Biographies in 3....2...1...

 Let’s set the stage… Do you think your students could write a biography like this one?

Do you know what famous singer loves the number 13, grew up on a Christmas tree farm, and took guitar lessons from a computer repairman?  It’s Taylor Swift!  She writes and sings songs about things that have happened in her own life.  Taylor Swift plays guitar and piano at her concerts.  She has won a lot of awards for her singing and songwriting.  I hope you learned a lot about Taylor Swift.

We are here to tell you they absolutely CAN.  

Learning about other people is something that is always interesting to our students.  We try to capitalize on this interest and incorporate it into our classrooms often.  Here’s 3+ ways to encourage biography writing with your little learners.

1. Student of the Week.  Before students have ever hear the word biography, we are laying the foundation weekly.  Each week, a student is chosen to be the Star of the Week.  He/she fills a poster, brings pictures, and shares about their life with the class.  Then, the class writes a paragraph describing what they’ve learned about their classmate.  At the beginning of the year, everyone writes practically the same thing. As the year progresses, their writing skills progress, too, and the weekly paragraph starts to reflect each students' individuality. Plus - it makes an awesome keepsake for the student who is the Star of the Week.

   
   
   
   
   

2. Read biographies to your class.  There’s some great options out there for young learners to read biographies.  There are picture books and biography series options for you to share with your students.  We love the Ordinary People Change the World series by Brad Meltzer. Allowing your students to grow as readers of biographies will enhance their growth as writers of biographies. Capitalize on that reciprocity, my friends!
   
   

3. Write a Biography of a Friend.  We LOVE this project.  Students are paired up and interview each other.  Then, students write a biography about their friend.  We go through the writing process (revising, editing, etc.) and encourage students to use detailed writing and illustrations to tell the story of their friend.  It is a great way to piggyback the Star of the Week routines, but we go into depth with this project.  Students present their biographies to the class, too.  It is a fun and memorable project for all.
   
   Before starting the writing project, we model this for our students.  We interview each other, write about each other, and present our biographies to our classes.  The students always get a kick out of learning about other teachers.

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Other ideas to try:

• Play “Who Am I?” or “Guess Who?” - students write quick facts about a friend or classmate (ex. She is wearing a green shirt.  She has a dog.  She wears glasses.).  Then, you read the clues aloud.  Students try to guess who the clues were about.

• Fact and opinion sorts - just to reiterate that important vocabulary.

• 2 truths and a lie about a famous person

• Have a family member dress up as a famous person and let the kids interview them (via Zoom/Teams/etc.) This is Kaysin's dad as the Grinch - the kids LOVED seeing him!

  
  
  

• At our school, older students enjoy biographies as well.  Every year our 5th graders present a “Wax Museum.”  They research, write about, and present about a famous historical figure.  The best part?  They dress up, too!  It is so fun!

We would love to hear how YOU include biographies in your classrooms. Let us know! You can find us on Instagram @flockstarteachers, comment below, or send us an email. Speaking of email - have you joined our email list? Click below to join now!

We're so glad you're here! As always... Keep Flockin' It!

-Robyn & Kaysin

5 Ways to Motivate Young Writers

Have you ever felt like your students are reluctant writers?  Or that your students’ reading and writing skills don’t match?

We’ve been there.  We’re not saying we’ve completely closed that gap, but we have a few tricks up our sleeves ;)

1. Routine - From the very beginning of the year, we establish a routine of independent writing daily in our classrooms. 
   
   Robyn uses journal prompts as a bell-ringer before beginning morning tubs.  This is a great way for her students to get their minds focused on school and learning in a fun, low-risk situation. 
   
   During our guided reading stations, 20 minutes are devoted to writing independently.  Students understand the expectation:  writing happens the whole time; keep adding details. 
   
   We use chants and gestures to build the routine of writing a paragraph.  We teach our firsties to write 6 sentence paragraphs (hook, topic, 3 details, closing).

   

   Sample morning journal writing

   
   

2. Baby steps - Rome wasn’t built in a day.  Getting your young students to build confidence and stamina when writing takes time.  Start slow, but always build.
   
   At the beginning of the year during independent writing time, students use cut up sentences, scrambled sentences, and sentence starters.  We quickly move to drawing 5 star illustrations before writing (grab the freebie rubric here).  This helps our students see their narrative before putting it on paper.  Then, we begin slowly introducing the parts of a paragraph.  We spend about a week (sometimes more) on each part, starting with a topic sentence, then details, circle back to a hook, and finish with a closing sentence.  By the end of the first quarter, most students are able to write 3 sentences (topic + details) about a given topic.
   
   Simultaneously, our guided writing emphasizes the importance of sentence mechanics (5 star sentences - capitalization, punctuation, handwriting, finger spaces, and makes sense).  Students write about their reading, which allows us to focus on mechanics rather than topic development.  Students are trained during this time to self-assess.
   
   

   

   Guided writing practice mid-year.

   
   
   
   
   
   

Spelling… it’s definitely not easy, especially for young learners.  What we’ve found is to encourage students to try their best, underline the word, and move on.  Otherwise, we’re all drowning in “How do you spell ____?” and no one is getting their job done (teacher included).

3. High Expectations - If you don’t expect it, it won’t happen.  When we have high expectations for all of our students, they will rise to the occasion.   Expose your students to good writing - from published authors and their peers.  Find something good in every child’s writing, and your students will have all the motivation they need to continue writing. 
   
   

4. Celebrate students as writers - You can make your students believe they are prestigious authors by simply being excited about their work.  How?  Read your students’ work aloud every day.  Then, find something amazing in their work.  Your students will clap and cheer each other on within days.  We promise. 
   
   Show their work OFF!  Put it in the hallways on display.  Share with previous teachers, the principal, the custodian, everyone.  Your students need to believe you are proud of them.  They will be glowing when all is said and done.
   
   When reading and sharing their work, give specific praise and constructive feedback.  Notice when they take your suggestions and praise them for trying new things. 
   
   

   

   Hallway display for showing off student work

   
   

5. Publish their writing - There are so many ways to go about publishing student work.  It can be as simple as posting in the hallway, or as complicated as publishing an actual class book.  You can take a picture of wonderful work and post it on Class Dojo.  Our school has a news channel, and we send writers to share their work often.  We also create and publish a class book using Student Treasures.  These are a lot of work, but SO worth it in the end.  The kit is free, and the books are fairly priced if families want to purchase one.  Check out studentreasures.com to learn more!

   

   Page from The Best Part of Me book we published.

   
   

   

   Cover of What I See in the Sea book we published.

   
   
   
   

Writing can be intimidating and hard for young learners, but we have found these tricks to work wonders.  What else would you add to this list?