them take turns presenting their PowerPoint autobiographies to the class. Use a projector if you have access to one.
• After all students have completed their presentations, have them respond in writing by completing the It’s My Life Self-Assessment .
• Teach the ReadWriteThink lesson Copyright Infringement or Not? The Debate over Downloading Music to reinforce the concepts of fair use and copyright infringement explored in this lesson.
• Teach the ReadWriteThink lesson The Year I Was Born: An Autobiographical Research Project to have students further explore the autobiography writing genre.
• In place of or in addition to PowerPoint presentations, have students write a typed autobiography, a narrated audio autobiography (set to music) on CD, cassette, or MP3, or a videotaped biography. Students can use the CD/DVD Cover Creator to design and print their covers for their finished presentations.
• Have students use the Profile Publisher to enhance their autobiographies by creating one or more profiles to represent themselves at different times in their lives, with a special focus on the connection between experiences and music.

Student Assessment / Reflections

• Have students reflect on their projects by completing the It’s My Life Self-Assessment .
• Assess students’ PowerPoint projects using the It’s My Life Project Rubric .
• Professional Library
• Strategy Guides
• Student Interactives
• Lesson Plans

The Stapleless Book can be used for taking notes while reading, making picture books, collecting facts, or creating vocabulary booklets . . . the possibilities are endless!

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