Writers’ Workshop: The Biographical Sketch
This Read, Write, Think lesson incorporates the Writer’s Workshop model of teaching writing. My students are studying biographies and memoirs. My students enjoyed using the interactive online Bio-Cube tool. This tool helps students summarize important points in a person’s life. The information is printed out and can be folded into a cube shape. My students enjoyed summarizing this way. Had I asked them to do this on notebook paper, their engagement would have been minimal. Once the research and summarizing step is completed, students take the information from the bio-cube and write a short paper about the person’s life. Lessons for revision with teacher modeling is included with suggestions for the teacher. I chose not to do this part with my class because we are writing memoirs, so I wanted them to see the differences between memoir and biography. However, had I decided to take this farther the lessons are presented in a sequential progression that makes sense.
This lesson plan also includes a rubric, more like a checklist, for students to use as they write. The rubric includes excellent elements that any teacher would like to see her students include but many of them are not included in the lesson plan. Unless another lesson has been taught before the Biographical Sketch Lesson, students will not know how to include these in their sketches. Another issue I have with the lesson is in the time allotted for task. I feel that the time is a bit too short in order for all students to have a finished product, just six class periods.