What is a Biography?

A biography is a record of someone’s life. It can include important life events, such as birth date and place, family life as a child, marriage, births of sons and daughters, date and place of death. There are many other details that make a person come to life for us as we read: activities or jobs held over a lifetime, important events or circumstances, beliefs and values that guided the person’s way of life.

Ideas for Biographies

• The literacy group could write biographies of their own parents, grandparents or other family members. If people are writing about an ancestor who has passed away, they may be able to get information through books, magazine articles and through interviewing relatives and other people in the community.
• The literacy group could decide to record the lives of all the Elders in the community. Check first to see if recordings have already been made of these Elders’ lives. If recordings already exist, you could write biographies based on listening to those interviews. If no recordings exist, you could get permission to interview these Elders.
• Members of the group may also want to interview Elder’s family members to get their viewpoint of the Elders’ lives.
• Take photographs to include in the biographies or look for old photographs from private collections, books, magazines or archives.
• When the research phase is complete, the facilitator teaches lessons on the writing process, the elements of a biography, writing non-fiction, syllabic keyboarding, grammar and other topics as needed. These can be in the form of mini-lessons as the work progresses.
• Work through the steps of making notes and writing various drafts of the biography, using peer editing and consultation to get feedback on your work.
• Type the final drafts on the computer, adding scanned or digital photographs and graphics if you want.
• Put the biographies together in booklet form: make a cover; give credit to the authors and the people they interviewed. Inside the front cover of the book, write the date and place that the book was created. Add dedications to special people if you want.
• Make the booklets available to residents of the community and family members. Your group could give them as gifts for Christmas or for other special occasions.
• The book can be used as reading material for future literacy groups.