Biography Unit Ideas for Primary Grades
By grade 4, students are expected to be able to conduct some research, organize ideas and use their knowledge to create various pieces of writing. What better way to facilitate these practices then by conducting a biography unit? Biographies offer students many benefits, some of which are gaining a new perspective on their own life, while being inspired by the works of others. Below are some biography unit ideas for primary grades.
Before beginning this unit it is a good idea to have a discussion about fictions vs. non-fiction texts. As well as, discussing how to write an engaging story/biography. For reference, you can look into a story writing unit and learn more about nonfiction lesson ideas .
How to start :
Start your unit off by introducing the concept of a biography. I typically remind my students about the characteristics of non-fiction texts (ex. factual information, headings, table of contents, real pictures, etc). Then, we define what a biography is. If you’re planning this unit for younger students, then you can skip talking about the features and simply discuss the purpose of a biography. Here are some anchor chart ideas to go through with your students:
Begin With Examples :
Once you’ve introduced the concept and features of a biography, it’s time to start reading biographies as a class. Be sure to draw attention back to your anchor charts/discussions (it works nicely to also read a biography before discussing features so that students can refer back to the text). I’ve included some child friendly biographies at the end of this post. For now, here are some tips to try during/after reading as a class:
Practice Makes Perfect:
Now it’s time to practice reading & writing biographies, so that the concepts and structure becomes engrained in students’ minds. This can be done in a variety of ways. Here are just some ideas:
- create a ballot box for students to submit the names of famous people they would like to learn more about, and find a biography on the name that gets submitted the most often (student’s will be more interested if they have a say in what they learn).
- incorporate biographies in language center activities.
- have students interview a family member, and write their biography.
- have students choose their favorite character from a story or movie, and create a biography about them.
Here are some graphic organizers to help you and your students along the way:
Thinking of going cross-curricular? Have your students create portraits of famous biography subjects inspired by these:
Assessments:
Conducting assessments throughout your unit is the most surefire way to gage your students’ learning, provide them with feedback and guide the remainder of your unit. Here are some assessment ideas.
Some Great Biographies for Students:
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What should a Year 4 Information: Biography text look like? Use this handy example text pack to help you to either provide an ideal example for your class or moderate children's writing, according to the 2014 National Curriculum requirements for English. Designed to help children learn the key features of writing a biography - KS2 PowerPoint, example texts, checklists and more to support ...
A biography is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death. It focusses on and portrays a person's experience of these life events. The key features of a biography include: Describe and discuss the life of a real person.
Donald Trump. This biography details the 45th President of the United States' life, including his father's success in real estate, his three marriages, and his journey to becoming president. This biography can be used for your social studies lessons or simply to educate your children about the current president.
Year 4 . 9 - 10 years old . Year 5 . 10 - 11 years old . Year 6 . 11 - 14 years old ... Biography writing is a great way to teach children how to research, write reports and express their ideas. For this reason, biography writing is a focus in many primary school curriculums.
Features of a Biography. Biographies can be written in a variety of ways, focussing on the whole life of the person or just on a specific event. However, most biographies share common features: They should be factual and accurate. They should explore some of the context of that person's life, including their family situation, childhood and any ...
A biography is a piece of writing that tells the story of someone's life but is written by another person. When a biography is written by the subject of the story themselves, it is called an autobiography. ... Year 4 . 9 - 10 years old . Year 5 . 10 - 11 years old . Year 6 . 11 - 14 years old ...
Below are some biography unit ideas for primary grades. Before beginning this unit it is a good idea to have a discussion about fictions vs. non-fiction texts. As well as, discussing how to write an engaging story/biography. For reference, you can look into a story writing unit and learn more about nonfiction lesson ideas.
A biography is a non-fiction text written about someone's life. Linguistic features of a biography include fronted adverbials, facts, relative complex sentences and parenthesis. Structural features include a title, subheadings and relevant information grouped by theme. The purpose of a biography is to inform the reader about a particular ...
In this video, Twinkl Teacher James, shares how to use use our Twinkl resources to each all about Biographies. Biography Interview Activity Worksheet: https:...
Key learning points. In this lesson, we will start off looking at parentheses: brackets, dashes and commas and their function within a sentence. We will explore the features of a biography: layout, punctuation, purpose, language, sentence structure, etc.