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Biography Studies

Description: 

In this unit, students will read a biography and learn about the person’s events in life, major accomplishments, character traits, and turning points in life. Students will also figure out the author’s message and the theme of the biography.

Students will use the “Who Was” series for this unit. Teachers can integrate this unit in writing and also use this format in February for Black History Month.

Learning Targets: 
Students will know the timeline of events of the character’s life after reading the biography they were assigned to.
Students will know the character traits shown by the character and will know to use the sample character traits list to describe the traits.
Students will know the turning points in the character’s life to learn the lesson(s) that the character’s life teaches.
Students will be able to use graphic organizers to organize the 5 different categories in this unit (major events, major accomplishments, character traits, turning points, and theme/author’s message). Students will be able to use the paragraph template t
Students will be able to use Adobe Spark to create a video of their biography report. Students will be able to use Google Docs and Seesaw to share their biography report and video online.
Link: 
Biography Unit Planning Document
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17srij3lKRgDxex7LlMNpZItX0nEd3vSwaF2B2Bj8LNg/edit
Author: 
leej
Content Area: 
Language Arts
Language: 
English
Resource Type: 
Project
Licensing: 
Creative Commons Licence
Grade: 
3
4
5
Common Core Language Arts
Common Core Language Arts: 
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.1
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.2
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.3
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.2b

What concepts or procedures are being explained or demonstrated in this lesson object?

  1. Students are assigned to a character and are given the biography to read.

  2. Students take notes while reading. Students use the assigned graphic organizers to organize timeline of major events, major accomplishments, character traits, turning points, and theme/author’s message.

  3. Students use their EmPower Brain Frames (graphic organizers) to complete their paragraph templates.

  4. Students use their EmPower paragraph templates to develop their paragraphs. There are at least 5 paragraphs, at least one for each category.

  5. Students peer edit each other’s drafts and revise their drafts.

  6. Students type their edited and revised draft.

  7. Teacher edits student’s typed draft.

  8. Students edit and revise their draft.

  9. Students print their typed report.

  10. Students make a poster to display their biography report.

What was your experience, both successes and challenges, using this lesson object with your students?

Feedback will be provided after the lesson has been taught.