Year 6 - English
Identifying features of a biography in preparation for writing about Darwin
Charles Darwin: biographical writing
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit, pupils research Charles Darwin's life and evolution theory in order to write a biography. The biography is written chronologically, from his early life to university, his trip to the Galapagos and his theory of evolution. Finally, pupils present information about evolution to a group.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to identify the features of a biography.
Key Notes
- A biography is a non-fiction text written about someone's life.
- Linguistic features of a biography include third person, formal fronted adverbials, formal tone and relative clauses.
- Structural features of a biography include a title, paragraphs and information grouped by theme.
- A biography is usually written in chronological order and will contain lots of past tense verbs.
- Additional factual information can be added to a clause as parenthesis.
Vocabulary To Learn
- biography: a non-fiction text written about someone's life
- formal tone: the effect created by choosing serious, factual language
- third person: the 'he/she/it/they' perspective, where we talk about another person
- fronted adverbial: a sentence starter followed by a comma
- relative clause: a type of subordinate clause starting with a relative pronoun (such as who, which or whose)
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Pupils may find the formal tone of a biography challenging.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain this English learning goal in two key points.
A biography is a non-fiction text written about someone's life. Linguistic features of a biography include third person, formal fronted adverbials, formal tone and relative clauses.
2. Define this language term and use it in a sentence. 'biography'
a non-fiction text written about someone's life.
3. Correct this common English misunderstanding.
Mistake: Pupils may find the formal tone of a biography challenging. Correction: You may wish to provide additional time for children to read a range of biographical writing to 'tune in' to the text type.
More Lessons In This Unit
- Planning a biography about Charles Darwin's life and theory of evolution Study Guide
- Presenting information about evolution Study Guide
- Researching Charles Darwin's life Study Guide
- Researching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution Study Guide
- Writing the first half of a biography about Darwin and his theory of evolution Study Guide
- Writing the second half of a biography about Darwin and his theory of evolution Study Guide
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