Year 5 Harriet Tubman: biographical writing worksheet

“Features of a biography” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 5 English unit “Harriet Tubman: biographical writing”, for children aged 9 to 10, and takes about 20 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 35 to 36 of the year, 8 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Features of a biography

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 5 · English · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can spot the structure and linguistic features that make a biography work.

A Look back3 min

1.
In the chain, the missing word is 'quickly'. Which word class is it?
nounverbadverbadjective
2.
What does the apostrophe show in 'it's'?
missing lettersa plurala question
3.
In the chain, which word joins the two ideas?
becauseranShe

B Watch me, then you4 min

Read this sentence from a biography: 'Maya, who was 15, applied for the job.' Which linguistic feature is it?

Watch me

Find the word 'who'. It starts a clause that adds extra detail about Maya.

The extra clause is set apart by commas, and 'who' is a relative pronoun.

So this is a relative complex sentence.

Now you

1.
Read: 'Leo, who loved maps, moved to Bristol.' Which word is the relative pronoun?
Leowhomoved

C Your turn6 min

Each sentence uses one feature from the lesson. Circle the feature.

An open blank hardback book and a pencil on a wooden desk by a window.

1.
'Furthermore, Maya kept applying for the job.' Which feature is this?
fronted adverbialparenthesisrelative clausedate and fact
2.
'Maya (a keen runner) led the group for many years.' Which feature is this?
fronted adverbialparenthesisrelative clausedate and fact
3.
'Ali met a girl who loved maps.' Which feature is this?
fronted adverbialparenthesisrelative complex sentencedate and fact
4.
'Ali was born on 9 May 2011.' Which feature is this?
fronted adverbialparenthesisrelative complex sentencedate and fact

Say it out loud: Which clue in each sentence told you the feature? Say it out loud to your grown-up.

D Spot the mistake3 min

Kit reads a biography called “Harriet Tubman”. The first section starts with the words Early Life. Kit says: “Early Life is the title of this biography.”

1.
Is 'Early Life' a title or a subheading?
titlesubheading

E Think deeper4 min

A lantern hanging on a wooden post at dusk beside a dark path

1.
A biography says: 'Harriet was the bravest woman in America.' Is this a fact or an opinion? Explain how you know. Then write a fact version. Clue: Harriet Tubman escaped slavery in 1849.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Features of a biography · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. adverb your child may have picked verb because 'ran' is a verb. 'Quickly' tells us how she ran, so it is an adverb. Ask: what job does this word do?

2. missing letters your child may think the apostrophe makes a plural. It shows that the 'i' of 'is' has been left out. Read it back in full to check.

3. because your child may have chosen 'ran' because it is a verb. A joining word links two ideas. Ask: which word gives the reason?

B

1. who

C

1. fronted adverbial

2. parenthesis

3. relative complex sentence

4. date and fact

D

1. subheading your child thinks the first big words name the whole text. The title names the whole biography. A subheading labels one section inside it, such as Early Life.

E

1. Look for: Says it is an opinion because bravest is a judgement, and rewrites it using a date, place or specific action Harriet did.

Words to use

Say“Show me the clue in the sentence. Which feature does it match, and how do you know?”

Instead of“Just tell them the answer is 'a relative clause' and move on.”

After the sheet

Read a page of any book together. Find one comma-separated extra clause and one fronted word ending in a comma. Point to each with a pencil and name it.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

7 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Putting Harriet's life in order(with a plan)
Hooking the reader in(with a plan)
Early life, exact facts(with a plan)
Editing with a careful eye(with a plan)
Planning the activism section(with a plan)
Brackets and clauses(with a plan)
Ending a biography well(with a plan)

Every Year 5 English worksheet

The worksheets plan opens a printable sheet for every lesson in Years 1 to 6, each with its answers on a separate page for you. It costs £6.99 a month or £59 a year for the whole family, with no free trial.

The full StudyDen plan adds the lessons themselves, marked as your child works, with the worksheets included. It is 7 days free, then £29.99 a month.

Get the worksheets Try the full plan free

Both start with a free account; you choose the plan when you sign up.