1. Topic-
Writing a Biography
 
2. Content-
Writing: use writing process to compose biography, procedural texts;
Research: ask questions and gather evidence; Grammar: capitals and punctuation, pronouns (he/she), past-tense verbs; Word Wall Words; Reading: features of biographies
 
3. Goals: Aims/Outcomes-
1. Students will know the features of a biography (tables of contents, chapters) and use them correctly in their own writing.
2. Students will learn how to interview someone and gather information.
3. Students will understand that proper nouns need to be capitalized.
4. Students will correctly use past-tense verbs in their biographies.
 
4. Objectives-
1. Students will identify and produce sentences using correct past-tense verbs.
2. Students will organize information from interviews and select what they need.
3. Students will use many graphic organizers to plan their biographies.
 
5. Materials and Aids-
Biography Read Alouds; Word Wall Words; biography interview; table of contents graphic organizer; hamburger graphic organizer for chapters; rubric
 
6. Procedures/Methods-

A. Introduction-

"This week we are going to read many biographies and learn how to write our own biographies."
 

B. Development-

1. Teacher will read aloud many biographies throughout the week.
2. Teacher and students will work together to create a "Biography Features" chart.
3. Teacher will introduce biography interview and explain how to conduct an interview.
4. Teacher will review the table of contents and hamburger graphic organizers (they have used both before).
 

C. Practice-

1. Students will work together to narrow down their lists of people.
2. Students will discuss how to organize their biographies (time or topic).
3. Students will work in partners to organize their biographies.
4. Students will peer conference on revising and editing.
 

D. Independent Practice-

1. Students will make a list of people they would like to write about.
2. Students will create their table of contents.
3. Students will fill out hamburger graphic organizers for each chapter.
4. Students will use a few biography text features.
5. Students will evaluate their biography with a rubric.
 

E. Accommodations (Differentiated Instruction)-

Web graphic organizers will be available for students who need a simpler format. ESL students will meet with ESL teacher for guidance. Some students will conference with me in addition to their peers during revising and editing.
 

F. Checking for understanding-

Teacher questioning; one-on-one conferences with teacher; peer conferences; self evaluation (checklist).
 

G. Closure-

After biographies are created, we will have an author's celebration and share our writing with each other. We will wrap everything up by reviewing the features of a biography and looking at each others biographies.
 

This Lesson Plan is available at (www.teacherjet.com)