a central idea that the writer intends the audience to engage deeply with

a visual representation of a series of events, where pictures represent events

ideas recorded without using complete sentences

vocabulary we use when writing about a particular subject

language structures that develop text cohesion

Planning a biography about Charles Darwin's life and theory of evolution

English

Identifying features of a biography in preparation for writing about Darwin

Researching Charles Darwin's life

Researching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution

Writing the first half of a biography about Darwin and his theory of evolution

Writing the second half of a biography about Darwin and his theory of evolution

Presenting information about evolution

In this unit, pupils write a biography based on research about a scientific theory of a famous scientist. In 'Climate Emergency: Journalistic Report Writing', pupils will use a scientific, environmental speech to write a journalistic report from.

In 'Harriet Tubman: Biographical Writing', pupils learnt to research an inspirational figure's life to write a celebratory biography. In this unit, pupils will write a biography based on research about a scientific theory of a famous scientist.

In this unit, pupils research Charles Darwin's life and evolution theory in order to write a biography. The biography is written chronologically, from his early life to university, his trip to the Galapagos and his theory of evolution. Finally, pupils present information about evolution to a group.

Charles Darwin: biographical writing

Darwin was born in 1809 into a wealthy family.

His father was a doctor and his mother had a family fortune.

The six Darwin children lived in a large house called 'The Mount'.

Darwin loved to do science experiments with his brother in the garden shed.

His mother died when he was eight and he was sent to boarding school.

He did poorly at school because he wanted to be outside in nature.

Put the events shown in the text map in the correct order.

Beagle went to Galapagos - off coast of S. America

Which note best matches this picture from our text map of Darwin's biography?

Put the sections of our Darwin biography in the correct order. 

a set of ideas to explain why something happens

Match the subject-specific vocabulary words to their meanings.

a group of living things that can breed with each other

a species found only in that particular place

What is the purpose of cohesive devices? 

What is the following an example of? Lions in a population have different levels of jaw strength.

Finches on different islands had the same beaks.

Finches on different islands had different beaks.

These beaks were well-adapted to the food on each island.

These beaks were poorly-adapted to the food on each island.

What did Darwin notice about the Galapagos finches? 

ones which are unhelpful to the individual's survival

ones which are helpful to the individual's survival

What kinds of variations become more common due to natural selection? 

because it will kill the individual instantly

because individuals with unhelpful variations cannot reproduce

because the individual is less likely to survive and reproduce

Why is an unhelpful variation less likely to be passed on to offspring? 

that they will have better access to resources like food and mates

that they will defeat all the other animals

What do we mean if we say a variation helps an individual to be 'more successful'?

Is this statement true or false? The process of evolution takes many generations and can take thousands or millions of years to make significant changes. 

Planning a biography about Charles Darwin's life and theory of evolution

Lesson outcome