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� Written works that describe and discuss the lives of real individuals.
� Creates a main character children care about � Makes the reader want to learn more about the subject � Describes the subject’s actions and what they say
� Describes ways others talk about the subject
� Creates visual pictures in the readers mind
� Helps to place the reader in time and place
Earlier Periods � Commonly used to expose children to national and cultural heroes
� Tended to exaggerate the positive side of the subject
� Subject was often White male political leader
� Emphasized historical contributors to society
� Emphasis on admirable virtues & role models
� Altered to represent diverse of cultures in U.S.
� Expose Americans to a more inclusive view of noteworthy individuals abroad & in America
� Include a more realistic representation of events: Discrimination, Abuse, Violence
Today’s Content
� Practices in earlier children’s biographies � Use of a child’s voice as narrator with a great figure � Author Robert Lawson, “I Discovered Columbus” “Ben & Me” used a mouse and a parrot to narrate their stories. Made stories more enjoyable for young readers.
� Medal first awarded in 1922 � Awarded for biography in 1934 � “Invincible Louisa” story of Louisa May Alcott
� Written by Cornelia Meigs
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� Contemporary People � Historical Figures � Athletes � Entertainers � Scientists and Inventors � Series: ie Creative Minds & Gateway � Partial, Complete, Collective, Autobiographies, Memoirs & Picture Book Biographies
� People in music: � Vocal and singing shows make the music business look so attractive. I wanted to have real accounts of entertainers and how hard they had to work in order to become who they are/were in the music industry. Here are a few excerpts from passages in the biographies of: � Aretha Franklin, Beyonce, Diana Ross & Whitney Houston
� See if you can guess who said what…
� “I don’t want anything to do with Motown 25, Yesterday, Today and Forever…it feels awkward since I’ve been gone for two years”…-‐?????
� “As a female teenage R & B pop singer, there were so many stereotypes attached to me”-‐???????
� “I didn’t want my rendition of the Star Spangled Banner to be traditional”-‐????
� “The only queens I had known were Dinah Washington, Queen Elizabeth I and II…To be considered worthy of the same title was an honor”-‐???
� At each grade level, K -‐12th, the standards for reading focus on literature and informational texts that include biographies.
� California’s state standards require a balance between the literature and the informational texts.
� Biographies can be used to aid particular core standards, such as the model school library content standard.
� For instance, the standard 1.2a of the library content requires the students to demonstrate and investigation and connect them with a topic they are researching. A biography can aid students with this task by allowing them to access information directly.
� Another example of a California school library standard 1.3a requires students to identify two sources of information that will provide an answer to the question proposed by the student.
� A full outline of California Common Core Standards can be found at: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/documents/glc2ndgradecurriculum.pdf
� An effective reader thinks critically about text. It takes years for readers to become sophisticated enough to think about the text they read, but doing so is an important aspect of comprehension. Critical thinking is more than opinion. Readers need to make judgments about what they are reading, judgments that are thoughtful, grounded in text, and well founded. Most individuals need a wide range of experiences and many opportunities to develop as critical readers. Readers need to think beyond the literal meaning of a text to comprehend it.
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� 1. Read the entire text to look for information on � (theme, character, setting, text features). 2. Place tabs where evidence of these literary elements show up.
3. Stop and think aloud about which of these elements make you think.
4.Stop and have students think about which elements make them think.
� Marian did not need extra encouragement when it came to singing. She practiced her part of every song each song and often learned all the other parts too. For her, singing was serious business and more than anything, she hoped to someday go to music school.
� This makes me think…
� Marian believed her mother. She took voice lessons in her neighborhood, continued with the choirs, and sometimes performed at Negro churches and colleges.
� This makes me think…
� When Marian saw a Metropolitan Opera performance of the tragic opera Madame Butterfly thoughts of a formal music education came to mind.
� What does this make you think…
� Mr. Boghetti had been right. She could go anywhere and sing for anyone until she came home in the United States.
� What does this make you think…
� She received medals, awards and honorary degrees for her magnificent voice. But there was still one place Marian had not sang.
� What does this make you think?
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� After looking at you thinking…what overarching theme are you seeing in the text?