 | ||||||||
 | LOGIN | |  |  | | |||
 | ||||||||
 |
| 3/13/2010 |  | |||||
| ||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Biography
This unit should take 2-4 hours, depending on time, interest, and extension activities. It is designed for advanced level students age 14 and above. Objectives Students will: Materials to Print Activities Activity I: Pre-reading (15 minutes) Ask students to define biography (history of a person's life). Ask them to discuss whom biographies are usually about (celebrities, politicians, historical figures, writers, artists) and what information they usually contain (background information, childhood experiences, education, occupation, famous acquaintances, major accomplishments). Create a list of this information on the board. Then hand out copies of Printout I. Tell students that the vocabulary is taken from a biography that they are about to read. Ask students to predict whom this biography will be about based on the vocabulary from the reading. Try to get them to address the list of information on the board with their predictions. Activity II: Reading (20 minutes) Hand out copies of Printout II. Ask students to read aloud in small groups. Have each group keep track of the kind of information that is given (birth date, parents' professions, etc.) and then share that info with the class. Create a master list on the board of specific information about Maya Lin that corresponds to the list of general information on the board already. Activity III: Questions Used in the Interview (20-30 minutes) Ask students to predict what questions a writer would have to ask Maya Lin in order to create this biography. In pairs, have them turn the biography into a question and answer session between the biographer and Maya Lin. They should create characters for each, adding personality and speech patterns for each. They can add dialogue and information that was not present in the biography, but they must include all the information that was in the biography. Ask the pairs to perform the interview for the class when they have finished writing it. Activity IV: Grammar (10 minutes) Explain the difference between the prepositional phrases using for, during and since. For is used when measuring a time span (He giggled for twenty minutes). During is used when measuring a specific time span and often with specific actions within that time span (She attended college during the years between 1979 and 1982). Since is used with a specific date or time and must refer to an action that has started in the past (She has been pacing since two-thirty). Then hand out copies of Printout III and ask students to complete the sentences with each of the three prepositional phrases, unless the tense of the verb makes completion impossible. Have them check with their neighbors when they have completed exercise. Ask students to read their favorite sentence to the class. Activity V: Background Check (30 minutes) Tell students that the biography was not written from an interview, but that it was actually based on information from the Internet. Ask each student to choose a famous person (you can create your own list or let them choose) to research on the Internet. Make sure the person they choose is famous enough to have sufficient information available. Hand out copies of Printout IV and ask them to find information about their selected famous person. Activity VI: Adding to Background Information (20 minutes) Once students have collected information on the Internet, ask them to write a list of 10-15 questions they would like to ask in an interview with their famous person. These questions can be about personal opinion, past events or obscure facts. They should be based on the information found on the Internet. Ask students to use the prepositional phrases from the grammar activity in at least two of their questions. Activity VII: Interviewing (20 minutes) When the students finish their list of questions, put them into groups of two. The students will take turns interviewing each other, one pretending to be the famous person researched by the other. The students should read the worksheets completed by their partners and then take on the role of that famous person. They should answer the questions their interviewer asks them with their own answers, although it should be based on the information provided on the worksheet. The interviewer should keep careful notes of what the "famous person" says in the interview. Each pair should interview twice so that both "famous people" are interviewed. Activity VI: Biography (1-2 hours - 2 days) Ask students to write the biography of their famous person based on the true information gathered from the Internet and the made-up information gathered in the interview. When they have handed them in, publish an anthology of class biographies. Add pictures if you like! |