Lesson Plan : Writing a Biography

Teacher Name:
 Megan Scelfo
Grade:
 Grade 7-8
Subject:
 Language Arts

Topic:
 Biographical Sketch
Content:
 Teaching students the parts of a biographical sketch.
Goals:
 Understand 5 elements of a biographical paragraph -Introduction: who the writer chose and why the writer chose them -Subject�s appearance and background -Subject�s significant accomplishments -Why the accomplishments were important -Conclusion: summary of the above.
Objectives:
 SWBAT write a biographical sketch about someone they admire.
Materials:
 Pencils, Paper, Note-taking template, writing rubric, construction paper, glue, sentence strips, sample biographical sketch, brainstorming template
Introduction:
 I want you to think about something. Who do you look up to? What has this person done to make you look up to them? I bet you can think of a lot of things to write about that person. Write down that person's name. That�s exactly what we�re going to be doing for the coming week. We will be writing about someone we admire and saying why that person is so important to us.
Development:
 We are going to be writing biographies. Biographies are things written by someone about someone else�s life. It�s sort of like the autobiographies we have already written, except the person writing it is not the person who it is about. Biographies always include certain information: Introduction: who the writer chose and why you chose them. Subject�s personal background (date and place of birth, hometown, age, etc) Subject�s significant accomplishments Why the accomplishments were important Conclusion: summary of the above. *read/show students sample biographical paragraph that follows above conventions. *note to them that their paragraphs in the biographical sketch contain the same elements as the paragraphs we've written in the past.
Practice:
 I will write a short biographical sketch with students on sentence strips. They will use thier notes to tell me what I need to write about in each paragraph.
Accommodations:
 Antelmo will be allowed to use his keyboard. Antoine will dictate ideas to me and I will help him formulate complete sentences. I will help all students revise and edit individually, in order to help them understand their writing weaknesses. Students will be allowed more time to write than the rest of 7th graders to compensate for their learning disabilities.
Checking For Understanding:
 Students will present their biographical sketch to the class, at which time I will be able to check for understanding and reteach on the spot.
Closure:
 Review elements of biographical sketch one more time, this time having class contribute the elements more instead of giving them the answers. Great job working so hard on this project this week, class. I will hang the 3's on the wall in the back of the room! Next week, we will talk about how-to essays.
Evaluation:
 
Teacher Reflections:
 

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