Biography Top Hat

Grade 2

Quarter 3

Lesson Plan
Teacher: Holly Walsh
Date: March 3, 2015

Course: Writing
Grade: 2

Instructional Standards/Performance Expectations to be addressed

2.W.2: Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement
or section.

Essential Question/Enduring Understanding/Big Idea

All people have similarities and differences. Do these make people unique?

Objectives/Student Outcomes
Students will introduce a topic, use facts, and provide a concluding statement in order to complete an opinion essay.

Academic/Content Vocabulary to be introduced

biography
interview
Materials including technology needed
Biography Trading Cards (two each)
Description Organizer
Top Hat Organizer
Writing Sheets
Peer Review Checklist
Acquisition of Skills
Part 1:
Teacher Prep: Interview another teacher so that you have interview questions answered. You will use
these to model the biography trading card.
Introduction/Engagement:
Review the concept of biography by talking about the complete Martin Luther King activity.
Discuss the importance of finding important information during research and interviews.
Modeling:
Using the other teacher as the example, fill in the biography trading card with information.
Have students discuss in small groups the information they could put for each part.
Discuss the students ideas and clarify as needed.
Guided Practice
Hand out one copy of the trading card.
As a group, fill in the information with personal information.
Fill in the biography trading card with own information as you guide students in filling out theirs.
Have students think about their own personal answers to each question.
Give them aprox 5 minutes to fill in the information needed
Independent Practice:
Partner the students.
Hand out the second biography trading card.
Have students take turns interviewing each other to fill in the missing information.

Closure:
Tell students that they will be using this information to compare themselves to their partner.
*Note: Part 2 cannot take place until the students have completed their partner interviews*

Part 2:
Teacher Prep: Prepare an anchor chart with the Criteria information.
Introduction/Engagement:
Provide students with a few moments to review their biography trading cards
Remind them that they will need to locate important information and they may need to re-interview
their partner to add more as they go.
Modeling:
Using the anchor chart, fill in the information for the interviewed teacher.
Have students help locate the areas of the trading card that will provide the correct information for
the criteria areas.
Guided Practice
Have students assist in filling in the other side of the organizer.
Independent Practice:
Students should fill out the graphic organizer using the information they collected with their trading
cards.
Allow students to re-interview their partner as needed to add additional information to the graphic
organizer.
Closure:
Students will discuss their organizers with another partner to look for things that are similar.

Part 3:
Teacher Prep: Prepare an anchor chart with the Top Hat format. Be sure to have additional information
available from the interviewed teacher to add to the chart as necessary.
Introduction/Engagement:
Review the Criteria anchor chart.
Have students turn and talk to discuss what they notice about the two areas.
Modeling:
Display the Criteria chart and the Top Hat chart.
Have students help locate and circle the similarities on the Criteria chart.
Discuss how some similarities have differences as well (number of children vs types of children)
Use the Criteria chart to fill in the different areas of the Top Hat organizer.

Independent Practice:
Have students circle the areas that are similar on their criteria organizers.
Give them time to discuss with their partner if they need to add information to create similarities.
Students will use their criteria organizers to fill in their Top Hat organizers.
Closure:
Tell students that they will be using their Top Hat to answer the focus question: All people have similarities and
differences. How do these make people unique?

Part 4:
Introduction/Engagement:
Review the charts made in prior sessions
Students will create a class barometer to determine if they agree or disagree with the statements:
Friends must be the same in all areas. Differences create interesting things to talk about.
Modeling:
Using the teacher created organizers; students will help to create a rubric for the question: Do the
similarities and differences of people make them unique? (opinion statement)
Rubric should include information about: Introduction, Body, Closing, Conventions
Guided Practice:
Have students help create a few different topic sentences.
Independent Practice:
Students will work on creating a rough draft of their essay.
Students should use their organizers to complete the essay.
Remind students that their facts and proof can come from the organizers and interviews with their
partners.
Closure:
Tell the students that tomorrow they will be making a final product of their biography.

Part 5:
Teachers Notes: Students will need to have a completed rough draft of their essay. They will need plenty of
review sheets for peer reviews.
Introduction/Engagement:
Students will quickly re-read their essays.
Review the peer review sheets.
Modeling:
Using the revising sheet, revise the first part of the teacher modeled writing.
Talk about additions and subtractions that can be used to make the writing better.

Independent Practice:
Students should work with a partner to check and revise their work.
After revising, students will rewrite their work.
Closure:
Students can glue their completed essays onto construction paper or other colored paper.
Provide time for students to share their essays as desired.

Checkpoints/Checking for Understanding/Assessments

Do students understand the concept of unique?

Did students seem to make correct choices for the barometer? If not, correct misunderstandings as needed.

Addressing Specific Student Needs

Enrichment: Push students to have multiple paragraphs with different reasons for each.
Support: Provide a list of words to use, give topic sentence structure, allow for one paragraph with two
reasons as support