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3 Creative Ideas for Teaching Biographies Your Students Will Love

There is so much power in teaching our students about history using biographies. We can all learn from the success and failures of others. But biographies often get a bad rap of being dry and boring. It doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, through this genre, our students can practice many different reading skills and strategies. That’s why I use graphic organizers that will allow my students to recall information from the biographies in creative ways. I am excited to share these 3 creative ideas for teaching biographies using fun and exciting graphic organizers I know your students will love!

Teaching Biographies can be Exciting

When teaching biographies in my classroom I like to immerse my students into the lives of the person they are learning about. From decorating the classroom to dressing up like the person we are studying, the possibilities are endless. This really helps to “bring the person to life” and make the learning more engaging and realistic for our students.

No matter what biography you are focusing on, these 3 creative ideas for teaching biographies are going to be so fun your kids will be begging for more!

1. EXTRA! EXTRA!

Read all about it in this year’s edition of the 3rd grade Daily Times. And that’s the hook! One of my favorite ways to immerse my students into learning is to turn them all into little reporters. At the end of our biography unit, we create a newspaper. It includes articles about each of the people of influence we focused on. I can’t tell you how excited my students get when they hear they will be writing and “publishing” a newspaper!

I like to put students in groups of 3 or 4. Then, give each one a person they will be focusing on. As a group, they must choose graphic organizers to will help them record information about their person. They can read an article that I provide, get information from a book, or research the person on a safe search site.

After reading the information about their person, they use the graphic organizers they chose to record important information about the person. This is the “interview” for the article.

Pulling it all Together

Next, it’s time to put the information from the graphic organizers all together. They will write all of the information in one article that will be included in our newspaper. The newspaper can be tangible if you want your students to assemble it and include their own drawings. But, it can also be digital with each group focusing on specific slides. This can then be projected on a whiteboard or viewed on a tablet or computer.

Not only is it a great way for students to learn from informative text, but it also gives you a fun and easy way to assess their learning. Sharing the newspaper in the school library is sure to be a hit. Teachers or librarians can read the newspaper articles to classes when they visit the library. So cool!

This really is such a great way for me to teach biographies in an easy way my students love!

2. The Life and Times…

This is a fun timeline activity that begs to be interactive! When teaching biographies, I love to use timelines because it gives students a concrete visual of when key events took place. This helps students better able to identify with the life of the person they are studying.

For example, if we are focusing on Amelia Earheart, I create a huge timeline that goes around my classroom. We start at the beginning and focus each day on an aspect of her life. We add information to the timeline as we go, and this is where those awesome graphic organizers come into play.

With a cause and effect graphic organizer, I can ask my students to think critically about events in the life of Amelia Earheart. Then we can discuss how those events shaped her future. As we learn about other things that are happening in the world, we can add those to the timeline as well.

I can’t tell you how awesome it is to get those “lightbulb” moments! I love when students make connections between world events and the person they are studying.

The end of our timeline activity concludes with a flipbook with all the information we have learned about Amelia Earheart. My kids really love this activity because they are allowed to get up and walk around. They take their clipboards to make notes from the timeline to help them complete the information for the flipbook. It’s a great way for them to show off their learning when they take it home.

3. Pick a Person

This is a really fun way to build excitement when teaching biographies. I put the names of all the people I want my students to choose from when working on their biographies. Then, after arranging my class into 4 or 5 groups, it’s time for the choosing ceremony. Each team gets to reach inside a basket and draw the name of a person. This will be the person they will be responsible for reporting on at the end of the unit.

Next, each group has to do some research on the person of influence they will be focusing on. This could mean a special trip to the library for the group to check out a book, some safe search research on the computer, or even a look through our biographies section of our class book boxes. I think this is a great way to give your students a little independence and responsibility they will be overjoyed to get.

Graphic organizers are so great for biographies because there is so much information available out there. It can feel overwhelming for kids to try to organize their thoughts and recall important facts and details about the lives of the people we are studying. They are a great way to get our students to really focus on what’s important and what they want to include in their presentations.

The Presentations

Now, it’s time for the really fun part! I give my students some time to think about how they could present their information to the class. Some groups like to use technology and create a video slideshow, a recorded skit, or even a self-made news clip featuring their famous person. Other groups may want to get creative and make a poster with visual images representing the information they learned about the person they are focusing on.

If a free choice scenario isn’t your cup of tea, consider making a list of presentation options you would be comfortable with. By giving students some choice in their final presentation you really get to see them tap into strengths and creativity. No matter how you choose to have your students present the information, chances are they will have a blast doing it!

Grab Your Free Biography Graphic Organizers

I have put together my favorite graphic organizers to use when teaching biographies and you can grab them for free! Just join the Keep ’em Thinking community to get access to the Free Resource Library. You can find these biography graphic organizers and lots more!

Just sign-up below and grab your free graphic organizers today!

Teaching Biographies is a Breeze

Teaching biographies really is a breeze! With customizable graphic organizers to help your students, they will not only focus on the information they are learning but recall it.

And . . . if you need some ready-to-use biographies check out the Keep ’em Thinking store . You can find a variety of biography resources that are perfect to use with the graphic organizers.

Be sure to save these creative ways for teaching biographies ideas to your favorite Pinterest teacher board so you can come back any time for even more fun and exciting biography activities!

• Read more about: Critical Thinking , Picture Books , Reading and ELA , Thinking Skills , Writing

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Biography Lesson Plan: An Introduction to Biographies

Submitted by: stacey lopez.

In this lesson plan which is adaptable for grades 1-5, students will use BrainPOP and/or BrainPOP Jr. resources to learn about biographies. Students will then select a person whose biography they would like to read (or watch a short video about on BrainPOP). Finally, students will write their own biography on a selected person.

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

Students will:.

• Define and explain what a biography is.
• Read or watch an example of a biography.
• Compose a biography.
• Computer with internet access for BrainPOP
• Interactive whiteboard (or just an LCD projector)
• Chart Paper
• Markers--variety of colors
• Sticky notes and pencils for students
• Biography template (optional)

Preparation:

Lesson procedure:.

• Explain to students that a biography of a famous person includes many facts. Ask them to take notes while they are watching either the BrainPOP Biography movie or the BrainPOP Jr. Biography movie. Explain that they will contribute to a class anchor chart about biographies.
• After the movie has finished, ask each student for a fact to add to the anchor chart. Alternate the colors to make it exciting. Students will be able to identify their contribution to the class anchor chart.
• Ask to students to read or watch a biography for a selected person in order to gather more information. Students could watch any of the BrainPOP topics in the Famous Historical Figures Unit or BrainPOP Jr. Biographies Unit , or read about the person's life in a book or online. Instruct students to take more notes while reading.
• Talk with students about the common features their biographies shared. What makes a good biography? Add to the anchor chart as needed.
• Each student may then write their own biography of another person using some of the facts that the class gathered.

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• ELEMENTARY TEACHING , INTEGRATED CURRICULUM ACTIVITIES

Teaching Biographies To Elementary Students (Grades 1-5) in 2024

Teaching biographies can feel intimidating at first, but once you have a solid understanding of the genre, a roadmap of how to teach it, and teaching resources and activities, it’s easy! This post will equip you with all of that and more! You’ll feel prepared (and maybe even excited) about teaching biographies (especially if you are using this biography project and these biography activities )!

The Benefits Of Students Reading Biographies

There are so many benefits of teaching biographies and autobiographies! Readers are transported into that person’s life. They learn all about the person’s achievements, struggles, culture, life lessons, and personality. Biographies can also teach us about the world through the eyes of the subject while allowing the reader to make connections to them. Most students can find biographies they enjoy when they find people to read about that connect with their likes and dislikes to top it off. 

How To Introduce The Biography Genre To Students

The easiest way to introduce and teach biographies is by gathering as many biographies and autobiographies as possible from your classroom library, school, and public library. Make sure that all the books you collect are around your student’s reading levels. This idea works for any theme.

Then, set out the books you collected on each of your students’ tables and have them explore. Ask them to write down what they notice. What do all the books have in common? Have students write down their findings on chart paper. 

Next, have each table share with the class what they noticed. They should come up with some ideas like: 

• They are all about people.
• The person accomplished something big.
• They all include essential dates or a timeline of the person’s life.
• They included real pictures or illustrations of the person.
• The books all tell factual information, and there are no made-up stories.

Lastly, tell students that books with these characteristics are called biographies or autobiographies. Be sure to tell students the difference between biographies and autobiographies too. Create an anchor chart to hang up for students to reference throughout your biography unit! 

4 Ideas For Biography Mini Lessons

After introducing biographies, try one of these mini-lesson ideas for teaching biographies! 

• Have students pick a person they are interested in learning more about. Then have them find books about the person and complete a research project about that person to present to the class. You could even take it a few steps further and have students share what they learned in costume as the person they researched in a wax museum activity! 
• Have students create a social media page of the person they learned about in their biography
• Have students read about a person of interest, and then write journal entries as that person. 
• You could make it seasonal! Around fall, have students paint a pumpkin like a person they read about and present important events or accomplishments as they share their pumpkin. In spring, students could make biography flowers where the center was a photo of the person, and the petals are important events and accomplishments. 

Strategies For Using Mentor Texts To Model Reading Biographies

Teaching biographies is simple when you use these strategies!

First, pick any biography or autobiography mentor text and read it aloud. Ok, maybe not ANY. Be sure to choose one that will be engaging to your students. Think about the things they enjoy and go from there. I love picture books because students can generally read them in one session. (Make sure you preview the text first and mark with sticky notes to remember to stop and discuss during the read-aloud!)

Stop at important dates, accomplishments, life lessons, or significant life events to discuss. I even stop to discuss any figurative language or text features included. This will help students with both reading and writing! Students generally have TONS of connections to share during biography read alouds that lead to great conversations. 

How To Teach Students To Write Biography Reports

One way to help students learn how to write biographies is to write their first one about themselves! Students can brainstorm what should be included in their biography by creating a timeline that includes important events in their life. Then, they use the timeline to help them write their biography in chronological order. You can model this with a biography about yourself on an anchor chart for students to use if they need help. This is also an excellent way to get to know each other at the beginning of the year! 

When it comes to writing biographies about other people, students need to have read several biographies to get an idea of how authors organize this type of writing. When you read aloud, be sure to point out that authors of biographies generally write the story of the person’s life from beginning to end. So students will need to be familiar with sequential order/chronological order text organization. Have students fill in a timeline when you model during read alouds. Point out that biographies usually focus on a part of the person’s life that taught them a life lesson. This biography project and biography activities are great resources for teaching biographies.

Resources for Teaching Biographies

Here are some resources for teaching biography:

1. Biography Project for Elementary Students

Are you looking to begin using a biography project ? Perhaps you are just looking for something better than you already use. If so, this is the resource you need! It is a great resource for teaching elementary students about biographies.

This is a great project to complement a genre study of biographies, an author study, social studies concepts and more. I’ve recently updated the entire product so that it now includes an option to do the Living Biography Museum where families come into school and the students “perform” in character OR can instead be used simply as an independent research project in class or as a homework assignment.

The twist is that instead of having the students dress in costume (which can be a hassle for the parents since most kids can’t put their own costume together) they make a poster board costume with a space for their head to pop through.

A-DOR-ABLE!!!

In the past I’ve done the living museum and had students prepare a brief speech to recite in character. This year I opted to send it home as a homework project and will instead take their photos with their poster board and display them with the written report.

This download now includes BOTH the original version and my new and improved updated version as well. If you have high achieving students who need enrichment this is a perfect activity for them to do on their own or you can use it with an entire class. It’s ideal for grades 2-5.

This biography project contains everything you need to have your students complete a project of their very own to present in class or at a Living Biography Museum.

What is included in this biography project?

Make teaching biographies fun by incorporating this biography project , which includes the following:

• Grading rubrics / criteria checklist
• Graphic organizer to plan writing
• Graphic organizer to record sources
• Student writing pages
• Poster board visual directions 

5 Reasons Why Teachers Love It

Below are 5 reasons why teachers love using this resource for teaching biographies.

• This comprehensive biography project includes differentiated materials, so all you will be able to meet all of your students’ needs and your they will feel successful.
• The project makes a challenging concept accessible for elementary students.
• This resource facilitates a fun hands-on learning experience that offers opportunities for students to practice important skills without them even realizing it.
• This print and go resource will save you lots of time planning and prepping.
• It is aligned to the Common Core Standards, so it will give you peace of mind knowing your students are practicing important grade level skills.

How to Implement the Project in Your Classroom

You can either do a Living Biography Museum where families come in to school and the students perform in character or it can instead be used simply as an independent research project in class or as a homework assignment.

How I Used the Resources in My Classroom to Teach Biography

We had so much fun making these bio poster boards.

As a bonus, the kids learned a ton.

I started by having them complete oodles of activities from my biography activities packet which acquainted them with a whole bunch of famous folks.

Then I had them work in teams to research Benjamin Franklin. They had discussions about why he was famous. They talked about his accomplishments. Finally, they each wrote about him in the 1st person and performed a monologue as if they were Ben.

To make it oh-so-much-more-fun, I gave them each a poster board to use as a “costume.”

I’m now having them each select their own historical figure of choice to repeat the process as an independent project at home.

I seriously loved this project. The kids did too.

They enjoyed walking around wearing their poster boards and singing, “Who flew a kite in a storm and made history… Ben Franklin Square Pants.”

They also enjoyed having “conversations” with each other while wearing the poster board.

Kid 1: Hey Ben

Kid 2: Yo Ben

Me: **Listening carefully how this conversation is going to go.**

Kid 1: Ben, I really liked how you proved lightning was electricity.

Kid 2: Thanks Ben. You know you’re awesome, right? I mean, you signed the Declaration of Independence and all.

Kid 1: I know dude, right? I totally rock!

And then there was the boy who did a stellar job with his presentation… and then ended it by yelling, “Thank you Philadelphia. Ben Franklin has left the building.”

Third graders make me laugh.

2. Biography Activities for Elementary Students

These biography activities are great resources for teaching biographies to elementary students. It provides teachers with no prep printable biography activities that can be used over and over when studying any person.

This unit was designed to enhance the study of individuals. The activities can be used as part of a genre study or within the content areas. I have also used them with author studies and have had the children complete them as autobiographies about themselves.

What is included in this resource?

This biography activities resource includes 7 activities. Learn about them below!

1. Biography Poster

Students gather information about any individual and use their research to create an 8.5 x 11 inch poster. The poster has spaces to record the person’s name, date of birth, place of birth, interesting facts, reasons of importance and character traits. They then draw a portrait of their individual.

2. My Life in Pictures: A Scrapbook Biography Project

To complete this biography, activity the student will take on the role of the individual they are studying. The student can either draw illustrations or print and attach photos highlighting important parts of the individual’s life. The student then writes captions. This biography report is so much more fun than writing an essay and more pages can be added as enrichment.

3. Top-Down Topic Web

This graphic organizer shows the relationships to the main idea and details. They represent main ideas in a hierarchy. These research-based tools help the students to comprehend what they have read because it organizes ideas in a systematic, visual graph.

4. The Important Book Biography Activity

The Important Book is a great book for teaching students about writing patterns. This activity was modeled after the format of that book and was designed to encourage students to identify key, important facts about the person they are studying. It makes a great bulletin board display.

5. Body Biography

A Body Biography project is a combination of artwork and writing. The packet includes a poster to use as directions or to display with the students’ completed biography projects. They complete sections such as a speech bubble with a quote by the individual, a thought bubble to show what they have thought about, shoes labeled with places the person has been, a heart filled with character traits. They then draw objects in the hands that relate to the person and create a background that tells the viewer more about the historical figure.

6. Timeline Biography Report

Unlike a lengthy written report, this is a creative way to showcase important events in the person’s life. Students identify key moments and tell about them in words and pictures. They are added to a foldable accordion booklet in sequential order.

7. I AM Poem

An I AM Poem is typically completed as an autobiography. I also have my students do one about themselves to learn more about them. The format is also great for showing what they know about a person they have learned about. The students take on the role of that person to write the poem in the first person.

• These biographies activities are high-interest for students, so they’ll be motivated to learn through reading and researching.
• This comprehensive resource includes differentiated materials, so all you will be able to meet all of your students’ needs and your students will feel successful.
• Your principal, colleagues and school librarian will be impressed by the creative methods of sharing learned information and the integrated learning that takes place.
• The resources can be used with an biography study and be used over and over again.

How to Implement it in Your Classroom

It’s part of our social studies curriculum and technically it is a study of Massachusetts Biographies, but we began learning about the genre with a mini-study of Martin Luther King Jr.

I read several picture books and the students buddy read a free printable reader from A to Z.

We created a top-down web listing information that we learned about MLK.

Then I read The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown, and the students completed an activity I created for my biography packet that was inspired by the book. They used the same format as Brown’s book to compose their own version, “The important thing about Martin Luther King Jr. is…”

Finally, each of my friends made a portrait of MLK using the directions from TLC. They came out crazy cute. I hung each of them up even though I’ll probably take them down and send them home soon. They were just too adorable not to display.

Today, we did another activity (The I Am Poem) from the biography activities packet and a craftivity to go with it. I really feel like I am able to get to know my students on a completely different level through projects like these. They really open up and share such sweet ideas and insight into who they are.

3. Biography Picture Books

Belo are 4 high-quality biography children’s books for elementary students.

1. Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport

Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport is a nonfiction picture book that teaches children about the life and dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Students will learn what life was like for Martin growing up and how he became a leader in the fight for equal rights.

Throughout the book, the author includes actual quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. This book explains how Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged people to use their words to make change and the impact he had on the country. This story follows Martin all the way from childhood through the end of his life.

I liked this book so much I added it to my Starts With a Story collection! Grab these Martin’s Big Words activities to deliver a highly engaging and purposeful interactive read aloud!

2. The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles

The Story of Ruby Bridges details the struggles that six-year old Ruby Bridges endured when she was chosen to attend an all-white, segregated school as a black girl.

All of the other students’ parents pulled their children out of school because of her, and so she was forced to attend class all alone. She was escorted by U.S. Marshalls every morning, as she had to listen to jeers and insults being thrown at her while she was entering the school.

Despite these hardships, Ruby’s courage through non-violent actions did so much for the civil rights movement, and later that year, two white boys started to attend school with her. This inspirational true story teaches children that, no matter what age you are, anyone can be a trailblazer for change.

I liked this book so much I will be adding it to my Starts With a Story collection! Grab these The Story of Ruby Bridges activities to deliver a highly engaging and purposeful interactive read aloud!

3. The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: The Story of Temple Grandin by Julia Finley Mosca

The story The Girl Who Thought in Pictures follows the life of Temple Grandin. The story starts off with Temple being born, and the doctors thinking that she needed to be sent away because she was different. Temple liked to watch things spin, did not like loud noises or crowds, anything that was itchy, or big squeezy hugs. She also did not talk until she was three. Temple got diagnosed with Autism. Her mom said that Temple was “different, not less.”

When Temple goes to school, the children there would tease her relentlessly. One day, Temple’s mom thinks that it would be better for Temple to stay on her aunt’s ranch. There, Temple finally feels comfortable and explores ways to help animals. Temple goes to college and gets three degrees! Now she travels the world giving speeches and spreading hope. She spreads the message that the world needs brains of all kinds.

I liked this book so much I added it to my Starts With a Story collection! Grab these The Girl Who Thought in Pictures activities to deliver a highly engaging and purposeful interactive read aloud!

4. Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpre by Anika Denise

The sixth picture book on the list of books that are great for teaching biographies is Planting Stories . It is a biographical picture book about Pura Belpre, who was the first Puerto Rican Librarian in New York City. When she started working the library, she realized that there weren’t any of the stories and folktales that she was familiar with in Puerto Rico. She decides to share her stories during story hour and through puppet shows, and eventually publishes a book.

Pura travels across the country and from classroom to classroom planting her story seeds and educating about her homeland. When she returns to the library, she sees that her story seeds have bloomed and everyone is telling her stories. Students will love learning about Pura and how she shared her stories with children everywhere.

I liked this book so much I added it to my Starts With a Story collection! Grab these Planting Stories activities to deliver a highly engaging and purposeful interactive read aloud!

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Teaching Biographies: Activities and Ideas

Teaching with biographies and ben franklin.

• My Storyboards

Introduction to Biographies

A biography is an account of someone’s life that is told by someone else. It can be about a famous person or about an ordinary person who has done interesting things. Biographies usually center around a person’s life and positive ways that they have contributed to the world. They are a great way for kids to learn about elements of nonfiction, organization, research, and expository writing. It is also fun to learn about someone who has made a difference! The following activities will provide students with many different ways to organize information and show what they have learned.

Student Activities for Biographies

Essential Questions for Biographies

• Where and when was this person born?
• What was this person’s childhood like?
• What kind of education did this person have?
• What is/was this person’s family life like?
• What are/were this person’s accomplishments?
• What positive contributions has this person made to the world?
• Why did I choose this person?

Why Create Biographies?

When someone has a biography written about them, it is because they have done something in their life that others consider to be quite important--important enough to learn and write about! Usually the person has done something positive and admirable and is an inspiration to others.

In order to create a biography, students will learn about the person’s early life, childhood, education, family, and accomplishments. It is also important for the student to be able to express why they chose this person, and the impact this person has made on the world or the student’s life in particular. For example, students can ask: what can I learn from this person? What mistakes has this person made that I can relate to and grow from? How has this person inspired me?

When reading about and researching a person, students will encounter at least one theme, or recurring main idea, in a biography. The following is a list of potential themes:

• Sometimes life is tough and it takes strength to keep going.
• Believe in yourself and others will believe in you.
• No matter how many times you fail, never give up.
• The most difficult times in life can inspire others.
• Always have hope and stay positive.
• Know your worth: don’t let anyone drag you down.

Students should pay attention to what they think the theme is and be able to explain how they can learn from the person they are researching. Themes also make it much easier for students to present their chosen person's life as a narrative rather than a collection of facts.

Along with being able to identify the theme, there are certain elements of the biography genre that always need to be included in research if the information can be found. These elements are:

• Date and place of birth (and death, if applicable)
• Educational background
• Family life, either past, current, or both
• Adult life: job and current location, if applicable
• Major accomplishments

Other information like fun facts, quotes by or about the person, and photographs may also be included in the biography.

While researching an influential person , students will learn not only about the individual, but about many ways one person can change or contribute to the world. Learning about others helps us find the positive power within ourselves, and motivates us to be the best people that we can be. It is important for the student to fully be interested in learning about the person, so it is best if students choose on their own. Teachers may want to provide a list to help narrow down the choices by focusing on categories such as sports figures, entertainers, inventors, political figures, historical figures, change-makers, or someone the student knows personally. This way, they can make the biographies relevant to the unit they're teaching or the time of year!

How To Teach Biographies in an Elementary School

Explore life events in the story.

Start by talking about the key life events in the biography with students. Consider birth date, family life, education, jobs, and personal events. Guide students through the key life events in chronological order.

Talk About Themes

After they understand the event’s in a person’s life, you can lead them to discuss themes, or what they learn about life from the biographical story. Common themes include making a difference, overcoming obstacles, and always have hope.

Connect to Student's Life

Have students use a Venn Diagram to connect with the person in the biography. They can share things they have in common in the middle of the circles, and things that are different about each of them on the outside.

Draw it Out

Let students draw a body biography in order to understand the person more fully. Have them fill in body parts, such as putting what the character loves in the heart area, and drawing what the person thinks about up in the head.

Frequently Asked Questions about Biographies

How do biographies help students understand how individual people relate to the world around them.

When we read a story about how one person lived their life, we can better understand the power within ourselves and see how our lives matter. Every person influences the world around them.

What are some common themes that run through biographies?

Many biographies teach lessons such as how to overcome obstacles, believing in yourself, and making the most of what you have.

What universal elements are found in almost all biographies?

Most biographies explain a person’s birth and death dates (if they have died), what their childhood was like, their education, their work accomplishments and their personal or familial accomplishments.

Why should we read biographies?

When we read about other people's struggles and triumphs, we see what we have in common and are able to see the importance of our own life.

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Biographies: Creating Timelines of a Life

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Studying the lives of others and reading biographies is of interest and value to young learners. In this lesson, students explore multiple sources to create a timeline about the life of a person of their choosing. The experience requires students to work together and to research and resolve potentially conflicting pieces of information about the life they research. Extension activities include developing essays from the original research.

Featured Resources

Interactive Timeline : Use this online tool to help students record events in a selected person's life.

From Theory to Practice

In order to fill the void in her students' knowledge of people with "admirable qualities," Michele Keating introduced them to the genre of biography. She states: "My objective was to expose students to the many people, past and present, who are worthy of admiration and to explore together the dedication, creativity, and achievements of these people." (66) In the end, the biographical study "broadened their view of people worth admiring." (69)

Biographies can expose our students to a whole world of people who can inspire and motivate them. In this lesson students select their own person of interest and consult multiple sources to get to know them.

This lesson was originally developed with Maggie Chase and Bess Berghoff, Indiana University 1990.

Further Reading

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

Materials and Technology

• Biography text sets, created using the provided Websites
• Information on your personality of choice
• Strips of paper for timeline note taking (half a sheet of legal paper, 4.25"x14"), pens or pencils) optional instead of online Interactive Timeline)
• Internet access

Biography Selection & Rationale

Preparation

• Review the written lesson and suggested links. Gather sufficient materials to introduce the lesson—ideally 3-4 information resources for up to six personalities, to include 1) biographies written at the 2nd-5th grade level, preferably including numerous pictures and charts, 2) video tapes, and 3) Web resources. Potential personalities include famous presidents [Washington, Lincoln, Kennedy], inventors [Franklin, George Washington Carver, Madame C.J. Walker], scientists [Marie Curie, Edwin Hubble, Samuel Lee Kountz, Jr.], space explorers [Neil Armstrong, Sally Ride, John Glenn], or athletes [Jim Thorpe, Ichiro Suzuki, Lance Armstrong]. This initial selection must often be limited to personalities for whom you can locate multiple resources, but should include a range of ages, gender, cultures, occupations, and historical and modern day figures.
• Review use of the Interactive Timeline .
• Conduct a short inquiry of your own on a personality of interest as a means of introducing the lesson. Amelia Earhart is one personality for whom you are likely to find disparate information and various hypotheses regarding her disappearance. See The Last Flight Website for information and additional Web sources.

Student Objectives

Students will

• negotiate with peers to select persons of interest for their study.
• use a variety of information resources to synthesize, create, and communicate what they've learned on a timeline.
• negotiate with peers to select key events.
• research further to resolve conflicting information.

Session One: Introducing the Lesson

• Share your interest in the chosen personality and your quest for more information about that person. Leaf through a magazine article or book, sharing key events, show short clips from a video, and/or share several pieces of information on a Website.
• Highlight instances when the authors of the resources emphasize different aspects of the personality's life or when you run across conflicting dates or information. Share that resolving such conflicts is always a challenge for researchers, and generate with students an initial list of ways they might resolve conflicting source information.
• Introduce the initial set of resources, and invite groups of students to select and support with rationale two personalities worthy of the group's study among the collected resources, as well as two additional personalities (browsing the  Resources section is one source for additional names). Students can make their selections on loose sheets of paper, in a bound notebook, or on the included Biography Selection & Rationale .
• Ask students to work in small groups to make the selections and generate the rationale. If there is time, ask a spokesperson to share how different group members made their selections.
• Create a whole group list of preferred choices, dividing into those for whom resources are already gathered and those that will require a search and gathering of sources.
• Ask students to make an initial choice by adding their initials after the listed name of their choice. Indicate a deadline when resources must be collected for newly generated names—over the weekend is a workable timeframe—and join the students' search for those resources. The personality from the initial set of resources can serve as a "default" choice if resources can't be located, yet note that the quality of the research is enhanced by student commitment to a personality of interest so it can be well worth the effort to help students gather resources.

Session Two: Small Group Research

• Students are seated in groups of 3-5 with sufficient resources so that each student has his or her own text on the same personality (book, magazine article, CD-ROM, Website, video).
• Ask students to browse their texts quietly, mapping the key events on their timeline paper strip. Encourage sufficient flexibility for students to invent their own ways of taking notes on the timeline. Advise that including page numbers, URLs and counter information will aid them in revisiting information if necessary.
• All begin working quietly. Circulate to encourage those who are reading page-by-page to browse key subtitles, charts or photograph annotations. The independent work period should be limited to no more than 30-40 minutes.
• As the small groups begin to finish browsing their texts, encourage them to share the gathered information among themselves. What have they found? What information is new? of interest? a surprise?
• Ask the group to agree on 6-10 key events in the life of their personality. If computer access is limited and the online timeline tool must be shared, create a schedule so each group has the opportunity to enter the key events. Note that entering data and printing out the timeline must be accomplished in one sitting.

Session Three: Debriefing the Initial Research

• Conduct a full group discussion of the groups' work: What went well, what was a challenge? Which texts were helpful? Which were less helpful? How did the group decide on key events? How will they further explore conflicting information?
• Revisit the initial list of strategies to resolve conflicting information. Add strategies as necessary. Try the strategies out on one or two key conflicts as applicable.
• Post the class-generated strategies in the school library for on-going reference.
• Schedule additional small group work time to resolve conflicting information.
• Help teams develop short bibliographies of their resource text set, sharing the protocols for citation of the various sources.
• Create individual online timelines on figures of interest related to another course of study, i.e. world leaders, scientists, women explorers.
• Create autobiographical timelines.
• Recreate paper timelines, using colored pencils or fine tip markers to add illustrations.
• Use timelines as "notes" to write a fuller biography essay. One potential online tool that helps students manage their ideas and writing can be found at The Biography Maker Website .
• Begin another round of biography research, challenging students to research alone or in pairs, using the strategies developed in these introductory lessons.
• Categorize the attributes of the famous people you have studied. See the Images of Greatness Website as one example by a 4th/5th grade class.

Student Assessment / Reflections

• Group conversation
• Calendar Activities
• Student Interactives
• Strategy Guides

Students generate descriptive timelines and can include images in the description.

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All about Me and Other People, Using Biographies in Instruction

Author: Paula Deal | Posted: October 17, 2017 Categories: Library Media | Tags: Books , Instructional Strategies , lesson ideas

As students take a look at their own lives, this is a perfect time to add biographies to your class lessons. Reading about famous lives fits into just about any content area. Of course, English language arts is a given; but reading about famous people in history, the sciences and technology can be enriching and inspiring at all grade levels.

When I did biography booktalks for my students, I loved to use this analogy to help them remember the difference between a biography and an autobiography. I would remind them of Latin root words. “Bio” equals life and “graphy” means writing, so a biography is a book that someone writes about someone else. An autobiography begins with the root “auto,” meaning self; so an autobiography is a life story one writes about oneself, just like a person drives an “automobile” by oneself. Students still would get bibliography and biography confused, so I shared those Latin roots in their annotated bibliography assignment. (Hint: “biblio” means book.)

Those teachers in states using standards modeled after the Common Core are familiar with students in grades K-5 reading a range of informational text, defined in the standards to include “biographies and autobiographies, books about history, social studies, science, and the arts.” While grades 6-12, “Literary Nonfiction and Historical, Scientific, and Technical texts includes the subgenres of exposition, argument, and functional text in the form of personal essays, speeches, opinion pieces, essays about art or literature, biographies, memoirs, journalism.”

When students at my school read Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye , an English teacher and I co-taught a project to research a person who challenged the system. Fifteen years ago it was cutting edge to look for supporting resources both in print and online and then create a slide presentation that demonstrated what the person believed in and how they fought against the status quo. Teaching PowerPoint seemed innovative, and the kids couldn’t get enough of inserting pictures and playing with formatting. Now, a myriad of tech tools can easily be used to prepare and present multimedia presentations for a similar-type assignment. Here are some resources for using biographies in instruction.

Resources about Biographies

• When selecting biographies, try the Diverse Bookfinder from Bates College. The current list includes   these biographies .   This tool is in response to a major discussion about children and young adult literature, the lack of diversity in publishing.  See the survey from the Cooperative Children’s Book Center and 2015 infographic where 73% of books published were about white main characters and the statement from the American Library Association Division Association for Library Service to Children on the Importance of diversity in library programs and material collections for children.
• Association for Library Service to Children Best Websites for Kids, Biographies   
•   Delightful Children’s Books 30 Picture Books Biographies  can be used at all levels.
• Mr. Nussbaum Biographies for Kids  
• The Best Children’s Books, Biographies for Kids

Lesson Plans and Activities Using Biographies

• TeachersFirst has reviewed over sixty different websites and interactive tools on creating presentations that students can use for biography projects to avoid encyclopedia-style reports.
• The BioCube is an interactive to input biographical information.
• The StaplesLess Book is an interactive for almost any grade level that creates a booklet online that can be printed out.
• The Interactive Timeline   is an interactive tool to create with lesson plan of creating an autobiography timeline.
• Ms. Jordan Reads Blog Tech Tools for Biography Projects  .
• DigitalWish Biography Lesson Plans K-12 teaches about biographies using technology.
• Biography Brainstorm Middle School lesson plan can be adapted for any grade.
• Ten Ways To Teach Biographies for any grade level.
• Building Biographies : Bringing Real-Life Stories Into Your Curriculum.
• Great Sites for Teaching About Biographies .
• iRubric: Famous Person Poster Project  but use tech tools to make an online poster.
• Scholastic Introducing Biography Genre   Introducing Biography Genre and Getting to Know You lesson with graphic organizer.
• Scholastic   Simple Rubric  can be adapted for almost any biography project.
• BrainPOP  Biography Activities K-5 .
• Creative Educator Video Biography  project.
• Using Biography in the History Classroom lesson plan.

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About the author: paula deal.

Retired high school media specialist, Paula Deal, has been a pioneer in many shifts in the library sciences throughout her career. Paula contributes a monthly column on research, digital citizenship and other ways to find and use media resources in the classroom. View all posts by Paula Deal

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9 Quick Mini-Lesson Ideas for Biography Exploration

Listen to the full episode to hear 9 quick mini-lesson ideas:

Welcome to another episode to highlight February’s topic of biographies! If you listened to last week’s episode then your students should know what biographies are now that you’ve introduced them. Biographies may not seem like the most interesting genre, so today I’ll be sharing nine mini-lesson ideas that are going to be engaging and interesting for your students. These ideas should leave you inspired and focused on this nonfiction genre.

We all know that there are so many benefits to reading biographies and autobiographies, with so much we can learn about different people and their accomplishments. They are also a great way for students to learn about different cultures and events that have shaped our society today.

I have found that students can find biographies that they can be excited about when they are able to make connections to their likes and dislikes. We want them to remember all the important details of these people’s lives and what they have contributed to society. That is the hard part! 

Students will quickly lose interest if you assign the typical research project with an essay or handouts. That’s why I’ve shared nine mini-lesson ideas that will help your students remember these people and their life stories through interactive experiences.

I’m talking about games, interviews, and the use of modern technology to get each and every student involved in the lesson. There are even opportunities for performances, appealing to the interests of each and every student in your class.

Biographies are the perfect opportunity to get creative and get out of your comfort zone. There are so many interactive activities that can be done together as a class or assigned individually. I want to know which of these activities you used in your classroom and I can’t wait to hear how much fun your students had!

In this episode on 9 quick mini-lesson ideas, I share:

• 9 exciting mini-lesson ideas to explore biographies
• Whole group and individual activities for teaching biographies
• How to use graphic organizers to make learning memorable
• Tips for taking advantage of available resources

Related Resources:

• Free Biography Templates
• Easy Reader Biographies
• Black History Biography Activity Bundle
• Episode 68, Introducing and Teaching the Biography Genre

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About The Literacy Dive Podcast:

Do you find yourself seeking new ideas when it comes to literacy instruction in elementary classrooms? The Literacy Dive Podcast was created to offer actionable steps and to share information for teachers, like you, who are always looking to improve their craft! ELA is our jam and we are excited to dive into all things reading and writing with you!

Your host, Megan Polk, is the creator and owner behind The Literacy Dive and loves to support students and their teachers with curriculum, literacy instruction, best practices, and engaging literacy activities.

Dive in with us every Monday for a new episode from Megan! She, and her guests, will chat about various literacy topics and will bring you tips and tricks that can easily be implemented in your classrooms. You can tune in wherever you get your podcasts! Listen to The Literacy Dive Podcast on platforms like Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Google, and more! If you find value from listening to this podcast, please rate this show, leave a review, and follow!

You can tune in wherever you get your podcasts! Listen to The Literacy Dive Podcast on platforms like  Apple ,  Spotify ,  Stitcher ,  Google , and more! If you find value from listening to this podcast, please rate this show, leave a review, and follow!

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Ready to merge vocabulary AND writing TOGETHER?!! Grab this sample of high-impact writing prompts that will give meaningful practice with both important skills! Perfect for 2nd-6th grade teachers!

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Library Skills: Biography

This library skills: biography lesson plan also includes:.

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Biographies deserve special attention when training youngsters how to use the library because they are alphabetized by subject rather than by author. Guide children through the process of finding biographies over a two-visit series. On the second day, they illustrate a 6-page reproducible biography of Ernest Gallo (provided, along with samples of biography call numbers).

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Vocabulary development, a picture book of helen keller, care of my possessions, creating a picture dictionary, how does paper making contribute to economics, reading and writing about the solar system, circle time, jellybean graphs, comparing and contrasting.

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A Roundup of Labor Day Resources for Teachers

August 27, 2024

Posted by: Colleen Smith

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Labor Day , while often signaling an unofficial end to summer and start of a new school year, can also bring an opportunity for students to ask questions about and examine the relationship between workers and society. In this spirit, we’re highlighting a range of resources that teachers might use for teaching and learning about Labor Day and beyond.

Background on Labor Day 

Check out these resources for helpful background about Labor Day and the larger movement for worker’s rights in United States history. These articles and essays can support a teacher’s own understanding of labor issues and give students reputable secondary sources for building knowledge about the scope of labor issues, events, and achievements.

• The First Monday of September
• Today in History: 8-Hour Work Day
• Feb – Flint Michigan Sit Down Strike
• Mar – Triangle Shirtwaist Fire 
• Jun – Fair Labor Standards Act Signed 
• Dec – Formation of the American Federation of Labor

Teacher resources

This selection of teacher resources explores different angles of labor history and its impact on society. Teachers can use these materials to help students examine a range of issues including child labor, unions, Progressive Era reforms, and New Deal programs. Each resource uses primary sources to show how individuals and groups have organized to improve working conditions, fight for protections, and influence labor laws and policies.

• Progressive Era Issues and Reform Strategies 
• Extending the Child Labor Primary Source Set
• Historical Newspapers and an Early Labor Movement 
• Child Labor 
• The Industrial Revolution in the United States
• The New Deal 
• Work in the Late 19th Century 
• Cities During the Progressive Era
• Labor Unions During the Great Depression 

The Library’s collections

Teachers could use items from the Library’s online collections to build and complement their own lessons and units. Students might construct their own questions about an aspect of labor movements in the U.S. and go to these collections to conduct research. Each collection includes an “about” section as well as brief articles and essays. These supports help orient a user to the collection and inspire ways to get started. 

• National Child Labor Committee Collection
• American Life Histories: Manuscripts from Federal Writers Project
• Labor Day Topics in Chronicling America
• American Federation of Labor Collection
• Songs of Unionization, Labor Strikes, Child Labor

We hope you find some of these suggested resources helpful. We’d love to hear how you incorporated these or other items from the Library into your teaching. Drop us a line in the comments!

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Kindergarten Lesson Plans: ABC BOOTCAMP, Families, Sorting And Five Senses

• Greg Smedley-Warren
• August 24, 2024
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It’s week 4 of kindergarten, and our weekly kindergarten lesson plans are ready for ABC BOOTCAMP, sorting and comparing numbers, families and the five senses, and so much more! This week is all about procedures, routines, and relationships, so we will have lots of fun while learning!

So here’s what we have planned for week 4 of kindergarten!

Kindergarten Lesson Plans

As always, you can download our weekly lesson plans by clicking on the image!

You can get our lesson plan templates here:

Kindergarten Lesson Plans For ABC BOOTCAMP

This week we’re continuing ABC BOOTCAMP! The fun, the cutting skills, and the growth that we have with ABC BOOTCAMP are what make it a must-do! This week, we’re doing S F V Z P. We’re once again following the order of our required district curriculum.

For each letter, we do a circle chart, which is explicit instruction in sounds and letters using a sounds-first approach. We do explicit handwriting instruction. We also make a hat to build phonemic awareness and vocabulary while practicing cutting skills.

For handwriting, I explicitly model how to form each letter, and students practice independently!

We also practice writing the letter during our morning message!

And, of course, we make our ABC BOOTCAMP hats! This week, we’re making a sock, a fire, a zipper, a vampire and a pumpkin!

Weekly Lesson Plans: Phonemic Awareness Bootcamp

This week we also continue Phonemic Awareness Bootcamp! Phonemic Awareness Bootcamp is all about hearing the sounds and the oral language. We start with sentences and work our day down to sounds in words, segmenting etc. This research-based resource is designed for each lesson to take about 10 minutes, and then we move to ABC BOOTCAMP, which has explicit phonics and combines sounds and letters. This week in Phonemic Awareness Bootcamp, we’re working on breaking sentences into words. We will be counting the words in sentences using our bodies and sticky notes.

Kindergarten Lesson Plans: Five Senses

This week we’re continuing our Five Senses Research Project! This is part of our required district curriculum, but we try to add our own spin to make it more fun and appropriate. We’re using our Five Senses Research project!

This week we’re reading My Five Senses by Aliki We’re doing an evidence organizer and some sensory jars!

The sensory jars are from our curriculum but the curriculum used maybe four or five pictures and they’re black and white. We love this activity so we made it way better and more engaging. We use real photographs and decide if we can use our sense for that item. Then we use describing words for that sense.

Kindergarten Lesson Plans: Families

This week our social studies unit is all about families! We’re learning about different families and sharing all about our families!

This week we’re sharing what our families like to do, where we live, how many people are in our families and talking about pets!

And we end the week making handprints! Why handprints? Because they’re unique just like us and our families! And they’re a simple and cute display for this week’s open house!

Weekly Kindergarten Lesson Plans: Sorting, Counting And Comparing

This week we’re continuing Number Bootcamp with numbers 13-17

This week our cucciulum has a five lesson “unit” on sorting. The idea is to sort objects, count how many objects are in each group and discuss which one has more or less. After doing this unit last week, I’ve decided to take the skills and standards and create a Math It Up! resource. Why? My kids struggled with aspects of this unit last year and I feel like we can teach it more effectively using more appropriate, explicit instruction and lessons. Stay tuned for the finished product and the results of our lessons!

Here’s what we have planned:

Day 1-breakfast sort. Students will pick a breakfast food from a bag and sort the foods. We will then count and compare how many of each we have. We will compare the groups and discuss how we sorted the food.

Day 2-junk sort- We will sort a bunch of objects by size, color, use, etc. We will count and compare the groups.

Day 3- Rainbow sort-we will sort objects by color. We will compare the groups. Students will then make their own rainbow sort by coloring pictures and gluing them to their rainbow!

Day 4 and Day 5 Would you rather! We will ask would you rather questions and students will sort themselves into the answers. We will count and compare each group!

Introducing Centers

This week, we are continuing to introduce and practice centers! We started with our literacy tubs, and this week, we will introduce the room and library to the students. I’ll introduce Write the Room to the students who I think are ready for it this week, and I’ll add additional students over the next few weeks. The library will be introduced to everyone.

Kindergarten Lesson Plans: Foodie Fun Friday

This week, we will be making popcorn! We use an air popper and let the popcorn spray all over the floor! I put down the paper and the popcorn flies! Kids love it! Then, we use our five senses to describe the popcorn!

Weekly Kindergarten Lesson Plans: Morning Meeting

This week our greeting will be a ball greeting. We greet one another and roll the ball to each other!

WEEKLY RESOURCES

Click below for the resources we are using in our classroom this week:

For more information, check out these posts:

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Related posts, classroom organization: diy 4 sided pocket chart stand.

  Pocket charts are a key part of our classroom and so is classroom organization. We use our pocket charts for centers and whole-group lessons.

Weekly Kindergarten Lesson Plans: Five Senses, Families, Phonics And Counting

It’s week 3 of kindergarten, and our weekly kindergarten lesson plans are ready for ABC BOOTCAMP, counting to 10, families and the five senses, and

Center Activities For The Beginning Of The Year

So, you have your center management system in place. It’s the second week of school & you’re ready to start centers (yes we start on

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