Eclectic Elementary: I Know Biographies

I Know Biographies

Kids think they know a lot of things… everything, in fact! But one thing that they don’t know much about is historical figures. Sadly, most students seem to think that history is boring and irrelevant to their lives, but they couldn’t be more wrong. History shaped our countries, founded our nations, and made us who we are as a people. I LOVE introducing my students to the fascinating people of our past!

Usually we jump back in time to begin biographies in February. It’s Black History and Women’s History month! Double the opportunity to excite your students about famous figures. I always begin with some short biographies and video clips of important people from various time periods and careers. Brain Pop is one of my favorite places to find video clips, although there are also a good variety of them on YouTube if you have time to look through the search results.

My “I Know Biographies” pack is also a great tool to introduce your students to short biographies. Each page has the biography of a different famous figure from various periods of time. Besides getting interested in historical people, your students can also practice finding information in non-fiction texts.

After we spend a little time getting to know a few people, then we begin our research project. Not only do I enjoy getting the kiddos excited to learn about important people of the past, but I also like to get the kids writing about them. First I take my students to the school library to meet some very helpful research tools: the encyclopedias and biographies. After they wander through the biographies, my students choose a famous figure that they would like to learn more about. Most of my students will choose a biography to take with them while we’re there.

Our next mini-lesson is about how to use the encyclopedias. I do a lot of modeling how to find their famous figure inside the volumes. You can also relate the structure of the encyclopedia to a dictionary (using guide words and ABC order). As we’re researching our historical persons, my students use graphic organizers to record notes.

We also do a lesson on internet research. There are some free online encyclopedias and a host of weblinks for most famous figures (although I try to discourage my students from choosing any current celebrities due to questionable content online and/or difficulty finding reliable information). These are a few of my favorites:

These are my graphic organizers...

click on the images to download these for FREE!

If you'd like a biographical set focused on Black History, try my "Follow the Freedom Trail Black History" pack from TpT. It has several biographical activities for famous African Americans.