Skip to main content

"Become a Biographer" - A Product Review

Available on Amped Up Learning
"Become a Biographer" from Homeschool Holiday and Happy Hive Homeschool is a fantastic multimedia product, especially for your younger learners and English Language Learners (ELLs). Created by Christy Gandara, this resource introduces students to the biography subgenre first as a text to be read, and then as a form of writing and reflection with expression.

About Christy Gandara

Christy Gandara is not only a home school mom of three "bugs" (her term, not mine!), but she is also a California certified teacher with 19 years of classroom experience, all in the K-8 grade ranges. This gives her a unique perspective on resource creation, not only for other home school families, but also for the actively teaching classroom teacher. She both knows and understands the challenges of engaging our students and providing them with rigorous curriculum material that they will WANT to interact with!

Become a Biographer - A Multimedia, Interactive Resource

Okay, first of all, Christy had me at Brad Meltzer! I mean, seriously, anytime you have a writer of his caliber TEACHING your students about his interests, his heroes and heroines, and his craft, you cannot help but win. Using Meltzer's "Ordinary People Change the World" series is already incredibly effective, but pairing the texts with Meltzer's "SAFE" YouTube links of HIS reading of his work takes it to another level. 

Christy didn't stop there though. She created a set of interactive PDFs and a set of interactive PowerPoint presentations to allow students to self-pace, self-guide, and self-select their texts and their assignments. People, can we say instant student buy-in? So, how does it work? Students begin by going to the virtual bookshelf in Mrs. Crabtree's virtual classroom library, and selecting a text. Now, although it is not a requirement, I STRONGLY urge you to have the physical books available for your students as well as these virtual books. The student selects his or her text, clicks on it, and is instantly taken to Brad Meltzer's SAFE YouTube reading of the book!
Mrs. Crabtree's virtual bookshelves

Here is his reading of "I am Amelia Earhart".  NOTE: This is not the linked version, which is SAFE YouTube. That service was unavailable to me when I wrote this! 

From here, Christy has provided students with either a fill-able PPT, PDF, or printout of a facts page that the students complete during the reading of the book.
Fact Sheet for Amelia Earhart
for students to complete during
reading.

In addition to the life events that the students fill in, the bottom has the story's theme or moral, in this case, "I will know no bounds."

She then leads your students to scholarship with a fantastic extension. Students are guided through an interview process with a hero of their own choosing, from their own lives. I cannot think of a more meaningful connection to the stories, or the theme that Meltzer introduces our students to...Ordinary People Change the World.

"Become a Biographer". Price: $2.00 (USD)


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Guest Post: Adding BOOM! Cards (TM) to Your Toolbox by Sarah Renish

Note from Matthew at ELA in Middle School This post was written by Sarah Renish, Teacher and Teacher-Author Entrepreneur. Sarah is the owner of Ratelis Science , which has a storefront on BOOM!Learning  (SM), Amped Up Learning and TpT . We are in a couple of the same Facebook groups, and when I had questions about BOOM! Cards (TM), she was kind enough to teach me! She has since written this post for us all here. Thanks, Sarah!  Boom Learning and Boom Cards are the trademarks of Boom Learning, Inc. Used with Permission. Sarah's Biography Sarah Renish I am a 6-12 science teacher in Wisconsin that has over 20 years of teaching experience working with students from diverse backgrounds, including at-risk, ELL, SPED, and Gifted & Talented students. I am actively involved in developing and teaching professional development opportunities related to science instructional best practices. In addition to my regular work for district curriculum committees and numerous pr...

Welcome and About Us

Welcome to Wandering the Halls of Academia - Teaching and Living Today! Suzanne and Matthew, December 2019 This Blog is about teaching, classroom tips, and living a balanced life of meaning! We will be posting about practices, travel, and products we make for the classroom. Additionally, we will discuss products from other teacher authors. Matthew will be writing and posting some of our posts, while Suzanne will be creating others. We will also have guest bloggers from time to time, and links to other blogs we like or feel you may find interesting! Matthew is a Middle School ELA teacher, leads Professional Development sessions in Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS), the integration of online educational platforms in the classroom, and classroom management/CHAMPS. Suzanne has been a substitute teacher, an interventionist in Math and SPED, and holds a degree in Animal Science, with an emphasis on genetics. We are both teacher-authors of educational products ...

Becoming a Teacher-Author Entrepreneur Step 14 - Creating BOOM! Cards (TM)

ELA in Middle School on BOOM! Boom! Cards (TM) and the Boom! Learning (SM) platform has been quietly making inroads into the data informed classroom teachers' toolboxes for the last few years. With the sudden need to move to remote/distance learning due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, the BOOM! system has really...well...boomed! And with that, we also have a "boom" in teacher-authors wanting to jump in and create decks, and another income stream - your's truly included! To that end, I have been asked by a well respected teacher-author to address the "how to create" questions that are arising. Therefore, in this post, we will walk through the creation of some individual Boom Cards, as well as the beginning of a Boom Deck. Creating a Card - The First Step to Creating a Deck Seems kind of obvious, doesn't it? Actually, it isn't the first step. Step one is to go to Boom!Learning and establish an account. NOTE: IF YOU PLAN TO SELL BOOM CARD DECKS, YOU M...