Women Around the World – Biography Task Cards

Item description

These short biographies profile 68 famous and important women who lived throughout the world and 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 during Women’s History Month but any time of the year.

Resource at a Glance:
★ What will students learn?
* Basic facts about the lives of 68 influential women born between 1720 and 1960 who are not U.S. Americans.
* How to use facts and phrases to write a short biography.
★ Who is it for?
* All students, including English Language Learners.
★ How does it help teachers?
* Students learn about famous and not-so-famous women who lived outside the United States and had an impact on world history in some way.
* Students practice their skills in writing, grammar and mechanics by transforming the information on task cards into complete sentences and paragraphs.
* 2 models of biographies are provided for students at different levels of writing proficiency to help them develop their writing skills.
* Suggestions for other activities extend students’ learning; an included rubric saves you time if they want to assess you students’ work.

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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)
★ 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)
★ 68 biographies of important or famous women, 4 per page (17 pages)

More Info:

Each task card presents basic biographical information plus some interesting facts about one woman.  The women included in this resource come from countries all around the world, not from the United States.  They represent Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and the Americas, and were born in Ancient times, in the Middle Ages, and in the 15th through 20th centuries.  Many of the 68 women showcased in this resource were the first in their field to accomplish something and your students will be inspired by the achievements of these female scientists, teachers, mathematicians, rulers, nurses, actresses, novelists, politicians, athletes, singers, dancers, explorers, poets, journalists, women’s rights activists, and judges that are highlighted on the task cards.  Even a pirate is included!

Simple instructions 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 games

The information on the task cards is not presented in complete sentences because one of the suggested 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 women’s accomplishments at the same time.  You can use these task cards to do other types of writing activities, too.  An evaluation rubric is included so you can easily assess your students’ writing.

To use the task cards, just print them out and cut them apart on the dotted lines.  Laminating them so they last longer is recommended but not required.  Some activities can take up an entire period and some can be implemented in shorter amounts of time.  Depending on the activity, students can work on their own, in pairs or small groups, or as the whole class.  Some of the activities can also be used in writing centers.

This resource is appropriate for ELLs at an intermediate level of language proficiency (such as WIDA Levels 3 and up) and 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.  In addition, if you work in a Common Core state, a list of ELA standards this resource addresses is included. 

Some of your students may be familiar with several of the 68 people profiled but there are probably many other women included in this resource whom they have never heard of before.  Your students are sure to enjoy using these biographical task cards to learn about women’s history around the world!

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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.

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