Biography lessons 5th grade

Description

This fifth grade Biography Writing Unit is just what you need to teach your students how to write a biography! This unit has kid-friendly rubrics, anchor charts, graphic organizers, and even centers! With the included mentor text and lesson plans, you will be able to effortlessly guide your students through writing a biography report!

When it comes to writing, there is so much we want (and need) to teach our students. However, we cannot focus on all of it all at once or we will cause our students to hate writing. I have broken this down into easy to implement lesson plans and have included all of the materials you need. This unit can be implemented at an easy pace—spread out over four weeks, or can be condensed to be taught in a shorter time period.

If you choose to have your whole class write on the same person, this informational unit even includes resources that can be used for student research. (Topic: Wilma Rudolph). However, you can also use this unit with a specific person of your choosing or by letting students choose their own person.

What’s Included in this Biography Writing Unit:

• Mentor Text (a biography report to teach from!)
• Rubric & Checklists
• 12 Easy to Implement Lesson Plans
• 6 Centers
• Graphic Organizers
• Posters (These anchor charts can also be printed and put in a writing notebook)
• 1 Non-Fiction Text (article) and 1 List of Websites (also as QR codes) for Student Research
• UPDATE: Now includes a digital (Google Slides) version of the resource! Learn more here.

Mini Lessons Taught: (W.5.2.C, W.5.2.D, W.5.2.E)

1. What’s a Biographical Report?
2. Brainstorm Topics and Choose a Person
3. Finding Sources
4. Important Life Events
5. Outline Chronologically
6. In My Own Words
7. Using Linking Words and Phrases
8. Writing a Rough Draft
9. Writing a Conclusion
10. Editing with a Partner
11. Revising & Revisi

A biography writing unit about the life of famous scientist, Charles Darwin. The NO PREP unit has been split into four separate lessons and is perfect for students in fifth grade or sixth grade. Students will learn about the famous figure whilst working on their comprehension skills and developing their creative writing.

Included in this PDF printable resource:

• Four fact sheets which students need to cut out and sort into paragraphs
• Writing templates for four draft paragraphs
• Two prompt sheets for students to write their introduction and conclusion
• A template for students to write up their neat biography text
• A crossword puzzle & wordsearch to consolidate learning

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This resource is great for:

• In class learning
• Independent work
• Homework
• Creative writing sessions
• Assessment practice
• Emergency sub plans

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The first lesson is interactive and involves students cutting out facts, and then sorting these facts into paragraphs. In the second lesson the students need to use these facts to write four paragraphs. Then, in the third lesson children need to choose the most important facts and include these in an introduction; after this they need to answer several questions on a prompt sheet before writing up their conclusion. In the final lesson students need to check their draft paragraphs for mistakes before writing up their work on to a neat copy on the template provided.

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Combine Literacy and Social Studies in a Meaningful Way!

Biography deep dives are an engaging way to quickly introduce a historical person and allow students to sharpen their online investigation skills.

My students love learning about the interesting historical people and events that shaped our nation but will never show up in a history textbook.

One of my favorite historical ladies to introduce during my American Revolution unit is Lucy Knox!

This is an example of my introduction to students:

Have you heard of Lucy Knox?

If you haven’t, you’re not alone. Mrs. Lucy Knox is a lesser-known, but amazing, Revolutionary hero.

The young Lucy was the daughter of a powerful Loyalist. She met and fell in love with Henry Knox, a Major in the Continental Army. Choosing Henry meant that she would never see her Loyalist family again.

How to Do this Activity

First, I give my students a quick introduction to the individual I want them to meet.

Second, I give students 20 minutes in teams of 2 or 3 to make a list of 10 interesting facts about the person.

Finally, as a whole class, we make a collaborative list of the top 10 fascinating facts about the person we are studying.

I challenge you to implement this activity and let me know how it goes. It’s super simple but super engaging for students! I’d love to see a picture of your final collaborative list. 🙂

Extensions

• When I want to extend this activity into a writing assignment, I ask students to use their collaborative lists of interesting facts to write a short biography of the individual being studied.
• Instead of studying one historical individual, ask each group to study a different individual. To showcase what they learned, ask each group to create a poster or some other tangible representation.
• Ask students to create a works cited page to show where they found information about their historical person. This will help you reinforce the ELA research standard.

List of Individu

This Grade 5 Biography Writing Unit has EVERYTHING you need – worksheets, slides, and an engaging culminating task – to get your students excited about report writing. The unit includes a 22-day unit plan to help you fit all the useful teaching content included altogether.

This resource is completely aligned with the NEW 2023 Grade 5 Ontario Language Curriculum. Each page is linked to a specific expectation in the Ontario curriculum, which is indicated at the bottom of each page for easy teacher reference.

Worksheets: Students will enjoy completing a scaffolded workbook that teaches important biography writing skills, like topic, purpose, and audience, structuring a biography, and gathering information. Students will complete a structured culminating task titled “Biography” that guides them through writing a biography. Students will complete worksheets that help them organize their ideas, gather information, produce drafts, and revise their biography before completing a final product.

Slides: Slides are included to help you introduce each concept to students. Slides also include interactive components where students type their answers directly on the slide.

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