Biography and Memoir

As I read Chapter 9, Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir, I thought about how much I love to teach content areas using biographies and other informational texts.  Biographies can open students eyes and hearts to people who have made a difference in the world.  One of my favorite subjects to teach is history.  I love history and want my students to love it and learn as much as possible.  Using a textbook doesn’t bring history to life, but open a book and a history can come to life! Of course biographies can also be used in all content areas, as students explore inventors, scientists, and mathematicians. Other benefits of using biographies, is that provide the same subject matter on every reading level.  You can use multiple texts and meet the needs of each child in your class,  

Some of my favorite biographies that I use in my classroom are The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles and Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges.  My students are always amazed at how brave Ruby was at just six years old.  Another favorite biography of mine is The True Recital of Marian Anderson by Pam Munoz Ryan.  Each year, my class always enjoy hearing Teammates by Peter Golenbock and Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America by Sharon Robinson.  My class absolutely loves the Who Was biography series. This is an extensive collection of biography books on a range of people (historians, musicians, inventors, presidents, scientists, artists, authors, and current figures).  These books also contain black and white illustrations, sidebars on related topics, a timeline and a bibliography.  

After reading this chapter and last week’s chapter on multicultural literature, I realized that my classroom is in need of multicultural literature, including biographies!  I have already ordered two books by Lesa Cline-Ransome - Before There Was Mozart: The Story of Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier da Saint-George and Satchel Paige.  I also ordered Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull.  I am looking forward to learning about other biographies in class that I can include in my classroom library!