Autobiography and BiographyMs. Miller’s 3rd Grade Class Unit

Lessons

Created by: Kaylene Riggs, Chelsea Spencer, Brooke Ohlen, and Mary Ann Sanderson

Lesson Plan 1Autobiography

StrategyUsing Teaching with the End

in Mind: Assessing What We've Taught. Students sift

and sort the important information from the details

and merge their thinking with it

Lesson Plan 2Autobiography

StrategyUsing text to self having the

students write about something important to

them or something they are passionate about. The

students will also use their name tag from the previous

lesson to inspire the students to write about something that is important to them.

Lesson Plan 3BiographyStrategy

Using the data chart after pulling important

information on a series of important people in history. The important information

include, Christopher Columbus, George

Washington, Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

on their family, why they are famous, their interest and

other important facts.

Lesson Plan 4BiographyStrategy

Using a biography story about Bessie Coleman and

having the students retell the story by doing readers

theatre. The students will also use visualizing strategies

to help them reenact the story.

Autobiography and Biography Books

Lesson Plan One

Chris DestinyAutumn AlexAhmad AlaaAustin Le’MaurieCheyenne

MackenzieKenzie BreyonCelina ShyenneTa’Aaliyah MikeMeghannDevinAngela Emma

Introduction- Teacher’s introduce themselves and let the students know why they are visiting their school. Whole Group- Teacher will introduce autobiography, what kind of books make it an autobiography. The teacher will then read “The Name Jar”. Then the teacher will show an example of their small group activity, the name tag. Small Group- Each student has their own personalized name tag and inside the students fill in the pages. On each page the students will complete family, interest, favorite book and what they want to be when they grew up. Closure- After the students finished their name tags, have the students meet back on the rug and have one student from each group share their name tag.

Lesson Plan TwoIntroduction- The teacher will ask the students what is an autobiography and what makes the book to be an autobiography. Whole Group- The teacher will ask the students to think about something they are passionate about or something they really care about in their life. Then she will introduce Sasha Cohen (the ice skater) and explain that Sasha was passionate about something and that they are going to read a part of the book to see if the students can pick out what Sasha was passionate about. After reading the section, then the teacher will model a paragraph of something she is passionate about and then she will explain to the students that they are going to be doing the same in their small group. Small Group- The teacher will have each student think about something they really care about and have them right about it and try to compare it to Sasha Cohen’s story. Closure- The teacher will have someone from each group share what they are passionate about and how they compared it to Sasha Cohen. The teacher will review their activity they did that day and ask students what they have learned from the activity.

Lesson Plan ThreeIntroduction- The teacher will ask the students what is an autobiography, then she will introduce biographies and explain the difference between the two. Then the teacher will explain the activity for the day. Whole Group- The teacher will explain how to pull out important information when reading a biography book and where to put that information on the data chart. The teacher will also explain that sticky notes is a great source to use when reading a story, this helps the students remember what the important facts are and where they found that information (quick summary) Small Group- Each teacher is assigned a different book on a historical person and they are to read the book and stop to see if the students have picked up on any important information that they include in their data chart. When the teacher is reading the story, the students are looking for facts on their family, why are they famous, their interest and other important facts the students think are important. Closure- Each group will share the historical person they read about and the important facts on that person. The teacher will ask what is an biography and go over what they have learned.

Lesson Plan FourIntroduction- The teachers has the students meet on the rug to go over the activity for the day. The teacher will ask the students if they remember how to pull out important information out of books. The teacher will also ask what is an autobiography and biography. Whole Group-The teacher will read a section of the story “Fly High” and then model by doing readers theatre (retelling the story). The teacher will also have cue cards to help with the summary of the chapter she has read. Small Group- The teacher will assign each group a section in the story “Fly High”. The students will be able to pull out the important information of their section and able to summarize it by putting their information on cue cards. Closure-The teacher will have each group perform their section from the book. The students will listen to the other groups performances .

Rationales

• Lesson 1- The reason why we choose this lesson to be our first lesson is because we needed to know who are students are, who we would be working with and what interests the students have, so we can try to tie that in our future lesson plans. This lesson would be a great first lesson for the beginning of the year, so the teacher can learn to know her students.

• Lesson 2- We chose this lesson to help the students understand that autobiographies are about real people, which you can make personal connections with. This can be accomplished by linking the text to the student’s lives through family, goals, dreams, and similar interests.

• Lesson 3- The reason we are modeling how to pull out information and organize it on data charts is because we want the students to enhance research skills and learn how to summarize the information.

• Lesson 4- The reason why we are pulling the students together is to review, and build on previous lessons. Identifying important information is the first step to a good summary. We are introducing this strategy to help students understand how to be effective, and accurate when retelling or reenacting a story.

Goals• Students will listen to the material presented by

the teacher. • Students will understand the difference between

autobiography and biography. • Students will be able to take brief information

and turn it into a written paragraph. • Students will be able to make personal

connections, like text to self, text to world and text to text.

• Students will be able to enhance research skills and learn how to summarize the information.

• The student will be able to speak appropriately to different audiences for different purposes and occasions.

• Students will be able to be effective, and accurate when retelling or reenacting a story.

• Students will be able to transform a large amount of information into a condense summary.

Annotated Bibliographies• Borden, Louise and Mary Kay Kroeger. (2004).

Fly High! The Story of Bessie Coleman. Perfection Learning.

Fly High is a biography about Bessie Coleman, the story describes the struggles she went through in order to learn how to fly an airplane.

• Cohen, Sasha. (2006). Fire on Ice.HarperCollins Publishers.

Fire on ice is an autobiography that Sasha Cohen wrote about her becoming a famous ice skater.

• Devillier, Christy. (2001). Amelia Earhart. ABDO Publishing Company.

This biography book is about Amelia Earhart growing up, her dreams and the struggles she went through to be the first woman to ever fly an airplane.

• Devillier, Christy. (2001). Christopher Columbus. ABDO Publishing Company.

This biography book is about Christopher Columbus growing up, what he wanted to do in life and his famous discovery of the “New World”.

• Devillier, Christy. (2001). George Washington. ABDO Publishing Company.

This biography book is about George Washington growing up , his accomplishments and him becoming the first president of the United States.

• Devillier, Christy. (2002). Martin Luther King, Jr. ABDO Publishing Company.

This biography book is about Martin Luther King, Jr., growing up, the struggles he had because of his skin color and his famous “I have a dream….” speech.

• Gosda, Randy. (2002). Harriett Tubman. ABDO Publishing Company.

This biography book is about Harriett Tubman growing up in a time of slaves, the struggles she went through and the accomplishment of freeing slaves through the underground railroad.

• Yangsook, Choi. (2003). The Name Jar. Random House Children’s Books.

This autobiography story is about a young child who comes from Korea to America and struggles finding a new name for herself because she is embarrassed of her Korean name.