Individual Biographies
The students will now study a biography individually. They should be ready to handle this non-fiction text on their own because of the previous activities in this lesson. I am looking to use short biographies instead of books. A short two or three page biography should be sufficient for the students to get accustomed to reading a biography on their own. There are several places to find short biographies. The source I will use for this unit is A&E Biography website located at http://www.biography.com. They have an expansive listing of 25,000 short biographies. It is best for the teacher to go through and look for ones that are appropriate for the class and that have at least two pages. If the biography is too short, it won't provide enough information for the student to work with. Choose a variety of types of people, from presidents to athletes to artists to inventors. If your school has a computer lab you may want to take the students to the lab and have them choose a person from the list. There they can also print the visuals they plan to use. Require still that the biography be a minimum of two pages.
The students will create a presentation on their assigned person. They should provide a brief chronology of the person's life. A description of a cause and effect relationship about the individual should also be included. Finally, each should write an opinion about why this person is influential. In addition to this information the student will also provide visuals relating to the person. A photographic image must be included, as well as examples of the person's work if they are an artist or architect. These images and the written assignment should be placed on a sheet of construction paper. This will be the visual the student will use in the oral presentation.
The student will present his or her project in front of the class describing the person they researched. Each should explain all three items above: chronology, cause/effect and opinion statement. The presentation should be brief with the purpose of explaining what they have learned and practicing their oral presentation skills. Paraphrasing information is an essential skill that students need to practice.
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