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Introduce Vocabulary: Frida (Winter)
Combine vocabulary in context with art history using Jonah Winter's colorful biography Frida. Although there are quite a few words you could teach from this text, four are listed here with connecting questions: ill, imitate,...
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Introduce Vocabulary: Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King (Marzollo)
Looking for a vocabulary lesson relevant to MLK Day? Try this reading comprehension idea designed around Jean Marzollo's biography Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King. Go over new terms (freedom, justice, leadership, and talent) before...
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Valentine's Day: Love Letters
Oh the joys of love! As a special Valentine's Day assignment, budding authors research the life of one of the most romantic poets, Keats. They read the letter, "To Fanny Brawne, 13 October 1819," then compose a love letter of their own....
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Dr. Seuss and Read Across America
What important facts about Dr. Seuss influenced the Read Across America movement...? This is the driving question of a research project that requires scholars to find information about Dr. Seuss' life and work. Class members write a...
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Painting Faces: Interpreting Portraits
Over the course of four sessions, upper elementary learners explore the elements of visual art and portraiture and the work of Canadian painter Robert Harris (links included). (Paintings by any portrait artist will fit the plan; choose...
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Creative Writing: Children's Building Blocks
Your class can participate in a writing program involving four building blocks. By exploring words, sentences, writing forms, and story organization, they improve their creative writing skills throughout this year-long unit. Early in the...
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Writing with Writers
Students participate in Writing with Writer's, a step-by-step set of directions aimed at improving different genres of student writing. They identify the characteristics of different genres and follow a specified writing process to...
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Writing a Biography - Mark Twain
Students write a biography. In this biography lesson, students discuss what a biography is and how to write one. They research Mark Twain, answer questions, and write a biography about his life.
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Writing a Biography - Helen Keller
Students write a biography of Helen Keller. This lesson takes more than one class period. They may have to do the research during a class period, and then them write their paper at home or during class the following day.
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Olympic Biographies
Students create a book of biographies in order to profile famous Olympic athletes through history. In this biography writing lesson, students research information about historic Olympians, first by listening to a short biography on Jesse...
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"Wright-ing" Biographies for Young Readers
Students research the life of the Wright brothers or another famous person, write a draft biography, peer edit, make edits, and share the final biography with a younger reader. Lesson can be adapted for younger and older learners.
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Biographical Activity
Young scholars particpate in discussion about biographies in order to become familiar with the term. They type their "Biography" using a word processing program and learn the cut/paste functions to transfer information from their...
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Write like David Shannon
Students distinguish various books by David Shannon from other authors, compare three of Shannon's books for similarities, list various possible settings for stories, integrate Shannon's pattern of writing into their own, and formulate...
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A Mirror into History
Are we really all that different from people in the past? First, learners of all ages write an autobiographical poem. Then, they research the lives of historical figures. They use the same format that they used to write their own poem to...
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Biography
Young scholars choose a historical figure in which they research their life. They are to write their biography. They should take the written version and transform it into a video which tells the person's life. They share their...
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Biography Book Report
Students read a biography of someone of their choice and write a book report about it. They create a cover page with illustrations to accompany their report. They are graded on the rubric included in the lesson.
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Living Biographies
Third graders create a multimedia slide presentation containing facts, graphics, and sounds relating to a biographical figure based on their reading of a biography or an autobiography. They present their slide presentations before the...
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Writing a Biography - Part Three
Students edit and revise a first draft of an essay which they are in the process of writing. They proofread for grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors while using their word processing skills.
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Reading the Biography
Students explore the lives of famous Americans. In this biography lesson plan, students read biographies about famous Americans and keep reading journals as they read about setting, main events, and character sketches.
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Biography and Portraiture
Students determine the relationship between biography and portraiture. In this biography and portraiture lesson, students decide upon the differences and similarities between biography and portraits and whether or not biographical...
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Writing for Advanced ESL Learners
Learners complete many creative writing assignments in their advanced ESL class. In this creative writing lesson plan, students complete book reports, folktales, biographies, historical journal entries, and more.
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A Hero Biography Project
Fourth graders study historical significant people born in January and February and note their accomplishments. Using given websites, 4th graders collect biographical information and participate in activities about a specified hero. ...
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Story Writing
Students work in groups to create a story that will be presented to the class. In this story writing instructional activity, students complete a project planning sheet, work together to create a story that includes a hero and at least...
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Writing a Bibliography
Students research information and then write a biography. In this Historical Biography lesson, students discuss the key components that comprise a biography, choose a person to research and then write a biographical research paper on...