When researching biographies for school reports, it's important to use a variety of resources. For most non-controversial subjects, I like starting with Wikipedia. After that, I recommend stopping by the following biography sites.
From John Adams (second President of the United States) to Georgi Zhukov ( World War II Soviet general), BBC houses an excellent alphabetic archive of biographies. Each biography is illustrated, and includes links to related pages, both onsite and off. New biographies are added monthly. Help them choose their next addition by clicking on "Suggest Historic Figure." Beyond the biographies, there is always much to enjoy at the BBC site. Don't miss their History for Kids section.
Although the children's television series Bio4Kids is no longer running on the Biography channel, the companion website is still worth visiting. Biographies are found in "Meet the People." Quizzes, games and videos round out the offering. For more biographies and a teacher's classroom guide, visit the grownup Biography.com site. The main site also has features such as "Born on This Day" and sections dedicated to U.S. Presidents, Women's History, Black History and Hispanic Heritage.
Chances are if you are a student, you will have to write a biography this year. Where do you start? What should you put in it? This unique site from the Bellington Public Schools takes you by the hand, and shows you how a great biography is made. "A great biography is driven by great questions. Boring questions produce boring answers. Boring answers put readers to sleep. Simple lists of facts are a bit like dry cereal . . .no milk . . . no fruit . . .no taste!"
"These stories of presidents, inventors, educators, scientists, business men and women etc. are presented to inspire the student to follow their examples of courage, determination, honesty and willingness to work." Each of these easy-reader biographies includes a printable word search, crossword puzzle, study sheet with important facts to know, and a worksheet with open-ended questions to answer. "Where was George Washington born? Why did Washington wear a uniform when he met with the First Continental Congress?"
Infoplease Almanac boasts over 30,000 biographies, making it the biggest site in today's collection. In addition to the alphabetic index, biographies are grouped by career categories (such as actors, scientists, American presidents or tennis players), ethnicity (African Americans and Hispanic Americans), people in the news, famous women, and recent deaths. The individual biographies vary in length from several sentences to half a page, but most include links to additional material.
Buy Biographies Printable for $2.00
or try a FREE trial of the Printables ClubThe following links are either new discoveries or sites that didn't make it into my newspaper column because of space constraints. Enjoy!
Academy of Achievement: The Achiever GalleryPBS: History: Biographies | S9.com: Biographical DictionarySPECTRUM Biographies |
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