The biography unit is one of my favorite reading units of the year! This post will highlight an easy biography poem activity that can be used with any historical figure.
To introduce biographies, I use the text Gertrude Ederle: America’s Champion Swimmer.
Who is Gertrude Ederle?
This text is a biography about the life of Gertrude Ederle and her historical swim across the English Channel. Gertrude was the first woman to complete this daring and difficult task. Prior to Gertrude, only 5 men had made the swim across. And, when she did, her time beat the men’s record (by 2 hours- say what?!)
I love sharing stories that empower my students to go out and do great things. A biography unit is the perfect time to inspire and motivate them. This book is especially great for your female students! Too much focus is given to male athletes and females don’t get the attention or respect they deserve.
Biography I am Poems
One of my favorite biography activities is to have my students create an I Am poem written from the perspective of the historical person we are reading about. I provide them with the poem outline. Students complete the poem by finishing each sentence. In order to do this, students must gather specific details from the text that they can use in their poems.
This text is perfect for an activity like this one because the author includes many details that help the reader imagine what it was like in that moment with Gertrude. This activity will work for any biography, especially one that highlights the major event the person is famous for.
Attention Grabber:
When you ask your class “Who is stronger? Girls or boys?” Your boys will probably shout from the rooftops that they are the strongest. Tell them you’ve got a text that will prove them wrong!
Before reading, you should also use Google Maps to show students where the English Channel is. Many students only know the word “Channel” as a station on the TV. So, this is a great time to introduce this new vocabulary word.
We will completely read the text before beginning the biography poem activity.
Modeling:
To help my students find text details, I create 5 posters: Gertrude hears, Gertrude tastes, Gertrude feels (touch), Gertrude sees, and Gertrude smells.
I place students into cooperative groups of 3-4 students. I give each group a different color of sticky notes. Then, I place the posters around the room. I assign each group to one of the posters.
Students work with their group members to find text details that can be added to each poster. They write each detail and a page number on their sticky notes and add it to the poster.
Before beginning this activity, I will model this to ensure the students know the types of details I am looking for. I want their answers to show as much text evidence, and thinking as possible.
Practice:
After 5 minutes, I rotate the groups to a new poster. Each group takes their sticky notes to the next station. I do this to help me see the value that each group added to each poster. If all 5 posters are covered in green stickies, then I know the green group found more text details than the other color groups.
After each rotation, the students must FIRST read each sticky note on the poster. Then, they may add NEW details, or add an explanation to a sticky note that they feel is vague or does not provide enough information. This is an important step, because it is a waste of sticky notes if all students are writing the same idea over and over. This also requires the students to dig deeper… which as you know, is my favorite style of teaching!!
After a few minutes, we rotate again. The posters end up looking something like this:
I like to see new details added to the posters after each rotation. It is very important to only allow the first group 5 minutes to find details or they will find them all! The last two rotations are always the hardest. Most details have been found by that point.
Following this activity, I have my students brainstorm 4 things that Gertrude may have been thinking about during her swim. This part helps with the “I wonder… I worry… etc” lines of the poem. The information from these lines is not specifically stated in the text and students must make inferences based on what they have read.
After we finish brainstorming, students use their details to complete an I Am poem. Check out this student work sample:
Your students will create wonderfully written biography poems. These are similar to a summary of the event in the text.
Download:
You can download a blank poem template here. I did not create this poem. I’ve seen it before on ReadWriteThink.org.
I also have other printables to accompany the text here. I use these to monitor comprehension as my students read and interact with this story. This product will be on flash sale from now until 2/27/2020 for $1!
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