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Library

Works by prominent African Canadian authors.

Each link below will take you to a PDF version of the text.

For reasons of copyright, some works below are only accessible to school boards currently subscribing to the Orion Network.

This page provides access only to those materials in the curriculum that are in the public domain. The materials shared on this page are therefore ideal for users visiting from non-subsciber networks.

For more information on how to access these materials, please visit the HOW TO USE THIS SITE page.

Teaching the texts:  autobiography as a genre
Each of the autobiographies presents opportunities in both the Language and Social Studies strands of the curriculum, and at various grade levels.

• Writing and illustrating personal and family stories; developing a narrative voice
• Employing other forms of documentation: photographs: oral and visual records
• Translating stories into other genre (e.g., writing plays, poems, short stories)

Some resources for working with autobiography:

Thematic indexes to Autobiographies

Scholastic: Writing Autobiogaphy Lesson Plan 6-8

Scholastic: Writing Autobiogaphy Lesson Plan 9-12

Yale New Haven Teachers Institute Curriculum w Lesson Plans

At the centre of all four autobiographies are the authors' experiences of living with and resisting racism and discrimination. Motivating each author is the desire to document African Canadian presence in Canada, to give an account of the impact of racism on their lives, and to explore and explain the various ways in which they resisted the racism that sought to degrade and limit them. Two authors, Stanley Grizzle and Herb Carnegie, were born and raised in Toronto, the children of Jamaican immigrants. Carol Talbot, a descended of African American fugitives, grew up in Windsor, Ontario; Cheryl Foggo, descendent of African American settlers in the prairies, grew up in Calgary, and so represents and speaks of a somewhat different place and history. Rich in detail and observation, the texts raise many issues, and will be a rich resource in literacy and social studies curricula.

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