Classroom Activities
These lessons will occur after the children have created a feeling vocabulary word bank with picture documentation, have chosen a historical figure to read about, and have been placed in a interest group reading a biography at their independent or instructional reading level.
Lesson One: Predictions
Objectives: The students will identify the setting and environment of the biography. The students will identify a character trait of the subject of the biography. The students will make prediction about the actions of the subject of the biography. The students will write a reading response.
Materials: biographies, vocabulary organizer, reading response organizers, chart paper, marker, pencils, and notebooks.
Procedures: During the reading block, in a whole class format, gather the children on the reading rug for a model reading lesson. Explain the reading strategy prediction as using what you know, along with what the author tells or shows you through words and pictures, to determine what you think will happen next. Model this while reading aloud a few pages from a model text. Demonstrate for the students how to identify the setting of the biography. Assign the students to read the first few pages of their biographies. Have students meet in their reading interest groups to read, discuss their predictions, and complete the setting section of their organizers. Meet briefly with each group to help direct the discussion.
Gather students together and demonstrate writing a reading response. Model the format using information from the reading model lesson biography. Direct students to answer reading response question number one in their notebooks. Have students from one interest group share their reading responses aloud with the class.
Lesson Two: Connections
Objectives: The students will identify behaviors of the subject of the biography. The students will identify a character trait of the historical figure in the biography. The students will make text-to-self connections between themselves and the figure in the biography. The students will write a reading response.
Materials: biographies, vocabulary organizer, reading response organizers, chart paper, marker, pencils, and notebooks.
Procedures: During the reading block, in a whole class format, gather the children on the reading rug for a model reading lesson. Explain the reading strategy making connections as using what you know, along with what the author tells or shows you through words and pictures, to better understand what is happening in the text and how the character feels. Model this while reading aloud a few pages from a model text. Demonstrate for the students how to identify the behavior of the subject of the biography. Assign the students to read the next few pages of their biographies. Have students meet in their reading interest groups to read, discuss their connections, and complete the behavior section of their organizers. Meet briefly with each group to help direct the discussion.
Gather students together and demonstrate writing a reading response. Model the format using information from the reading model lesson biography. Direct students to answer reading response question number two in their notebooks. Have students from one interest group share their reading responses aloud with the class.
Lesson Three: More Connections
Objectives: The students will identify actions of the subject of the biography. The students will identify a character trait of the subject of the biography. The students will make text-to-self connections between themselves and the subject of the biography. The students will write a reading response.
Materials: biographies, vocabulary organizer, reading response organizers, chart paper, marker, pencils, and notebooks.
Procedures: During the reading block, in a whole class format, gather the children on the reading rug for a model reading lesson. Reiterate that the reading strategy making connections is using what you know, along with what the author tells or shows you through words and pictures, to better understand what is happening in the text and how the character feels. Model this while reading aloud a few pages from a model text. Demonstrate for the students how to identify the actions of the subject of the biography. Assign the students to read the next few pages of their biographies. Have students meet in their reading interest groups to read, discuss their connections, and complete the actions section of their organizers. Meet briefly with each group to help direct the discussion.
Gather students together and demonstrate writing a reading response. Model the format using information from the reading model lesson biography. Direct students to answer reading response question number three in their notebooks. Have students from one interest group share their reading responses aloud with the class.
Lesson Four: Important Information
Objectives: The students will identify actions and facial expressions of the subject of the biography. The students will identify a character trait of the subject of the biography. The students will determine the important information being communicated in the biography. The students will write a reading response.
Materials: biographies, vocabulary organizer, reading response organizers, chart paper, marker, pencils, and notebooks.
Procedures: During the reading block, in a whole class format, gather the children on the reading rug for a model reading lesson. Explain the reading strategy determining important information as deciding what are the important ideas and themes that are being communicated by the author. Model this while reading aloud a few pages from a model text. Demonstrate for the students how to identify the facial expressions in the pictures and illustrations of the biography and determine what the expressions tell about the character. Assign the students to read the next few pages of their biographies. Have students meet in their reading interest groups to read, discuss the important information, and complete the facial expressions section of their organizers. Meet briefly with each group to help direct the discussion.
Gather students together and demonstrate writing a reading response. Model the format using information from the reading model lesson biography. Direct students to answer reading response question number four in their notebooks. Have students from one interest group share their reading responses aloud with the class.
Lesson Five: Visualization
Objectives: The students will identify the physical features and possible nicknames of the subject of the biography. The students will identify a character trait of the subject of the biography. The students will create mental images of the subject of the biography. The students will write a reading response.
Materials: biographies, vocabulary organizer, reading response organizers, chart paper, marker, pencils, and notebooks.
Procedures: During the reading block, in a whole class format, gather the children on the reading rug for a model reading lesson. Explain the reading strategy visualization as making mental pictures of the actions and emotions of the subject of the biography. Model this while reading aloud a few pages from a model text. Demonstrate for the students how to identify the physical features shown in the pictures and illustrations of the subject of the biography. Explain that a person's physical features are what we can see. Assign the students to read the last few pages of their biographies. Have students meet in their reading interest groups to read, discuss their mental images, and complete the physical characteristics and nickname sections of their organizers. Meet briefly with each group to help direct the discussion.
Gather students together and demonstrate writing a reading response. Model the format using information from the reading model lesson biography. Direct students to answer reading response question number five in their notebooks. Have students from one interest group share their reading responses aloud with the class.
Lesson Six: Summarize
Objectives: The students will write a summary of a biography.
Materials: chart paper, marker, character analysis organizer, summary organizer, biographies.
Procedures: Gather students and demonstrate completing the summary organizer in appendix E to organize the information gathered from the biography used as a model. Have students complete organizers, working with partners in their interest groups. Gather students and demonstrate how to write a brief summary using the information recorded on the organizer of the model biography. Have students work either in groups or independently, to write summaries of the biographies they read. Ask students to share their responses reading "in character" as the historical figures.
Lesson Seven: Character Analysis
Objectives: The students will write a character analysis of a historical figure.
Materials: chart paper, marker, character analysis organizer, biographies, pencil, notebooks.
Procedures: Gather students and demonstrate how to write a brief character summary using the information recorded on the organizer of the model biography. Have students work either in groups or independently, to write character analyses of the biographies they read using information from their completed organizer (appendix D). Ask students to share their responses reading "in character" as the historical figures.
Lesson Eight: Role Play
Objectives: The students will role play the actions of a historical figure.
Materials: summaries, biographies, character analyses.
Procedures: Have students role play some of the significant events described in the biographies. Ask students to identify the emotions that they imagine the person was feeling at the time. Discuss how identifying these emotions help us understand the feelings of others.
Culminating Activity: Have students create a living wax museum by dressing and acting as the character while relating their summaries for an audience of parents and peers.
Evaluation of student learning: Through reading responses, completed graphic organizers, summaries, character analyses, discussions, and anecdotal notes of reading group interaction determine if the children have: identified important information in the reading, made plausible predictions, identified relevant character traits, summarized important information, and made relevant connections to the texts.
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