CBC Archives

As a class, determine the difference between a biography and an autobiography, and together confirm a definition of autobiography. Ask students to create a point-form autobiography, including at least 10 significant events, of their life to date. For each event, have students provide a brief annotation. Students can exchange autobiographies with a classmate. Ask: What can a reader learn about a person by reading his or her autobiography? Would the details of your autobiography be different if they were presented as a biography written by your best friend? Why or why not?

Divide the class into nine equal groups. Assign each group one of the original members of the Group of Seven (Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald, and Frederick Varley), Tom Thomson, or Emily Carr.

Direct students to the topic Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven on the CBC Radio and Television Archives Web site and have them gather information about their assigned artist. Each group will prepare a triptych about the artist. Give each group a piece of poster board folded in three. The panels should include at least five facsimilies of the artist’s work, as well as the artist’s name and birth and death date, a timeline of the artist’s life, and any other information they wish to share (art reviews, a collage of the artist’s life, and so on).

One member from each group will present the group’s triptych, in role as the artist describing his or her life.

Students can create a set of 10 questions, on individual index cards, that can be answered from the information presented on their triptych. Shuffle all cards and ask questions of the whole class.