While promoting a love for any type of reading is important for your child’s development, focusing on biographies provides a rich experience that can motivate your child to learn new things in a unique way.
Reading biographies doesn’t only give your child a new perspective of looking at things but also encourages his or her own self-discovery.
What is biography learning?
Biography learning can be described as the study of the relationships that link learning, biography, the influence of biography studies, and biography as a means of learning. A biography, in most cases, is used to refer to the story of the life of an individual written by another person.
Why should kids be involved in biography learning?
When kids are taught about the life of another person, you create compassion and difference in them. This makes them start being curious about their own personalities. Children are able to see popular and ordinary people as real people.
However, getting your kids to gain interest in biographies may not be an easy task. You need to find ways to encourage them and help them to see the importance of studying biography.
Here are five teacher-proven strategies for learning biography:
- Make a solid introduction
When introducing biographies to a child, it is advisable to take it slow and steadily create interest for the child. Biographies that contain pictures are usually rich in sentence structure and word choice. This may help in matching the child’s reading level.
You can begin with a picture book with a prominent individual or a short biography of several people like a book that talks about Harriet Tubman and Jane Goodall.
2. Be guided by the child’s personal interests
Try to get biographies of individuals that your kid admires to enhance their personal interests. Readers usually try to develop a connection when reading books. As such, encourage your child to choose biographies of people they share something in common with.
A personal connection encourages deeper reflection and discussion about the individual. You can promote the discussion by asking questions like: What do you share in common with the individual? How are you different? Have you ever felt the same way as him?
3. Have your child or student write a biography
After a child has researched and read about other famous people, it is time to turn the tables and ask them to write a biography of someone they cherish. There are many ways of coming up with biography project ideas.
4. Actively create excitement by actively participating
Most kids love fiction books because they are full of interesting dialogues and this may discourage them from exploring biographies. To deal with this problem, introduce biographies as some kind of a mystery to be solved.
5. Encourage your child to read more biographies
Last but not least, find a way to make your child love reading biography books. Get them as many books as possible that are in line with their personal interests.
In general, biography learning can help children in many ways. All you have to do is find ways of making them love the subject.
