Biography unit for 3rd grade
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There is also a page of Author’s Purpose Exit Slips you can use as a quick check.
An extension of this could be our Biography Search, which is intended to be used as a literacy center as well. Begin by giving small groups two different types of texts. At the same time, we love that we are encouraging our students to build a love of reading.
The Key to Teaching Biographies
Biography is a genre that can sometimes easily be neglected in classrooms with regards to informational text studies.
Everything you need in one resource! This unit has kid-friendly rubrics, anchor charts, graphic organizers, and even centers! Start here and then come back to this unit: Preparing Your Reading Workshop
Read Alouds
Another way to get students familiar with the biography genre is to share them during your read aloud time.
A goal for teachers is for our students to think about what they already know before learning new information.
We have created two Building Background organizers for students to record their background knowledge. Choose the one that you feel best fits your specific students.
Gathering Important Information
Your students might no be ready to begin reading appropriately high interest biographies and gathering information to share.
They then go back to them to share information with the class or to fill out one of the organizers.
Influences
Most biographies share the impact that others had on the subjects’ lives. You can download these lesson plans here:
Lesson Download
A few of our favorite biography studies can be found below.
They can write their ideas on the organizers. Or, make it an evening event where parents would be able to watch.
You can download the PDF printables for this unit of study here:
Reading Download
We know that some teachers like to have the lessons above in a document they can easily print and add to their lesson plans.
We suggested giving it a try because it’s one that can be truly engaging for lots of students.
The key to getting students excited about a study of biographies is to have many relevant and appropriately leveled texts for all of your various readers.
You might even want to think about having a class discussion (or present an interest inventory) to find out who your students might be interested in learning about.
Once you know their interests, take some time to visit your school and local libraries.
Finally, fill out one of our two organizers with the students so that they can understand their use.
Biography Reading Response Prompts
You can cut these 8 prompts apart, assign to students and glue into reading response notebooks.
Character Traits
While reading biographies you will want to focus on the character traits of the biography subjects.
You will then discuss the influences in the subject’s life. (Topic: Bessie Coleman). Check off when you see the specific text features listed within the books. This is also provided in a black & white version with a space for student’s name in case you want to use it as a literacy center activity.
New to reading workshop?
You will also want to be sure that your collection contains as many of the biography text features as possible.
We have included a Biography Noticings Anchor Chart that you can use with your kids during or after their immersion experience. You will find this download here:Simple Biographies – Books
Timelines – Of course biographies lend themselves well to student-created timelines. Our students always love using PowerPoint for timelines, but good old-fashioned posters are always great visuals too!
Wax Museums – Another popular way to share student learning for this genre is the Living Wax Museum.
Once students are able to determine why biographies have been written about specific people, then you could have them search through a stack of books to find different categories.
Thinking About Background Knowledge
Activating schema is an important part of students becoming strong readers. Identify why they had a positive or negative effect.
Introduction
This week, readers dive into biographies to understand a person’s life by tracking chronological events, analyzing character motivation (goals, obstacles, choices), and determining the main idea with supporting details. We have come up with a few different ways for your students to begin to pull out important information from the biographies they are reading.
One way for students to begin focusing on important information from biographies is to have them begin to take simple notes.
Students view pictures and dress up as their characters.