Introduction to a Amanda's post entitled "A Bottle Son"

The post, below to this one, is a student’s writing homework. It’s amazing to see so good texts written by students. In this case, the students did a reading comprehension activity based on the autobiographical text “My time in a bottle” by Mickey Mantle.

Read the full autobiographical text written by Mickey Charles Mantle on http://sportsillustrated.ca/vault/article/magazine/MAG1005099/3/index.htm

On this article, he describes his life of self-destructive behavior abusing of alcohol for 42 years.  And talk about his recovery as an example of overcoming.

Then, the students were supposed to write an autobiographical narrative about a problem that they had to deal and how they overcome it. At Barone English, on every unit students are taught different writing techniques and styles. Instead of writing about herself, Amanda created a character, Mickey Mantle’s son, and used him as the narrator of his own fictional autobiography.  The result is not only an autobiographical text but a literary one. 

Background information about Mickey Mantle

Mickey Mantle

Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995) was an American professional baseball player. He played 18 years for the New York Yankees as an outfielder and first baseman. He won 3 American League MVP titles and played in 16 All-Star games. Unhappily, Mickey Mantle ruined his career because of his addiction to alcohol.   

Vocabulary

outfield players:  the players positioned at a distance from both the pitcher and the catcher with the aim of catching or stopping the ball. They can be right/left/center fielders. 

Congratulations Amanda!

Enjoy Amanda's text. 
It's worth reading it!

introduction  by Vivian Barone