Taking on the huge task of having your students research and write their own Biography for the first time?? All you need is right here!

Included in this pack:

-A biography research checklist to help students know what to look for in their texts

-Timeline rough draft paper

-Final Draft Timeline

-Explanatory Topics Grid-students can brainstorm other topics they know a lot about so that they can work on writing another explanatory piece if they are done with the independent writing task early!

-Biography request paper-students can request who they would like to write about. There is room for three choices. They have to PERSUADE you why they want their first pick!

-Anchor charts I used in my classroom-one discussing what a biography is and one about Taking Notes-examples of notes are on the bottom

-Non-Fiction Text Features List-We discussed these and practiced identifying them in a number of informational books before even starting learning about the specifics of a Biography

-Non-Fiction Text Features Checklist-students can check off features as they find them in their books. I usually ask that they write down the page number, too. (I also have them use stickies to mark them!)

-Responding to Non-Fiction pages-before jumping straight into taking notes on our famous person, I wanted students to just immerse themselves in his or her life. We relaxed, read, learned, and got really excited to get to know them! While doing that, you could use a variety of response pages that are included!:
-a KWL flip, a KWLS flip, a 3-2-1 response, an Alpha Keywords Chart, Synthesizing Schema, Fact-Question-Reaction (Find a fact, write a question about it, then respond to it with your thinking/opinion)

-Taking Nifty Notes Reference

-Nifty Notes recording worksheets

-Biography draft paper

-TWELVE non-fiction pieces of writing paper in a variety of formats!
(Includes Table of Contents, Dedication, some paper with spots for headings and a couple without, (in case a student has a very long section) Glossary, & About the Author.

**TIP: I have found it to be SOOO helpful to have students take notes on index cards (I say about three related facts per card) then organize them into small envelopes (which will become their headings in their biography-I used the headings that are represented on the Research Checklist Page I've included) and then put ALL of that in a small manila envelope. It is easy to manipulate, organize, and when it comes time to draft, they can just focus on one envelope of information at a time, and even rearrange the cards to put into sentences! It's gold!

ENJOY! Please let me know how this works for you! Thank You!!

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