Perspective Biographies

I love this time of year; anticipating the fresh start of a new school year around the corner. I love striving to do better than I did the last. And one goal I always have is to help all students connect better with literature that fits them. I believe in using a wide variety of literature in mini lessons, in hopes that a few kids will connect and go on to read more. I've written about many biographies here, here, and here.  Different historical figures connect with different students, and it is fun to use a variety.

Past biographies I've written about are picture books that could probably be read aloud in completion. The books I'm featuring today are great biographies that are longer. I like to use a few pages for a mini lesson and provide copies for students to read independently if they choose.

The other cool thing about these books is that they are both written from a unique perspective!

Lewis and Clark and Me

Lewis and Clark and Me is written from the perspective of Meriwether Lewis's dog, Seaman. It is so fun to experience the expedition from the dog's eyes! This book is 64 pages broken into 9 chapters. Each chapter has a beautiful illustration. The text size is a bit larger than your average novel, making it a not-so-intimidating chapter book. I also found this book to be very ELL friendly for many of my intermediate 5th graders because the pictures in each chapter provide great support, there is a great map, and not too much confusing jargon. 

For mini lesson ideas:

Preview and Predict: If you introduce it being from the dog's perspective and show the map, then you can have student's predict what types of things a dog would think about on a journey like this. (How would he eat? Would he hunt? Would he have to protect the men during danger? Is he a guard dog?)

Visualize it!: For fun, I like having my kids crawl on their hands and knees for a second and imagine the dog's physical perspective for a minute. What kinds of things is Seaman seeing? 

Primary Source Documents: The end of each chapter contains a very short excerpt from Meriweather Lewis's journal. This makes for great discussion on Primary Sources, authenticity, validity, etc. 

You can play around with this book and use it in many ways. The chapters are very episodic, so you could easily pick one from any point in the book and read it aloud to suit your lesson purposes. The last chapter is a sweet chapter that connects to anyone who has a strong relationship with a pet. It's very sweet. This would be a great book to enjoy with your students or your own children! :-)

Play, Louis, Play!

Play, Louis, Play! is a biography of Louis Armstrong told from the perspective of his horn! Kinda extra cool that it's written from an inanimate object, and that gets me going with all sorts of writing ideas. Anyways, this book is 112 pages and feels like you're reading a novel and not a non-fiction biography. 

This story is a beautifully told tale of trials and obstacles Louis overcame. You can use this book to discuss theme, perspective and author's purpose. And SO much characterization of Louis. One of my favorite things in this book is Louis response to kids calling him names like "Sachelmouth"...Louis would keep smiling and say "A good nickname is hard to find." He never let anyone get his goat. It's an inspirational book for students! 

My kids also loved watching YouTube clips of Louis singing. This book is a great read! 

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Favorite Biography- When Marian Sang Part 2

Yesterday I wrote Part 1 about my favorite biography, When Marian Sang.

Click here for yesterday's summary.

So yesterday was part 1 of writing on this great book. Not to be terribly confusing, but today I want to start writing classroom ideas for this book, and then follow up with more ideas tomorrow.

Classroom Ideas for "When Marian Sang" Part 1

Utilizing the Songs

The song lyrics in this book range from spirituals, to patriotic, to Anderson's powerful encore on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial when she sang "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen..."

So, if you are in a a school situation where singing a spiritual song could pose a problem, you can skip them and stick with secular.

However, when I used this book, I gathered up all my courage and sang ALL of the songs to my students as I read. At first some of them giggled a little, but then they got over it. Some of them began to sing some of the songs with me. I think they enjoyed it because it was something different.

So I would encourage anyone to try your best to sing!

I mentioned this yesterday, but as you read the book you realize that the author has pieced together songs from her life that mirror the emotions of the events. So, those are wonderful discussion topics! 

You can use the songs as poetry. You could also extend by having students bring in a song that represents an event in their life. Students can write about their connections and share.

If kids get really into writing about connecting lyrics with life events, you can have this as a choice in a writing station.

Discussing Theme

I feel like I say this with every book, but this book would be outstanding for working on themes. Like most books, there are many themes represented but, you could practice choosing one by having various themes written down, and then for each theme listing pieces of evidence that would prove the theme. You could make various Anchor T-Charts. Or, have students do their own and come back to discuss.

Courage    -->     Evidence

Endurance -->    Evidence

Overcoming  -->  Evidence

All 3 of these themes would be strong, for this story, but you will have students who will  throw out things like love or friendship. If you have those students really look for how many examples of evidence go with "love" you will come up weak, and that can help students learn to really dig into the text to find the overall theme. 

Youtube Videos

So my final idea for the day is to leave you with just a few videos of Marian Anderson herself. Again, the kids may giggle for a second at her voice, because many of them are unfamiliar with this type of singing. I promise, once they get into it, they will stop their giggling and you'll be able to hear a pin drop once the video is over.

Marian Anderson singing at the Lincoln Memorial

Marian Anderson singing "Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Child" (this song is used in the book and a beautiful example of figurative language!)

Marian Anderson singing "Deep River"

I sure hope y'all will come back tomorrow for more ideas to use with this book!