Boston Public Schools
What's in a Biography?
Reinforce research skills, close reading, teamwork, and biographical writing skills with one collaborative lesson. Groups create slide shows detailing the elements of a biography through a presentation on a famous American person. Based...
Teach with Movies
Teaching Students to Write a Narrative
Encourage narrative writing with a clever exercise. Class members watch episodes from movies and describe what happened to a character, including details about the setting, plot, and characters. Writers then craft a narrative about a...
Curated OER
Biography
Transform a written biography into a video biography! Introduce your learners to the biography format by reading them a few examples (some suggestions are included). Then discuss the factors that make a good biography. What information...
Curated OER
My Antonia: Body Biography Book Report
Examine the characters in Willa Cather's My Antonia with a group project. Small groups illustrate their chosen character on a large piece of paper and choose quotes from the text that tell about the character. Where learners choose to...
Curated OER
Writing: Narrative, Expository, Persuasive, and Descriptive
If you are interested in having a basic framework for teaching expository, narrative, persuasive, and descriptive writing, this resource may help; however, you will have to find information on the different forms of writing to share with...
Curated OER
Biography
Students 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 presentations...
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
Living History- An Intergenerational Philanthropy
Students gather information from a senior friend to write a biography. In this living history books lesson, students organize information to complete a book about their senior friend. Detailed teacher instructions for completing the book...
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
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.
Curated OER
Reading the Biography
Students explore the lives of famous Americans. In this biography lesson, students read biographies about famous Americans and keep reading journals as they read about setting, main events, and character sketches.
Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Identity Lesson 2: The Historical/Biographical Approach
"How does our environment shape our identity?" After researching biographical information about John Knowles and considering how these experiences are reflected in A Separate Peace, class members consider the strengths and weaknesses of...
ReadWriteThink
Robert Frost Prompts the Poet in You
A great poem begins with an idea, an image, or an event that evokes a feeling. Middle schoolers read biographical information about Robert Frost and then identify details in three of his poems that reflect his life. Using suggestions...
Curated OER
The Soundtrack of One's Life
Students research a historical person and the time in which he/she lived. They write a biography including images and at least four songs from the time period in which the person lived.
Curated OER
Biographies in a Box Come to Life
Students use the Internet to research someone's biography.
Curated OER
Step into the Painting: Social Studies, Literature, and Art
Travel back in American history to the era of slavery and abolition. After reading about the Underground Railroad, young historians examine a painting depicting the event, and write a narrative from the point of view of a person in the...
Curated OER
A Pixie Biography Report
Learners practice biographical writing after completing research on the subject. In this journalism lesson, students read a story of an important person's life and discuss the important moments along the way. Learners utilize their...
Curated OER
Writing and Sharing Community Stories
Learners use interviewing skills to explore and express the culture of their community. In this literacy/writing lesson, students interview a community member as a basis for a biographical writing project. Each class member contributes a...
Curated OER
Houdini Report
Students write a biography after thy have found facts from the Houdini website. They complete a report using the organizational trait. Students use the internet to complete their fact sheets on Houdini. They discuss organization and...
Curated OER
Biopoem
Reinforce the actions, emotions, and characteristics that determine what a character is like by having your middle schoolers create a biopoem using the model presented here. You could engage them first by having them write a poem about...
Curated OER
Author's Day
Have your learners choose an author to study. One resource link gives a list of approved authors. Scholars read at least three works produced by that author and produce three separate book reports as well as a two-page author report....
Judicial Branch of California
American Heroes
What makes a hero? After discussing the term and considering a book about Franklin D. Roosevelt, classmates work together to write a script and present their biography of a Great American hero. Notes sheets help group members organize...
Teaching with Europeana
Who Was Don Quixote de la Mancha?
Scholars take part in five learning sessions with the novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes as the resource's anchor text. Participants watch videos, perform jigsaws, ask and answer questions, write summaries, read...
Curated OER
Biocomplexity Research: Wanted: Biocomplexity Scientist
Middle schoolers use the internet to research and create a Biography of a Biocomplexity Scientist. They name one scientist that they have investigated in the past few years and explain what they did. Students are given a list of 30...