Vignette 5.1. Writing Biographies
Integrated ELA and Social Studies Instruction in Grade Four (cont.)and focuses primarily on the areas of writing she has emphasized in instruction (e.g., purpose,
audience, content ideas, text organization and structure, select grammatical structures, and
vocabulary). In addition, while students edit and revise their drafts in their research groups,
Mrs. Patel guides them to refine their own writing and help one another by using a checklist
that prompts them to attend to these same areas, as well as conventions (e.g., punctuation,
spelling).
Teacher Reflection and Next Steps
At the end of the unit, when Mrs. Patel and her fourth-grade colleagues meet to examine
their students’ biographies, they use a language analysis framework that focuses on biography
writing and is based on the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy and the CA ELD Standards. (See chapter
8 of this ELA/ELD Framework for an example.) They also compare the pre-writing cold write
students did with their final writing projects. They find that, over the course of the unit, most
students grew in their ability to organize their texts in stages (orientation, sequence of events,
evaluation) and to use many of the language features taught during the unit (general academic
vocabulary, complex sentences, and words and phrases that create cohesion throughout the
text). Using some of these new language resources, students are able to successfully convey
their understandings about the person they researched. This language analysis framework has
helped the fourth-grade team identify critical areas that individual students still need to develop
and consider additional ways to refine their teaching in the future.
For the other culminating project, oral presentations based on the written reports, the
students dress as the historical figure they researched, use relevant props and media, and
invite their parents and families to view the presentation. This way, all of the students learn a
little more about various historical figures the class researched, and they have many exciting
ideas about history to discuss with their families.Sources
Lesson adapted from
Pavlak, Christina M. 2013. “It Is Hard Fun: Scaffolded Biography Writing with English Learners.” The Reading Teacher
66 (5): 405–414.
Rose, David and C. Acevedo. 2006. “Closing the Gap and Accelerating Learning in the Middle Years of Schooling.”
Literacy Learning: The Middle Years 14 (2): 32–45.
Spycher, Pamela 2007. “Academic Writing of English Learning Adolescents: Learning to Use ‘Although.’” Journal of
Second Language Writing 14 (4): 238–254.Additional Information
Web sites- The California History–Social Science Project (http://chssp.ucdavis.edu/) has many resources, lesson plans, and
programs for teaching history and the related social sciences. - Teachinghistory.org (http://teachinghistory.org/) has many ideas and resources for teaching about history.
- The South Australia Department of Education (http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/literacy/pages/Programs/
programsresources/) has many resources for scaffolding the writing of various text types, including
biographies.
Grade 4 Chapter 5 | 457