Biographical Essays: Researching People Who Inspire Us
We have been working hard on a nonfiction biography focused unit in Reading and an essay writing unit in Writing. Students perused the biographies we have in our classroom (so many amazing picture books and the Who Was.. series that is at a good level for 3rd graders), and then chose three people they’d like to research and write about. We had already done a number of read alouds of picture book biographies so were able to get our students excited about people they weren’t initially familiar with and showcase some amazing women and PoC. We also looked at photos, video clips, and listened to music. They were hooked! One thing that was important to remember going into this unit is that research is not only done through reading (even though we love books and LOVE recommending books to children) - we used photos, videos, video clips, maps, and more! Photos are a great way to start talking