Famous American Women – Biography Task Cards

Item description

These short biographies showcase 100 famous and important American women who were pioneers in their field or achieved something notable. Included are 15 ways to use these task cards to help your students develop their writing, speaking and listening skills.  Activities such as writing various types of paragraphs, categorizing the task cards, giving presentations, creating posters, doing research, doing map and timeline activities, practicing note-taking, and playing games are all described.  The versatility of these task cards makes them ideal not just for Women’s History Month but also for any time of the year.

Resource at a Glance:

★ What will students learn?
* General facts about the lives of 100 influential American women born in the 16th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.
* How to use facts and phrases to write short biographies.
★ Who is it for?
* All students, including English Language Learners.
★ How does it help teachers?
* Students learn about famous and not-so-famous American women and impacted United States history in some way.
* Students practice writing, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization skills by turning the information on task cards into complete sentences and paragraphs.
* 5 model biography paragraphs about 2 women are presented to help students at different levels of writing proficiency develop their writing skills.
* Suggestions for other activities are provided to supplement students’ learning; a rubric is included for your convenience so you can quickly evaluate your students’ work.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

What you get in this product:

★ A table of contents for easy reference (1 page)
★ A Notes to the Teacher section with explanatory information (1 page)
★ A list of the ELA Common Core standards addressed (1 page)
★ 4 sample WIDA Model Performance Indicators (1 page)
★
A list of women categorized by social groups (i.e. African-American,
Asian-American, Latina/Hispanic, Native American, Lesbian/Bisexual) (1
page)
★ 15 ideas for using the task cards (1 page)
★ Student materials for the 2 game activities (2 pages)
★ An evaluation rubric for writing tasks (1 page)
★ Model task card biography with 2 example paragraphs at different levels of writing complexity (1 page)
★ 100 biographies of important or famous women, 4 per page (25 pages)

More Info:

Each task card presents basic biographical information plus some interesting facts about 1 American woman.  The women included in this resource live(d) throughout the United States and were born between the 16th and 20th centuries.  Many of the 100 women showcased in this resource were the first in their field to accomplish something and your students will be inspired by the accomplishments of these female suffragists, scientists, teachers, astronomers, politicians, nurses, actresses, novelists, abolitionists, athletes, singers, dancers, writers, astronauts, poets, journalists, diplomats, social reformers, judges, anthropologists, service workers, and First Ladies that are highlighted on the task cards.  Even a spy and a saint are included!

Simple directions for doing the following types of activities are included:
* Writing various types of paragraphs
* Categorizing the task cards
* Giving presentations
* Creating posters
* Doing research
* Doing map and timeline activities
* Practicing note-taking
* Playing question-and-answer games

The biographical profiles on the task cards are not presented in complete sentences because one of the activities is for students to write paragraphs about the women.  By transforming the keywords and fragments into complete sentences, and including a topic sentence and a closing, your students can practice writing good paragraphs and learn about these American women’s accomplishments at the same time.  You can use these task cards to do other types of writing activities, too.  An assessment rubric is included so you can easily evaluate your students’ writing.

To use the task cards, you can print them out and then cut them on the dotted lines. You can laminate them so they last longer. Some of the suggested activities can take up an entire class period and some can be done in shorter amounts of time. Depending on the activity, you can have your students work on their own, in pairs or small groups, or as the whole class. Some activities can be used in writing centers, too.

This resource is appropriate for ELLs at an intermediate level of language proficiency (such as WIDA Levels 3 and up).  If you work in a WIDA Consortium state, 4 sample Model Performance Indicators are included.  ELLs at a lower level of language proficiency (such as WIDA Level 2) may be able to do a few of the suggested activities and these are listed in the teacher notes.  If you work in a Common Core state, a list of ELA standards this resource helps address is included as well.

Some of your students may be familiar with several of the 100 American women profiled in this resource but there are probably many other women whom they have never heard of before.  Your students are sure to enjoy using these biography task cards to learn about women throughout United States history!

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Thank you and happy teaching!

Common Core Standards © Copyright 2010.  National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers.  All rights reserved.  Any claims of correlation or alignment to the CCSS Standards are solely those of The ESL Nexus and have not been evaluated or endorsed by the NGA.  The ESL Nexus is the sole creator of this product and does not claim endorsement or association with the creators of the CCSS standards.

Any claims of correlation or alignment to the WIDA ELD standards are solely those of The ESL Nexus and have not been evaluated or endorsed by the WIDA Consortium.  The ESL Nexus is the sole creator of this product and does not claim endorsement or association with the creators of the WIDA standards.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>