Think about your favorite biography. Who is it about? What is the most interesting thing you learned about this person?
Would you be more or less likely to read biographies and books about other serious topics if they were written as graphic novels rather than regular books? Why?
What do you think would be the biggest challenge in writing a biography about someone as well-known and as "much mythologized" as Anne Frank? Why?
Why do you think Anne Frank's story has inspired and fascinated people around the world for so long? How do you think her biography has influenced people's ideas about the Holocaust?
- Prior to conducting this activity, gather several age-appropriate biographies to share with the class. If necessary, ask your school librarian for help in selecting books.
- As a class, discuss the difference between an autobiography and a biography. Guide students to understand that an autobiography is a chronological story that someone writes about his or her own life. A biography is much the same, but the author writes about someone else.
- Invite students to examine the books you collected in small groups. Rejoin as a class to identify additional characteristics of a biography. For example, the information in a biography is based on fact. Whenever possible, events and dialogue are based on reliable first-person accounts. Most biographies follow chronological order. Biographies describe the time, place and other people in the subject's life accurately. And, a biography avoids stereotypes. Through description and examples, the story tells readers how the subject was unique.
- Divide the class into pairs or have students choose partners. Inform students that they will each write a biography about their partner.
- Instruct students to interview their partners. You may also wish to have them interview their partner's friends and family members to gather additional information. Then give students time to write their biographies. Encourage students to share photographs to help illustrate their stories.
CUSTOMIZE THE LESSON:
Try out the links on this Smithsonian site to learn more about the lives and accomplishments of exceptional Americans. The biographies include images and information from across the Smithsonian about men and women who have shaped our history and culture.
Use this website from the Smithsonian Institution Archives to introduce students to the scientific research of Joseph Henry (1797-1878), the first Smithsonian Secretary and renowned physicist and how he helped set the Institution on its course.
If you have an artist’s name, a biographical dictionary can help you learn more basic but important facts about the artist’s life. Read this article from the Smithsonian American Art Museum to learn more.
In this lesson from the Smithsonian National air and Space Museum, students working independently online will study primary source materials from the Wright Brothers exhibition and use what they learn to create a brief biography of Wilbur or Orville Wright. The class then combines individual student work to create a biography in the form of an illustrated timeline.
In this “getting to know you” activity from the Smithsonian’s History Explorer, students get to show who they are by composing a portrait made of their objects. The lesson also introduces or reinforces an idea central to historical research, that objects hold stories about the people who own them and when they lived. The activity can be paired with the National Museum of American History exhibition Pushing Boundaries: Portraits by Robert Weingarten.
Read this Smithsonian magazine article to learn about the eccentric inventor and modern Prometheus who died 76 years ago, after leading a rags-to-riches to rags life.
In the early 20th century, Louise Arner Boyd lived as a philanthropist in the United States and a hero on the high seas. Read this Smithsonian magazine article to learn about her amazing life.