Author: Joyce Arnosky

Seminar: Biography as History, or, Perhaps, History as Biography

Through this four week unit created for fifth graders, students will have the opportunity to uncover a part of their family’s history through writing the story of one of its oldest members. After completing a class genre study on biography, students will write a biography of their grandparent or great-grandparent based on interviews with that person and others who know him/her well. Additionally, they will examine photographs, illustrations, letters, diaries, maps, and other artifacts to glean information to be included in their writing. Students will research major world events that their subject’s life encompassed and create a time line to be included in the afterword. The biography will be published and a copy will be given to their subject. Their work will be shared through a multi-media presentation to the class. At the conclusion of the project, students will complete a written reflection on their experience, identifying themes in their subject’s life supported by examples. They will consider how they see themselves in this person – In what ways are they similar? In what ways are they different?