Informational Text (Strategies) Unit Essential Question: How do ...

Unit Essential Question:
How do effective readers interpret informational text?
Lesson Essential Questions:
Informational Text
(Strategies)
What strategies do effective readers use to understand text?
Vocabulary:
1. prior knowledge
2. predict
3. connect
4. identify
5. analyze/examine
6. infer
7. clarify/summarize/paraphrase
8. fact/opinion
9. cross check
10. reread
11. self-monitor
12. self-correct
13. recall
14. context clues
15. cross check
16. plagiarize

BIOGRAPHY PROJECT
Directions: Students are to check out a biography from the library. The strategies (vocabulary) provided should
be used to assist them in understanding the text as they read it. (A test over the vocabulary will follow the
completion of the project.) After reading the biography students will create a visual representation of the
person they have read about. The visual needs to be 3-D and must include all of the following information:
(Students may have to reference other sources to determine some of the information.)
1. Full name of the person
2. Date of birth
3. Place of birth (and information about death, if deceased)
4. Information about the person’s childhood (parents, siblings, education, etc.)
5. Information about the person’s adult life (marriage, children, occupation, etc.)
6. Significance of the person (WHY was a biography written about their life?) This should be written in paragraph
form which includes a topic sentence, 5-8 detail sentences and a closing sentence.
7. An EVALUATION of the biography. This also should be written in paragraph form and needs to answer the
following questions:
Did you like the biography? Why or why not? What did you find most surprising or interesting about the
person? Why? Would you like to meet this individual? Explain. Give two ways in which you could connect to the
person. What is something you would still like to know about the person?