Copyright © 2018 Authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7 (4.38) (2018) 205-209 International Journal of Engineering & Technology Website: www.sciencepubco.com/index.php/IJET Research paper Facilitation Technologies in the Process of Understanding of the Writer’s Biography Svetlana Ivanovna Grakhova 1 *, Karina Anatolievna Okisheva 1 , Irina Mikhailovna Zakharova 1 , Aleksandra Viktorovna Potanina 1 1 Naberezhnochelninsky State Pedagogical University, 28 Nizametdinova str., Naberezhnye Chelny, 423806, Russia *Corresponding author E-mail: grakhova.s.i@mail.ru Abstract The article presents the methodology of organizing educational activities to study a writer’s biography with the help of facilitation ap- proach. A key aspect of the paper is the group work model, i.e., “The World Café” which allowed the authors to process and comprehend a large amount of information about F.M. Dostoevsky, share it with students, and plan further work on the study of his creative writing. In addition, the article identifies important concepts in the comprehension of the first part of the posthumous biography “The materials for the biography of F.M. Dostoevsky”. The compiler of the biography was O.F. Miller, a professor of literature in St. Petersburg Univer- sity (Russia), critic, publicist, and a famous educator of the 19 th century. Interestingly, “Materials for the biography of F.M. Dostoevsky”, published in 1883, were not fully republished and did not receive sufficient scientific understanding until 2010, even though the work of O.F. Miller remained the main source the experts studying F.M. Dostoevsky. Of much importance is the fact that some parts of “Materi- als for the biography of F.M. Dostoevsky” appeared on the Internet only after 2012. This paradox highlights the importance of the re- search describing the biography. In 2010, the personal history “Materials for the biography of F.M. Dostoevsky” became an integral part of the academic thesis by K.A. Okisheva “F.M. Dostoevsky and O.F. Miller: the history of relationships”. Our present study highlights the importance of biographies for the education of young generations. Our major concern is the methodology, according to which per- sonal history’s information serves as an essential part of roundtable discussions which simultaneously target the acquisition of F.M. Dos- toevsky’s biography and innovative classroom activities. Keywords: facilitation technologies, the methodology of literary criticism education, educational activity, the systematization of knowledge, group work, the biography of the writer. 1. Introduction The main concern of the paper is the theoretical and methodologi- cal problems of the biography genre in modern literary criticism. There is much evidence that the main problems of personal history genre have not yet been systematically presented. Of much im- portance are key issues which are as follows: the questions about the meaning and phenomenon of biography as a genre and the grounds for its popularity, features and contradictions associated with the novelization and interpretation of facts, the subjectivity and ethical standards of biographers, the typological problems of biographical works, the types of biographical sources, the princi- ples of building a scientific biography of a famous person, etc. Another target of the research is the integration of biographical material into educational framework. The main challenge faced by many researchers is successful personal history classes in educa- tional process. It is now well established that the study of a writ- er’s biography in schools and universities still comes down to a brief reference to his life and work. The main disadvantage of such classes is the fact that the biographical information is limited to a brief overview. The major problem with this kind of practice is that teachers provide their students with a humble story (lecture) or an illustrative presentation with brief explanations. There is an increasing concern that the studies on a writer’s biography serve as a psychological and aesthetic preparation for the study of liter- ary and artistic work. Obviously, such classes will not be effective if they do not instill in students the interest to the writer’s person- ality and creativity. A pivotal role here plays the type of biography presentation, a conscious selection of the necessary material and the method of its presentation in class. This paper attempts to show practical educational activities target- ing the study of a writer’s biography with the help of the facilita- tion technology called “World Café” [1]. To allow deeper insights we analyzed the literary material from the first part of the posthu- mous biography research “Materials for the biography of F.M. Dostoevsky”. The compiler of the personal history was Orest Fedorovich Miller (O.F. Miller), a Russian critic, publicist, the enlightener of the 19 th century, the Professor of Literature from St. Petersburg University. In later life F.M. Dostoevsky estab- lished close personal and cooperative literary-social relations with O.F. Miller that is why this person was in the know of important issues of Dostoevsky’s life. 2. Methods and Materials To conduct exploratory study we used historiographic, literary, and methodological resources and materials. A major advantage of this method is a comprehensive vision of different aspects of Dos- toevsky’s life. To gain a detailed understanding of Dostoevsky’s biography, we relied on the idea of dialectical development, which was the basis of such principles of historical and literary research as historicism, objectivity, and system. To assess the class man-