Biographies

Call me crazy but I decided to dive into another research project with my second graders. I like to integrate what we are doing as much as possible so we are up to our eyeballs in biographies this month (reading, writing, social studies). I found a great Wax Museum research packet on the Teachers pay Teachers website.  Each student is hard at work finding out as much as they can about their famous person. During our previous research project my students worked in pairs.  This time they are researching independently. I think the most amazing part of this is that they are learning to take notes like "big kids!"  They are so proud of themselves. I have tweaked a couple of the research ideas in the Wax Museum packet so I could stay consistent with the research strategy we were already using.  Here is a picture of what we have done so far...

What have we done so far?


1. We spent two days exploring biographies.
2. On day 3 students chose a famous person to research.
3. I modeled writing down "dash-facts" while we read about Helen Keller.
4. Students had three 40 minute work sessions to read and collect "dash-facts" about their famous person.
5. Students cut dash facts apart and organized them into four categories (fame, childhood, contributions and fun facts) using a mini pocket book.
6. Students wrote paragraphs for each category using their facts.  I modeled how to do this using our Helen Keller research.


Where we are headed?


7. Students will edit their drafts and write a final version.
8. Students will write up a plan for their wax-museum costume with their parents over the weekend.
9. Students will learn how to take their research and turn it into a speech.
10. Students will write and practice speeches.
11. Students will participate in a wax-museum where they come to life and share about themselves with their families, schoolmates and friends.