What is a Biography?

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What is a Biography?

Create your own definition of a biography.

Round robin your answers.

A biography is an account of the series of events making up a person's life

Answer the following questions: after time is called, round robin your answers

Who is a biography written about?

What important events might you read about in a biography?

When can a biography be written about a person?

Where might an author do research for their biography?

Why do you think biographies are written?

BIOGRAPHY PROJECT:

A JOURNEY TO GREATNESS

A SCRAPBOOK OF YOUR LIFE:

A scrapbook is something that you keep to remember the most important memories in your life.

You will be creating a scrapbook based on the person you will be assigned to read about.

There will be a set rubric for this project, so you should know your grade before you even turn it in!

Pages of my story…

Bio Riddle

This is a poem that you will create to recite for parents during Biography Night.

Oh You Kid! & Annoucement

This is a page about your person as a child.

Birth Certificate

This is a birth certificate of your person's life.

Family Tree

This is a family tree for your character's life.

Report Card

This is a pretend report card that you will create about your person.

Letter To Mom

This is a letter from your person to his or her mother or father.

Dear Diary

This is an entry from your person's diary.

Time of My Life

This is a page that shows historic events that were going on during your person's life.

Secret Box

This is a story about a secret that your person had.

Music

This is a page about music and your biography person.

News Flash

This is a news article that you will write about your person's most important event in his or her life.

Physical Activity

This is a page about a physical activity or sport that your character may have participated in.

Wallet

This is a page to show what your person might have carried in their wallet, purse, or bag.

Obituary

This is an article written about your person's death.

Memories

This page is about special memories in your person's life.

Dear Abby

This is a letter written from your character to an advice columnist.

PART I

During the first phase of this project, you will, using the research you’ve compiled, create six documents:

 OH, YOU KID!

 BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT

 BIRTH CERTIFICATE

 FAMILY TREE

 REPORT CARD

 LETTER TO PARENT

These events focus on the early years, and family portion of your life

Oh, You Kid! Announcement

You will create a birth announcement for your subject. Be creative, try to use “old world” language, but make sure that your voice shines through. I’ve given you an example page to work from, but make it your own!

On the back of this page, you will write three paragraphs about your subject’s childhood.

Remember, you are writing as if you ARE him/her

– so his or her paper.

voice should shine through this

Birth Certificate

Try and locate as many facts as possible to complete your Certificate and MAKE SURE YOUR

SOURCES ARE RELIABLE! This is one part of the project where you may use the internet to locate your information

Get creative, write, or use magazine clippings to add facts to your birth certificate. Creativity really enhances a project!

All factual information should be written in black

Any “creative” liberties should be written in blue

FAMILY TREE

You may pick from the formats I have made available, or create your own family tree sheet using the supplies available.

Here is an example…

If you only have information on your parents and grandparents, that is ok! Just fill your tree with facts about them!

REPORT CARD

Do you know what kind of student your subject was in school? On one side of this page, you will create a report card. Think about all you know about your subject, where they sneaky and the class clown when they were young? Or were they a serious student?

On the back side of this page, you will write an explanation as to why your subject received the grades that he or she did. Try and choose

“subjects” that are relevant to your person. For instance, what may MLK Jr’s subjects have been?

For example…

LETTER TO MY PARENT

This is a chance to BRAG, BRAG, BRAG!

Write a letter to a parent, telling them how you are, and what youv’e been up to all these years since you left home. Maybe you would like to ask their advice on something? Maybe you would like to brag about your accomplishments…

Your letter should be between 8-15 sentences long and contain at least 6 facts about your accomplishments.

PHASE II

During this phase of the project, you will complete some more…creative artifacts from your life…

 DEAR DIARY

 SECRET BOX

 NEWSFLASH

 WALLET

DEAR DIARY

Create a diary entry from an important event in your life.

It could be happy, sad, funny, whatever you like!

Some examples may be: Birth of a child, marriage, loss of a loved one, or a day you received an award

Must be 8 – 10 sentences in length

TIME OF MY LIFE

You will need to do research to find out the time period in which your person was alive.

You will need to find an famous book or author or their time; an invention or discovery of their time; a famous artist or composer of their time; an important social issue or historical event of their time; another person of any time who did work like your person.

A good resource to use is http://www.historychannel.com and you can look for a time line based on century or decade to search for important events.

SECRET BOX

This is a secret that your person would have kept from the rest of the world. It does not need to be an actual object that was hidden. It can be an obstacle or difficult challenge that your person's had to overcome. It could also be something that they are afraid or ashamed for others to find out.

Description of secret and WHY that could have been a deep secret that your person had must be at least 8 sentences.

NEWSFLASH

You will write a news story about your person's most important event.

You need to have a date for when your article might have been seen in a newspaper.

Make sure your give your story a headline and a photo.

Be sure to not repeat any story you have already used for another scrapbook page.

HOW I GET FIT

Describe in one paragraph (5 complete sentences) a sport or physical activity that your character participated in during his or her life.

You should be looking at the time period that your character lived and what physical activities were popular.

Add illustrations of your character participating in that sport.

Describe in another paragraph (5 complete sentences) a sport of physical activity of today that your character would participate in and explain why. Add illustrations of your character participating in that sport.

MY WALLET

Make a page that shows some of the following: membership cards, licenses, credit cards, identification, cash, receipts, memos, lists, photographs, wrappers, coupons, business cards, calling cards, make-up, address book, maps, pencils, pens, handkerchiefs, sewing kit, keepsakes, souvenirs, passport, tickets, keys, notepad, stamps, envelopes, legal documents, letters, lists, tools of their trade, etc. This example shows explanations of what might have been in this person's wallet.

PHASE III

You are nearing the end of your life, and it is time to reflect on things past. What were the joys and the pains that you’ve been through? What lessons have you learned?

You will search the internet to find an obituary for your subject, create a page of memories, and write a “Dear Abby” Letter to resolve that one problem you’ve most struggled with throughout your life, and write a bioriddle to present to parents at our “LIVING MUSEUM” night.

OBITUARY

Writing about the death of your person.

Be sure to include his or her birth information, major life accomplishments and activities, and information about his or her family. If your person has not died yet, then you will need to give information as if he or she died today.

MEMORIES

You will choose two memories, a special friend, and a most prized possession from your person's life.

For each you must have a picture, photograph, or magazine clipping and an explanation for each.

Be sure to include page numbers from your book.

DEAR ABBY

For this page you will write a letter to an advice columnist in a newspaper with a problem your character has been having.

Then you will pretend you are “Abby the advice columnist” and respond with writing a letter back to your character with advice to help with the problem.

Bioriddle

This poem should be written in first person using “I”

The poem should have three – five stanzas with rhyme scheme

ABAB

The poem must contain five – eight facts

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