Biography homework

You guys did a pretty good job yesterday thinking of people to research and preparing research questions for our biography activity. For homework, I'm going to ask you to think of someone you want to find out more about. It can be a musician, an actor, a world leader, a scientist, an artist, a ballet dancer!, or anyone else you are interested in! Yesterday we had to focus on people from history because our encyclopedia are a little old, but this time you are going to use the INTERNET and you can research ANYBODY you like!! The information sources are endless.

So, to start, try a mind map if you like, with your person at the center. On your mind map, brainstorm the things you want to know about that person.

(this list of questions comes from this website) Some questions you might want to think about include:

* What makes this person special or interesting?
* What kind of effect did he or she have on the world? other people?
* What are the adjectives you would most use to describe the person?
* What examples from their life illustrate those qualities?
* What events shaped or changed this person's life?
* Did he or she overcome obstacles? Take risks? Get lucky?
* Would the world be better or worse if this person hadn't lived? How and why?


Once you have a good list of questions, start finding your information. You can search for your person's name using Google, or you can try these websites that are for kids:

Fact Monster

Encyclopedia Brittanica (you'll have to click on "free trial" to use this one - British content)

Yahoo Kids Encyclopedia

InfoPlease (this one seems very heavily American...)

For some Canadian content try the Canadian Encyclopedia


I'm sure you can find other sources, too. Do some reading and take notes about your research questions. If you find some really interesting information that is NOT related to your research questions, that's ok!! Write it down anyway. When you take your notes, make sure you write down the website that you used to get your information. This is an important part of research.

Next week, bring
1. Your research questions
2. The information you found to answer the questions
3. The website addresses that you used to get your information

We'll talk more about how to put it all together in a biography.

Happy researching!