Biographies are a key genre in storytelling. We wouldn’t know as much about Albert Einstein, Maya Angelou, Abraham Lincoln, or Mother Teresa if it weren’t for biographies! Even in our day-to-day lives, we share biographies when talking about other people, famous or not. A biography gives important information about a person’s life and describes major events in the order in which they happened.
Informational Writing and Biographies
Reading biographies is a critical part of learning in all school subjects; however, learning how to write biographies is just as imperative. Biographies are a type of informational writing or writing that aims to explain a topic to a reader. An informational text is not always about a person like a biography; an informational text might be about animals, science experiments, or historical events. Learning how to do informational writing is special, as kids can then effectively communicate what they learn to others. When studying informational writing, children learn skills such as research, note-taking, and organizing facts. More specifically, writing biographies teaches children how to recount history, think chronologically, identify major events, synthesize information, and retell stories creatively.
Steps to Teaching Biographies
Introduce a biography and read it together.
The first step in teaching how to write a biography is explaining what a biography is by providing an example of one.
This free Evan-Moor “Writing A Biography” lesson from Nonfiction Writing grade two includes guided instruction and practice activities to help students understand the important elements in a biography.
Download this “Writing a Biography” unit here.
While reading the biography that you selected to share with the children, ask questions such as:
- What is the purpose of the biography?
- Why is this a good biography?
- Does the first sentence say who it is about and why they are important?
- Does the biography provide interesting facts about the person’s life?
- Are the events told in the order in which they occurred?
Integrate biographies into students reading and have them read biographies to classmates to get familiar with the genre.
Find important information.
Remind your students that a biography gives important information about someone. To practice identifying important information, read a biography and ask the questions:
- Who is the biography about?
- When and where was this person born?
- What is this person known for?
Reading Comprehension: Nonfiction includes in-depth reading units that help students learn how to analyze different nonfiction text structures such as biographies and science and social studies articles. Learn more about this series for grades 1-6 here.
This nonfiction reading unit from Reading Comprehension: Nonfiction tells the story of Benjamin Banneker and how his scientific accomplishments helped to change attitudes about African Americans. It includes close reading activities to guide students in identifying important information.
Download these free printables here.
Choose good details.
Not all information about a person is needed in a biography. Some facts are more important than others, which is why children should learn to choose only the necessary details. One way to teach children how to choose good details is to check in with them when reading a biography and ask:
- Are these details important?
- Which details are not important?
Write a good beginning.
A good beginning of a biography includes who the biography is about and why the person is important. This should appear in the very first sentence of the biography. Have students practice writing first sentences of biographies with two pieces of information: a name and why the person is important.
Organize a biography.
Biographies are organized chronologically. For the children to practice identifying events in the order in which they happened, have the kids numerically order a list of events and then turn the events into full sentences. You can even encourage the children to draw out a timeline.
Review and edit a biography.
The final step in teaching children to write a biography is to have them review a biography, pinpointing what was done well or what could be improved. After reading a biography together, review it by asking the questions:
- Who is the biography about?
- Why is the person important?
- Does the very first sentence tell us who the person is and why they are important?
- Are the details in chronological order?
- What details are not important in the biography and can be excluded?
Introduce young minds to a wide range of remarkable people who have shaped our world. This close reading and research process not only helps young learners discover the lives of historical figures but also nurtures their reading, research, and critical thinking skills.
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Natalie Robinson is a recent Communication Studies graduate from LMU. She has a strong passion for writing and loves children. Having grown up in a Montessori school and later transitioning to public school, Natalie values early childhood education and believes that social and emotional learning should be a core tenet within all homes and classrooms. In writing for Evan-Moor, Natalie hopes to build a career in copywriting and copyediting.