Lesson Plan Writing

Day: Monday Date: 12/18/2020

Subject: ELA Writing with Biographies.

Duration: 5 days

Common Core Standard(s):

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.2
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information
clearly.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.2.A
Introduce a topic clearly and group related information in paragraphs and sections; include
formatting (e.g., headings), illustrations, and multimedia when useful to aiding
comprehension.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.2.B
Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information
and examples related to the topic.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.2.C
Link ideas within categories of information using words and phrases (e.g., another, for
example, also, because).
Objective(s): At the end of this lesson my students will be able to construct and format their
own biographies using their graphic organizer in a sequence and organized order of events.
They will be able to pull facts, definitions, details, quotations, or other information from their
texts. Transitional words will be used as well as topic sentences to organize book report.
Resources/Materials List:
*Biography books & eBooks
*Pencils/ notebooks
*Computers/ Google Docs
* Book report outline. Please see Appendix C or download here: Fourth grade Lesson What is
a Biography? | BetterLesson
*Dr Seuss YouTube video: (82) Five Fun Facts about Dr. Seuss - YouTube
*Rubric for writing & presenting. Please see Appendix B.
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Procedure:

1) To start our lesson, we will review. I will ask the students if they know
what a biography is? We will discuss what a biography is and the
difference between a biography and an autobiography.
2) Introduce the biography chapter book we will be reading together as a
class later in the unit, "Who was Dr. Seuss?" by Janet Pascal and play
the following video to get them excited about it.
3) Watch: (82) Five Fun Facts about Dr. Seuss - YouTube 4) Hand out
biography outline for report.
5) Go over good topic sentence examples using the outline.
Ex: His/her greatest achievement was…
-His/ her legacy was…
-He/She taught us that…
-One interesting thing about…
6) Hand out biography outline for students to organize their thoughts. (See
attached).
7) Tell students to get a piece of paper to brain storm for ideas.
8) Informing students to brainstorm their ideas means you will try to come up
with as many ideas as you can. Do not worry about whether they are
good or bad ideas. You can brainstorm by creating a list of ideas that
you came up with, or drawing a map and diagram, or just writing down
whatever you can think of without thinking about grammar.
9) Have students look at their vocabulary graphic organizers for key words that
relate to biographies that we had the week before. Suggest that students
write down the words in which they want to remember to include in their
rough draft.
10) Instruct students to start a rough draft of their report using a pencil and
writing notebook.
11) Remember to tell them that these reports should be in first person, as if
they were them.
12) Meet with each student when they are finished their rough draft to
make sure they are completing what is on the outline for final version.
13) Hand them separately after meeting the rubric for final typed version.
Please see Appendix B. Encourage them to read it before they start
their final draft.
14) Have students use Google Docs and type their final version of the
report.
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Plans for differentiation:

Javier:
-will work next to me if needing prompts or translations on google translator.

Jaylee:
-will be asked questions throughout the process to make sure she is understanding how
to transform her graphic organizer into a biography report. -Can handwrite her final
draft.

Assessment: Use rubrics throughout writing process to evaluate students pre-planning, writing
and class speech on final project. Please see Appendix A and Appendix B.
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Plans for accommodation/modification:

Javier-
11) Have student write his biography in Spanish on Google Docs and use a
translator to read in English.
12) Will have someone who speaks Spanish look over his work throughout
to help.
13) Teacher who reviews his work in Spanish will use rubric for outline
when grading his paper.
Jaylee-

1) Will use a 1st grade rubric for writing and presentation.

What is next? I would have my students dress up as the person they chose and stand in front
of the class and “be them”. In this speech the student will take their gathered information
from bibliographies and tell their story from the eyes of the person they selected in the form
of an autobiography. I will be looking for details about the person growing up, career,
hobbies, accomplishments, and contributions.
Reflection:
Teachers can use biographies to teach students many life lessons and new vocabulary. In
depth research into a person of interest’s life can fit into almost all curriculum areas:
language arts, history, social studies, science, art, or computer. Reading about the real-life
story of a successful person often influences or provides encouragement. As students learn
about the challenges and obstacles people have overcome, they can make connections to
their own life struggles. The cooperating teacher at the Sullivan school used many texts that
the students could relate to. She called for them to make inferences about certain aspects of
a story and write about them in paragraph form.
To write well students need confidence in their ability to write. Writing clearly takes
practice. Lunenburg (2014) states, “writing teachers can build that confidence by providing
students with a safety net, a writing process that guides students in their writing—how to
begin, how to proceed along the way, and how to conclude a piece of writing” (p. 2). Students
grow with practice and being introduced to a variety of text and writing styles with writing
components like the vocabulary needed to describe actions, events, and objects, and the
sentence structures needed to put ideas into writing. The more practice and variety of writing
styles a teacher can let children explore with will help them construct language meaning.
Writing is a process that involves several steps: prewriting, drafting, editing, and final version.
It is important for a writer to work through each of the steps and teaching this to students
early on will build on their language skills. In this lesson I have given them an outline to follow
which prepares them for the prewriting phase. The students rough draft will be constructed
through the drafting step. This is when the student is encouraged to write and not pay too
much of attention on mistakes. The editing step allows early writers
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to be able to check their paper for capitalization and punctuation mistakes. As a child gets
older, he will be able to correct other errors on his own. However, in earlier grades it is
important for the teacher to sit with the student and look for errors he/she might not be
capable of seeing yet. It allows a student teacher meeting to guide and assess the student’s
strengths and where he or she needs further guidance.
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References

Lunenburg, F. (2014). Teaching Writing in Elementary Schools: Using the Learning ... Retrieved
December 8, 2020, from
http://www.nationalforum.com/Electronic%20Journal%20Volumes/Lunenburg,%20Fred%
20Teaching%20Writing%20in%20Elementary%20Schools%20-
%20IJOE%20V2%20N1%202014.pdf

O. (2020). Color Your Own "All About a Biography" Posters. Retrieved December 08, 2020,
from https://www.orientaltrading.com/color-your-own-all-about-a-biography-posters-
a213718251.fltr

Praveen (2013, January/February). “Using Graphic Organizers to Improve Reading

Comprehension” Retrieved December 8, 2020, from
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1076955.pdf Appendix A
Biography Poster
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Appendix B

Writing Rubric & Presentation

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Biography Rubric for ___________________________________________
Date____________________

What am I being Exceeds Awesome Job!! 3 Good Job! 2 Needs Work 1

graded on? Requirements!! 4

Content Missed many of

Includes all of Includes most of Missing some person’s life events
person’s significant person’s significant significant life and has very few
life events and has life events (at least events and has a supporting details.
many supporting 3) and has some few supporting
details. supporting details. details.

Research Person’s life is Person’s life does Very few clear

Person’s life is well supported with not seem facts about the
researched and facts and details. wellresearched. person’s life.
developed with facts
and details.

Organization Most related Some related Lacks organization

Related information information about information about and structure. No
about the person is the person is the person is topic sentences.
grouped together in grouped together. grouped together,
paragraphs. At least one topic but some is out of
Paragraphs have sentence. order. No clear
topic sentences. topic sentences.

Style Has some Sentences sound Some sentences

Interesting, keeps interesting the same and have incomplete and are
reader’s attention. sentences of varied similar length. very basic,
Complete sentences length. repetitive.
with varied length.
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Originality Described with some

Clearly described in own of own words the
Clearly described in Describes the
words the person’s life, own words the person’s life. person’s life but
accomplishments and person’s life and seems like someone
contributions. accomplishments. else’s writing style.

Word choice Uses some descriptive Very few descriptive Very basic, general
words. words. word choice.
Consistently uses a
variety of descriptive
words.

Creativity Included pictures and Included picture. Missing picture.

added extras to make Added extra Included picture but
report special! information to make added no other
report unique. details.

Conventions/Overall Very professional! Two Four to six spelling or

Neatness or fewer spelling or grammar errors.
Three to four spelling Needs editing. Over
grammar errors. Typed Paper is typed but not
or grammar six spelling or
paper with indented all paragraphs grammar errors.
errors. Paper typed
paragraphs. with indented indented. Paper typed but
paragraphs. Very neat difficult to see
and professional. paragraphs.

Daily Work Ethic Needed to focus more

Almost always on Sometimes on on the
Always on task!!
Following Directions project! Needed
Followed all task. Followed most task. Followed some
steps of the writing frequent help with
steps of the writing steps of the writing
Writing Process process with rough the writing process.
process with rough process with rough
draft, editing, and final draft, editing, and draft, editing, and
draft. final draft. final draft.

Total: ________________/36 points

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Appendix C

Biography Report Outline