Studying Conflict Through Biographies

      In our district we use the Linda Dorn model for literacy instruction. One component of that is to apply our CCSS for literacy into a study of genre.  Our current genre study is Biographies. So within this we not only tie in our IB Unit of Inquiry, but we also tie in our standards of focus for the unit.  With this unit our Power GLE or CCSS is RI.3, "Explain events, procedures, concepts, or ideas in a historical text, scientific or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text."  The students are also expected to conduct a short research project.  Whew! What a lot to put into a 6 week study!!

    We launched with our study of conflict.  This was used a gateway to open discussion up to how we express ourselves in times of conflict. Sounds easy enough, but to tie in our genre and GLEs is challenging. So our first goal was to build some background knowledge of our content tie in, for the first part it was Civil Rights Movement.  We read several biographies from Martin Luther King Jr, to Rosa Parks, and Ruby Bridges.  Within these we studied specific features of the genre biographies.

After modeling, I sent the students out to find examples of these characteristics within biographies around the room, they flagged the examples they found.  I feel it is not only important for them to be able to identify these characteristics, but to also explain how these help us gain understanding of the text.  This part was done as a response in their reading journal.