3.9 Introducing Biographies

Learning Targets

Introducing Biographies

You've read about TedXKids@BC, Alaina Podmorow, and Terry Fox. There are some amazing young people in our province. A biography is true story about a real person in which important information and major events from the person's life are described.

In this lesson, we are going to look at some specific writing skills related to biographies: purpose, organization, starting paragraphs with main idea sentences, and how to revise to make a biography stronger.

(Activities in this lesson are adapted from Klobuchar, Lisa, Diane Zahler, and John Aardema. Nonfiction Writing. Monterey, CA: Evan-Moor, 2011. Print.)

Sweet Success

Read this example of a biography to determine the writer's purpose.

     As a small boy, Meadowlark Lemon was not much of a basketball player. Noone in his hometown expected him to play professionally. Little did they knwo that Lemon would become one of the most famous and popular members of the Harlem Globetrotters.

     Lemon was born in the 1930s in Wilminton, North Caroline, USA. One of his favourite pastimes was watching movies at the local theater. When he was 11 years old, he saw a news story featuring the Harlem Globetrotters, a basketball team of entertaining athletes with expert basketball skills. Lemon was instantly captivated by the players driblling, shooting, passing, and clowning around. In that moment, he made up his mind that he would someday join the team.

     Lemon was determine to reach his goal, even though he could not afford to buy a basketball. He made a hoop from an onion sack and a coathanger, and he used an empty can for a ball. He practised endlessly. By the time he reached high school, Lemon had become a fine athlete. He wanted to try out for the Globetrotters, but he was drafter into the army and had to serve two years.

     Lemon finally joined the Globetrotters in 1955. For 24 years, he delighted fans with his pranks on the court. He was known as the "Clown Prince of Basketball". But he was also known for his superb half-court hook shot.

     Meadowlark Lemon played in more than 16 000 basketball games in his career. In 2003, he was honoured to become part of the Basketball Hall of Fame. Today, Lemon works with the sports camps that he founded in 1989. He teaches kids to work hard and believe in themselves because he knows that those are the qualities it takes to be successful.

In Sweet Success in your Learning Guide, record what you think the author's purpose was for writing the biography of Meadowlark Lemon.

Organizing Details

A biography has three parts: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. For a short biography, it can all be in one paragraph. Longer biographies can have an introductory paragraph, body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph. 

A biography gives details in chronological order; this is the order in which they happened. It may begin by telling when and where the person was born and may end by telling when the person died or what he or she is doing now. A concluding may tell about the person's outlook on life or may relate some memorable thing that the person did or said.

In Jane Goodall in your Learning Guide, read the sentences about Jane Goodall. Number the events in chronological order.

Putting It All Together

Sequential texts have signal words that help to make smooth transitions. They include:

first, next, after, before, last, following

In Jane Goodall Paragraph in your Learning Guide, write a paragraph that tells about Jane Goodall's life in chronological (sequential) order. Use signal words to transition between events.

Meet A Biographer

Text Structures Quiz Preparation

It is time to prepare for a quiz on text structures. Use your Text Structure Scramble cards to make sure you can identify what the nonfiction text structure of different paragraphs.

Are you ready for a quiz? Practise on the following paragraphs. Figure out if a paragraph is sequential, compare and contrast, cause and effect, or problem and solution.

1.The surface of the Earth is divided into pieces called “tectonic plates.”  These plates move. When the plates rub against each other, they do not move smoothly. When the plates do not move smoothly, earthquakes result.  Some parts of the world get more earthquakes than other parts. The parts of the earth that get most earthquakes are near the edges of these plates.

Answer cause and effect

2. Some countries, such as Japan, or parts of a country, like California in the United States, have a lot of earthquakes. In these places it is a good practice to build houses and other buildings so they will not collapse when there is an earthquake. This is called seismic design or "earthquake-proofing".

Answer problem and solution

3. The ability of a building to withstand the stress of an earthquake depends upon its type of construction, shape, mass distribution, and rigidity. Different combinations are used. To reduce stress, first, the building's ground floor must be flexible.  One method is to support the ground floor with extremely rigid, hollow columns, while the rest of the building is supported by flexible columns located inside the hollow columns. A different method is to use rollers or rubber pads to separate the base columns from the ground, allowing the columns to shake parallel during an earthquake.  Next, the outdoor walls should be made with stronger and more reinforced materials such as steel or reinforced concrete. Then, to help prevent collapsing, the roof should be made out of light-weight materials.

Answer sequential

4. A hurricane is a large storm with heavy winds and rain that begins in the ocean and builds up strength as it moves across the water. While some of the damage caused by hurricanes is from high winds, most of it is usually from tidal surge, flooding entire cities, and killing large numbers of people. A tornado is a storm that develops on land, with no warning, and moves in a circular motion with heavy winds with a funnel shape, picking up and carrying dirt, dust, and even objects. The damage caused by tornadoes is from the high velocity winds, which are extremely destructive and deadly. They can demolish entire neighborhoods in a matter of a few seconds to a few minutes.  Tornadoes can form when hurricanes make landfall, as their winds at ground level slow down, while the winds near the top keep their momentum, but a hurricane cannot be created by a tornado.   

Answer compare and contrast