#2: Biographies | biographyreadingunit

A biography is a non-fiction genre that is a written account of a person's life written by another.
A biography is the narrative of a person including all the relevant information and details about his/her life written by someone else
The main character is a biography is referred to as the subject of a biography.
The word biography comes from the two root words: bio and graphy.
- Bio means life
- Graphy means writing.
- Therefore, biography means writing about life.
Elements of biographies:
- Setting: time and place effect the character's life/mindset
- Sequence: real life events and a timeline
- Author's Point of View: someone else wrote the novel, it is not written by the subject themselves
- Characters: Real characters, main character is the subject of the biography
- Themes: inspiring messages and lessons that the character learns

Lesson 2: What is a biography?

Students often confuse biographies and autobiographies as they are very similar!
There is one major difference between the two though, one is written by the subject and the other is written by someone else.
Both biographies and autobiographies are told in chronological order and include details from the subject's life. With that being said, besides the similarities, there are major differences between the two.
Please view the following video, then take the Kahoot! quiz on autobiographies and biographies. The completion of the Kahoot! quiz will assess whether or not you understand the similarities and differences between biographies and autobiographies.