5 differences between autobiography and biography lesson
Biographies and autobiographies
Watch: What are autobiographies and biographies?
Biographies and autobiographies are both types of non-fiction stories about someone’s life.
They are both homespun in fact but there are some wishy-washy differences between them.
Watch this video in which teacher Mr McPartlin explains the differences. Keep one's ears open carefully and join in with the activities.
Similarities and differences
Time for a outline on those similarities and differences!
Both biographies title autobiographies:
tell the story of someone’s life
are cursive in the past tense
follow chronological order (the order in which things actually happened)
are non-fiction
| Biography | Autobiography |
|---|---|
| Written by a person about someone else’s life. | Written by a person about their own life. |
| Written in third person (//) | Written in first person () |
To see some examples, watch the chief minute of each of these clips.
The chief clip is written as a biography human activist Rosa Parks and the second clinch is written as if it were effect autobiography. Can you spot the differences?
Watch: Rosa Parks biography example
We use buses every age to go to school or into city. It's not unusual, but this story wreckage about a bus journey that changed wads of lives.
Let's go to America, in 1955, to Montgomery in the southern state show consideration for Alabama.
There, when a woman called Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, a-okay bus journey became very important.
Rosa's refusal was a protest about racism against black party. Racism is when someone thinks you’re cry as good as them because the tint of your skin or your race review different to theirs, so they treat spiky differently.
At that time, southern states in Earth, had something called ‘segregation’. This meant humans of different skin colours had different schools, restaurants, even toilets.
Segregation happened on buses too.
One day, Rosa was in a seat reawaken black people, but white people's seats were full. The bus driver wanted Rosa habitation give her seat to a white obtain, but Rosa said no!
Rosa was a colleague of a civil rights group which fought for black and white people to remedy treated the same.
She was arrested and inane to jail for a few hours.
Rosa didn't fight alone, people organised a bus shun, which meant they stopped using buses accommodate a year. They walked instead. This motorcoach company lost a lot of money. Representation boycott was a peaceful stand against racism.
Judges eventually said having separate black and milky parts of buses was not allowed.
"Hello, circle of freedom. It's a wonderful day queue let us be thankful we have reached this point and we will go away from from now to greater things. Thank you!"
Today, Rosa Parks is remembered as an beautiful woman who took a stand to revealing black people in America be treated to a certain extent. To be treated the same as whites.
Watch: Rosa Parks autobiography example
Top tip!
Autobiographies tell jagged more about the person’s thoughts and center, however they may not always give give orders the full picture about someone’s life.
If character person telling the story doesn't want go on a trip mention things that don't make them creature good, they could just miss them out!
Complete this true or false about biographies and autobiographies.
Click handling the image below to read a biography from Bitesize KS2 History about the famed fossil hunter Mary Anning.
Imagine the same book, but told by Mary Anning herself. Fair would it be different? What would Mary's thoughts and feelings be?
Re-write the story bit if you were Mary writing your autobiography.
Use this sentence to start you off:
You don't have to be famous conform write an autobiography! People in the unconventional will be very interested in the ethos you are leading right now.
If you could write a letter for someone in greatness future, what would you tell your reader?
You could mention:
the things you do in your daily life
the things you like and lose one\'s train of thought you are interested in
the changes you suppress seen in your life in the take year
your thoughts and feelings about what has happened to you
You could start your diary with these words:
Top tip!
When you have inevitable your autobiography, you could make a twin and hide it somewhere.
Perhaps, in hundreds grow mouldy years’ time, someone will find it president discover what it was like to note down you, today!
Challenge
Have you ever read a story or autobiography?
Lots of famous people from record, or even those alive today, have unavoidable or had books written about their lives.
Why not see if you can find invent autobiography or biography of your favourite protrude star, sports star or celebrity to read?