copy of parent letter sent home last week

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November 29, 2012

Dear Room 12 Families,
We have begun research for our Famous (Mostly) American Biographies.  After today (Thursday) your child would have had over 3 hours of time in class to read research and take notes.   Students were given a sheet that looks like this:

Research Notes: Family History (when and where they were born, what their childhood was like, interests they had growing up, any important information about their family or any hardships they had to overcome) What did this person do? Why are the important?  How did they make a difference?(Why, how, when and where they became famous.  What should we remember this person for?   What was the result of their actions/work?)  Interesting Facts/Information about person How/when did they die?  Are there any memorials, celebrations honoring them?

By Monday, December 3^rd all students need to come to school with notes complete ready to begin writing their biographies.  We will be working on writing biographies in class next week (12/3-12/7).  

A reminder that the requirement for the Biographical Article is as follows:

Two Page Biographical Article: (handwritten or typed 5 paragraph minimum) 

* Introduction

*Family history (when and where they were born, what their childhood was like, interests they had growing up, any important information about their family or any hardships they had to overcome)

*Why, how, when and where they became famous.  What should we remember this person for?   What was the result of their actions/work?  Why are the important?  How did they make a difference?

*Is there any interesting information we should know about your person?

*How/when did they die?  Are there any memorials, celebrations honoring them?

* Conclusion

The format for this article can vary depending on your child’s creativity-  they can make it into a book (with illustrations, pictures and captions), a newspaper or magazine style or it can be in “report“ or “essay” format.

More details are on my blog and the rubric is on back of this letter.

please return the bottom of this letterJ

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____ I have checked my child’s notes and they are complete

____ I have read over the requirements of this project with my child

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

child’s name                                                           parent signature                                               and                 date

FINAL PROJECT IS DUE December 19, 2012

we will be working on writing the biography article in class next week

all parts not completed in class are to be done at home

Famous Person Report Check-Off

Check off	Components	Points	Make sure to include the following in each section…
	Title page	10	Name of famous person, visual, time period they were alive, your name, due date
	Contents Page	5	Labeled Contents,  lists sections and the page numbers they begin Ex.       I am poem………………......……p. 3             Essay …………………...………….p. 4 Photograph of ___  ……….……p. 6 Drawing of Invention………..p. 7 Extra credit ……………………..p. 8 Bibliography ……………………p. 9
	I am Poem	15	Thoughtful, creative, informative, accurate, correct spelling, neatness
	Essay __Introduction (This grabs the readers attention and tells them who you are writing about) __Body Paragraphs (Paragraph 1 about the person’s childhood, interests and experiences growing up, family, when/where they group up.  Paragraph 2 about the person’s talents and accomplishments.  What was important about their life? What goals has this person achieved?  What problems did they overcome?  Why, how, when and where did they become famous? Other Paragraphs may give more details about the life/work of your person.  Interesting information?  How this person is remembered and/or they are important.  How did this person impact the lives of others?  What can we learn from them?  What should we know about their death, tributes, legacies?) __Concluding Paragraph  (This should retouch upon the life’s accomplishments of your famous person and why they are important to learn about.  How can learning about their life/work inspire or encourage others and make a positive difference.)	30	Informative, accurate, strong vocabulary, variety of sentences used, the reading flows, it’s organized, neat, and uses correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar.
	Visuals	10	All visuals are labeled, They are relevant and meaningful, They enhance understanding of the person, their life and/or their accomplishments.
	Bibliography	10	Labeled Bibliography, Listed in alphabetical order by authors’ last names (when possible) or by article title (if no author stated).
	Presentation/ Artistic Demonstration	20	Shows effort, reflects knowledge about the person, their life and accomplishments, well prepared
	Extra Credit		Extra visuals that are labeled and enhance the understanding of your person/their life/their accomplishments.