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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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