Phase One Table of Contents 2 Common Core State Standards 3 Teacher Content Knowledge 4-8 Phase Two

3^rd Grade

Mrs. Connie Liddle

Mountain Brook Elementary School

Reading: Biographies

Unit Assignment Notebook

Table of Contents

Phase One

Table of Contents 2

Common Core State Standards 3

Teacher Content Knowledge 4-8

Parent Letter 9

Web-based Resources 10-13

Literature Connections 14-19

Community Resources 20

Phase Three

Day 1 Lesson Grid and Appendix 21-25

Day 2 Lesson Grid and Appendix 26-29

Day 3 Lesson Grid and Appendix 30-33

Day 4 Lesson Grid and Appendix 34-39

Day 5 Lesson Grid and Appendix 40-45

Pretest / Posttest 46-48

Pretest / Posttest Answer Key 49-51

References 52-54

Day 1 Lesson Reflection 55-57

Day 2 Lesson Reflection 58-60

Day 3 Lesson Reflection 61-63

Day 4 Lesson Reflection 64-66

Day 5 Lesson Reflection 67-69

Assessment Analysis (Table, Visual Representations, Analysis) 70-75

Student Work Samples Attachment A

Common Core State Standards

Lesson One – February 10, 2014

3.RI.10) By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

3.RI.1) Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as a basis for the answers.

3.RI.7) Use information gained from illustrations and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text.

3.RI.2) Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.

3.RI.3) Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas of concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.

3.RI.7) Use information gained from illustrations and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text.

Teacher Content Knowledge – Day One / Lesson One

CCSS: 3.RI.10 - By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Remedial:

• 
  Non-fiction books are a genre of texts that are true, about real people, actual events, and/or real places (Biography, 2014).
  
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  Biographies are a type of non-fiction text (Steele, 2007).
  

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  Biographies are true stories about real people (Steele, 2007).
  

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  The main character of a biography is called the subject (Nordquist, 2014).
  
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  Biographies are written by someone else, other than the main character of the biography (Steele, 2007).
  
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  Authors of biographies must conduct research on the subject by either interviewing the subject, or interviewing people who knew the subject (Steele, 2007).
  
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  The author of a biography is known as a “biographer” (Nordquist, 2014).
  
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  The subject of a biography is known as a “biographee” (Nordquist, 2014).
  
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  The author’s perspective from which he or she writes a story is referred to as the author’s “point of view.” A story can be written in first person or third person. If a story is written in first person that means the narrator is a character in the story. If a story is written in third person that means the narrator is not a character in the story and is telling the story from the outside looking in (Top Tips for Teaching Reading Comprehension, 2014).
  

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  “Bios” is of Greek origin meaning “life” (Steele, 2007).
  
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  “Graphien” is of Greek origin meaning “to write” (Steele, 2007).
  
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  A biography written by the subject is called an autobiography or a memoir (Autobiography, 2014).
  

CCSS: 3.RI.1 - Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as a basis for the answers.

Remedial:

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  Biographies have a beginning, middle, and end just like fictional stories (Biography, 2014).
  
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  The subject of a biography has struggles, hardships, and accomplishments just like the main character of a fictional story (Biography, 2014).
  

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  Information that is stated clearly in the text is referred to as “explicit information” (Top Tips for Teaching Reading Comprehension, 2014).
  
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  When a reader determines the meaning of a story by using information from the text and his or her own background knowledge it is referred to as “drawing a conclusion” (Top Tips for Teaching Reading Comprehension, 2014).
  

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  Biographies can be about subjects that lived in the past or that are still alive today (Biography, 2014).
  
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  Biographies can be written about anybody, not just famous people. You can write a biography about family members, friends, neighbors, and/or local heroes (Biography, 2014).
  

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  Biographies tell the most important events from a subject’s life, including the subject’s beginning life, struggles and hardships, and achievements (What is a Biography, 2009).
  

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  When a reader notices that two or more things are similar in a text he or she is “comparing” those elements. A reader “contrasts” elements of a text when he or she understands how two or more things are different (Top Tips for Teaching Reading Comprehension, 2014).
  
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  When a reader collects information from a text that is similar or the same he or she is “categorizing” the information from the text. When the reader names that group of information he or she is “classifying” it (Top Tips for Teaching Reading Comprehension, 2014).
  

CCSS: 3.RI.7 - Use information gained from illustrations and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text.

Remedial:

• 
  Adjectives are words that describe nouns and pronouns, which are people, places, and things (Woods, 2014).
  
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  When using adjectives in writing, the writer puts the adjective before the noun or pronoun that it is describing (Woods, 2014).
  
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  Illustrations are the pictures that accompany the text in a story (Thibault, 2003).
  

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  Illustrations in biographies are usually either real photographs or realistic drawings (Thibualt, 2003).
  
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  A reader can learn more about the story and the characters in the story by examining the illustrations in a book (Thibault, 2003).
  
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  A reader can take a “picture walk” before reading a story in order to make predictions about the events of the story and get more details about the characters, the places they lived, and the time period they lived during (Thibault, 2003).
  

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  The subject of a biography can be described based off of the person’s actions, appearance, emotions, and/or relationships that are expressed in the text. The term “character” refers to this description (Top Tips for Teaching Reading Comprehension, 2014).
  
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  The actions and reactions of a character in a story help the reader describe the character (Top Tips for Teaching Reading Comprehension, 2014).
  

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  The pictures, words, and organizational graphics that showcase information in a text are referred to as “text features.” Examples of text features include titles, subtitles, photographs, illustrations, and captions (Top Tips for Teaching Reading Comprehension, 2014).
  

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  Readers make inferences while they are reading about a character. These inferences are based off of the character’s actions and emotions, events and key details in the story, and the illustrations (Making Inferences, 2014).
  
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  Readers can use their observations from the story along with their background knowledge to make inferences and connect with the story (Making Inferences, 2014).
  

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  When readers understand the text, they can read to discover the reason the author wrote it, which is referred to as the “author’s purpose” (Top Tips for Teaching Reading Comprehension, 2014).
  

CCSS: 3.RI.2 - Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.

Remedial:

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  Readers should think about the main idea of a text while they read, by paying attention to the details (Main Idea, 2014).
  
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  The main idea of a text is the message or point the author is trying to share. It is sometimes stated near the beginning of the text in a topic sentence (Main Idea, 2014).
  
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  The text will have organized sentences that provide details in order to support the main idea (Main Idea, 2014).
  

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  The main events of a story are referred to as it’s “plot” (Top Tips for Teaching Reading Comprehension, 2014).
  
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  The lesson or main idea that the author of a story is trying to impart on the reader is referred to as the “theme” (Top Tips for Teaching Reading Comprehension, 2014).
  

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  To determine the main idea of a text a reader can summarize the text to find the key details or the gist of the text (Jones, 2012).
  
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  When a reader is summarizing a biography, he or she is deciding what the most important events of the subject’s life are. The reader uses those key events to understand the gist or the main idea of the biography (Jones, 2012).
  
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  Helpful tips for summarizing include focusing on key words and phrases, condensing complex ideas from the text, choosing only the most important details, and taking notes or highlighting key events or details in the story (Jones, 2012).
  

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  Practicing writing summaries will help improve a student’s writing by improving his or her vocabulary skills, because writing a succinct summary requires the use of descriptive words (Summarizing, 2013).
  
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  To practice summary writing, a student can write a summary, then rewrite it a little shorter, and then rewrite it a third or fourth time even shorter. The student can continue to improve the summary until only the most important details and the main idea remain (Summarizing, 2013).
  

CCSS: 3.RI.3 - Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas of concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.

Remedial:

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  A setting of a biography is where and when the story happened (Setting, 2014).
  
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  There may be many settings throughout the lifetime of a subject in a biography or only one (Setting, 2014).
  

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  The order in which events occur within a story are referred to as the “sequence” (Top Tips for Teaching Reading Comprehension, 2014).
  

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  The time period of the setting of a biography is an important detail to know because it affects the way the characters act, talk, treat each other, dress, etc… (Setting, 2014).
  
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  Some biographies will not explicitly state the setting of a subject’s life story, and the reader must look for clues that tell when and where the story happened (Setting, 2014).
  

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  In a story, the reason an event or an action occurs is referred to as the “cause.” The “effect” is what occurs as a result of the “cause.” In sequence, the “cause” would happen prior to the “effect” in a story (Top Tips for Teaching Reading Comprehension, 2014).
  

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  When a reader guesses at what event or action will probably occur next in a story it is referred to as “predicting” (Top Tips for Teaching Reading Comprehension, 2014).
  

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  Readers can determine time periods in biographies by paying attention to the way the characters speak, the way they dress, their actions towards other people, the way they travel, and the historical events that are occurring during the story (Setting, 2014).
  
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  1954 – In Brown vs. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously against the segregation of schools (African American World, 2014).
  
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  !954-1971 is known as the Civil Rights Era (African American World, 2014).
  

Dear Family,

On Monday, February 10^th our class is beginning a new reading unit on biographies. The class will learn that biographies are different from other non-fiction books, because they are written and read like a story. We will read The Story of Ruby Bridges together as a class and each day we will use this book to study a new element of biographies. The students will learn to distinguish biographies from other non-fiction texts, identify the subject of a biography, recognize a subject’s hardships, struggles, and achievements, gain information from illustrations in a biography, determine the main idea of a biography, and recognize the importance of understanding the time period that a subject’s life occurred. The students will be asked to read with great attention to detail, and to be open to discussing their ideas and points of view regarding the text. The goal of this unit is for students to form a deeper understanding of how to read biographies for education, as well as, for enjoyment. The lessons will include hands-on activities, cooperative group work, visual examples and models, interactive instruction from the teacher, interactive Smart Board presentations, and written assessments. The students will use their background knowledge about non-fiction texts and their reading comprehension skills during the upcoming lessons.

During our reading lessons, the students will spend time reading various short biographies on famous Americans. They will also be encouraged to read biographies during their independent reading time and for their weekly reading log. This reading unit will also be supported by the students’ writing lessons. The students will be researching and writing a biography about a person of their choosing. The students may pick a subject from the past or the present, but the subject will need to be someone who they can research. They will be asked to decide on their subject by Tuesday, February 11^th. The students will write their biographies and bring them home to share with you by the end of February! I would like to also recommend a list of excellent children’s biographies that I have attached to this letter. These books will be available in the classroom for the students to read, but can also be found at the library if the students would like to read them at home. If you would like to encourage your student to practice their reading and writing skills with biographies before and/or during our lessons, the class symbaloo has websites with biographies to read, video biographies to watch, and interactive games on reading skills for your student to enjoy!

I am looking forward to beginning this unit on biographies with the students. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at the school. Thank you!

Sincerely,

Kari Cook

Web-based Resources

2. Glogster. (2014). Glogster EDU. Retrieved from http://edu.glogster.com/

This website is a great resource for students to create interactive online posters. The program is easy to understand and is appropriate for students of all ages. Students can add text and upload photographs, video, sound, and drawings to their Glogster poster. The students are using this tool to create autobiography presentations as an extension of the biography unit. Glogster enables the students to use the skills they have learned about what makes an interesting biography to create a poster that tells the story of their own lives.

3. Liddle’s Class Webmix. (2014). Symbaloo Gallery. Retrieved from http://www.symbaloo.com /mix/liddlesclasswebmix

Symbaloo is a great resource for encouraging students to practice academic skills online. The website allows teachers to create a custom menu of website links that students can access at school or at home. For the reading unit on biographies, Liddle’s Class Webmix included student-safe search engines, biography websites with articles and videos, Glogster, Trading Card Creator, and Scholastic’s website. This resource is versatile and can be updated and modified for each unit of study during the school year.

4. People. (2007). FactMonster. Retrieved from http://www.factmonster.com/people.html

This website is divided into five sections. The first section at the top of the site is titled “People and Biographies.” This section has a link for finding fun facts about people, a link for researching famous women of influence, a link for researching the United States presidents, and a link for finding biographies. The link for biographies sorts biographies by categories of their accomplishments. This link also has a step by step tutorial on how to properly write a biography. The next two sections on the website allow the user to search biographies alphabetically or with a search box. The fourth section is the “Special Features” section, which highlights biographies and has fun facts such as famous people’s birthdays. The last section provides games and quizzes that are based off of the information provided in the website’s biographies. This is a fun and interactive website for reading and studying biographies.

5. People in the News. (2014). Scholastic. Retrieved from http://teacher.scholastic.com

/scholasticnews/indepth/peopleinthenews/activities/index.asp?article=resources

This website provides biographies on current leaders in our world. The biographies are written about women leaders, Hispanic leaders, African American leaders, and teen leaders. The website offers advice to its readers about how to become a leader, and has short biographies about people who may not be famous, but are doing amazing things. It offers a tutorial for students to use for writing biographies, as well as, a resource page with tips for conducting research. This website is a great example for helping students understand that biographies do not have to be written about famous people who lived in the past, but can also be current and relevant to their world today.



6. Reading Games. (2014). RoomRecess.com. Retrieved from http://www.roomrecess.com

/pages/ReadingGames.html

This website provides games for elementary school students to use in order to practice various reading skills. The reading skills that are related to the lessons that will be taught during the biography unit include: understanding cause and effect, sequencing, and finding the main idea. The cause and effect game asks the student to match the causes that are written on different flavors of ice cream with the appropriate effects that are written on ice cream cones. The game challenges the player by steadily decreasing the amount of time that he or she has to match the causes and effects. The sequencing game has parts of a story written on several train cars. The player reads the parts of the story and then moves the train cars into the correct order behind the engine. The main idea game has a short story written on a storm cloud and three possible main ideas written on trees on the ground. The player reads the story, moves the storm cloud over the correct main idea, and then clicks the mouse to strike the main idea with lightning. These games are simple and fun ways for students to practice these important reading skills that they will use while studying biographies.

7. Trading Card Creator. (2012). ReadWriteThink. Retrieved from http://www.readwritethink.org /files/resources/interactives/trading_cards_2/

This website enables students to make trading cards with information on fictional or real people, places, events, or concepts. The student can enter the subject of the biography he or she has read or is currently reading as the topic of the trading card. Then, the student can add information about the subject’s background, struggles, achievements, life events, and memorable quotes or actions. The student can also add a picture of the biography subject to the trading card and his or her personal impression about the subject. After the student reads about the subject of a biography and completes the trading card, he or she can print it out. The trading card website is a great tool for students to use to organize the information they learn from biographies as they read. The website allows students to save up to eight trading cards at a time.

1. 
   Giovanni, N. (2005). Rosa. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company.
   

2. 
   Green, R. (2003). Nelson Mandela: Activist for equality. Chanhassen, MN: The Child's
   

3. 
   Gutman, D. (2006). Jackie Robinson and the big game. New York, NY: Aladdin
   

4. 
   Latimer, C. (2009). Journey to freedom: Muhammad Ali. Mankato, MN: The Child's
   

5. 
   Lindbergh, R. (1996). Nobody owns the sky. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.
   

6. 
   Monroe, J. (2006). Thurgood Marshall: Civil rights champion. Mankato, MN: Capstone
   

7. 
   Sloate, S. (2007). Ray Charles: Find another way!. New York, NY: Bearport Publishing.
   

8. 
   Watson, R. (2012). Harlem's little blackbird. New York, NY: Random House.
   

9. 
   Weatherford, C. B. (2008). Before John was a jazz giant. New York, NY: Henry Holt and
   

10. 
    Winter, J. (2013). You never heard of Willie Mays?!. New York, NY: Schwartz and
    

Community Resources

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  Guest Speakers
  
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    A guest speaker could come to the classroom and share biographical information about a student, a member of a student’s family, or a local hero. The teacher could ask parents/guardians of the students or other members of the community to come to the classroom to speak.
    
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    Students could also gather research information from a guest speaker about his or her life, in order to write a biography about him or her. The guest speaker could be a student’s family member, a member of the school’s faculty or staff, or a member of the community.
    
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    Local authors could come to the classroom to talk to the students about their writing careers.
    

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  Field Trips
  
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    The class could go on a field trip to one of the following places in order to see exhibits and/or artifacts of a famous person that they have read about or researched.
    
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      Alabama Shakespeare Festival (Cost depends on show)
      

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  Alabama Sports Hall of Fame ($2.00 admission for students)
  

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  American Village ($9.00 admission for students)
  

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  Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (Free admission for students in Jefferson County / $3.00 per student from outside Jefferson County)
  

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  Birmingham Museum of Art (Free admission for students)
  

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  Southern Museum of Flight ($6.00 admission for students)
  

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  Virtual Field Trips
  

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  The class could watch biographies/documentaries of famous people in the classroom via the following online video websites.
  
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    Biography Channel
    

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  Top Documentary Films (http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/category/biography/)
  

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  Teacher Tube