Write about a famous person from the past

Objective: Use the past tense to write about someone famous.

Previously taught: Past-tense verbs and paragraphing

Instructions:

Double-click on the Explorer icon.

Type www.google.com in the address bar.

Type the name of a famous person AND the words "short biography" in the search window. (If you don't include "short biography," you'll probably get a lot more information than you want.)

Find a good short biography and print out the page(s) by clicking on the printer icon.

The site www.biography.com has biographies for 25,000 people. They are usually 3 - 6 pages long.

Read the biography and take notes on the most important information.

Put the biography away.

Tell your partner the important information you remember about your person. Refer to your notes if you need to. Switch partners, and tell your new partner about the person. Continue this process until you can tell about the person without looking at your notes.

Write your paragraph from memory. Use your own words.

When you are finished writing, type your paragraph into Word.

Go back to Google to look for a picture of your person.

Click the "Images" tag above the search window. Type in the name of your person.

When you find a picture you like, right-click on the image and choose "copy."

Go back to your Word document and click where you want the picture to be. Choose "Paste" from the Edit menu.

Hint: If you can't find information about a person, or you can't find a short biography, try looking under "images." The images are often accompanied by short biographies.