Recommended Grades: 3-5
A biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. using his own words to showcase the information in the text.
Lesson Idea:
Writing Workshop:
Mentor Texts: Read aloud Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.as part of a unit on biographies, during Black History Month (February), or a unit on writing dialogue. Ask students to replicate the style the author used by researching a person from history and writing a short biography of that person. Ask students to find quotes from the person they are researching to use in their biography. Model for students how to use the quotes to showcase the information about the person. Other mentor texts that use quotes are Pop! The Invention of Bubble Gum and Imogene’s Last Stand. Read aloud all three texts as mentor texts so students have an understanding of how the authors used the quotes to showcase their informative text.
©2012 by Dawn Little for Picture This! Teaching with Picture Books. All Amazon links are affiliate links and may result in my receiving a small commission. This is at no additional cost to you.
June 25, 2012 at 9:36 AM
[...] author effectively weave Washington’s actual rules into the story? Read aloud other books, like Martin’s Big Words or Imogene’s Last Stand that effectively use quotes woven through story as model texts. [...]
August 10, 2012 at 7:33 AM
[...] is a great model to use when discussing biographies. I ask students to model the author’s style, by writing a short biography of a person and using [...]
March 25, 2013 at 12:19 PM
[...] accessible to young readers in this picture book biography. This book would pair nicely with Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport. Consider comparing civil rights in America with the civil rights of citizens [...]
April 15, 2013 at 5:31 AM
[...] key moments in the civil rights movement to write the biography. Consider pairing this book with Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport, in which the author used key quotes from Dr. King as a backdrop to write his [...]