Year 6 Charles Darwin: biographical writing worksheet

“Features of a Biography” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 6 English unit “Charles Darwin: biographical writing”, for children aged 10 to 11, and takes about 24 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 25 to 26 of the year, 7 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Features of a Biography

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 6 · English · about 24 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can spot the features that make a biography sound formal and true.

A Look back3 min

1.
Which word is a contraction of 'they are'?
they'retheirtheretheyre
2.
Read: “We swim in the calm river by the bridge.” Write each word in the right column, as it is used in this sentence.
riverswimcalmbridge
Noun Verb Adjective
3.
Which sentence puts the inverted commas in the right place?
“Come here,” said Mum.“Come here”, said Mum.Come here,” said Mum.

B Watch me, then you4 min

This is the start of a made-up biography about Ruth Hale, an engineer. Look at the timeline, then read the lines.

Watch me

Ruth Hale was born in Leeds in 1890.

In 1912, she won a prize for her work on rivers.

Her bridge over the river was opened in 1930.

Now you

1.
Which sentence is written in a formal tone?
Ruth was, like, the best engineer ever!Ruth became a respected engineer after her studies in Leeds.Ruth was honestly super clever with bridges.
2.
Write one sentence about Ruth's bridge. Start it with 'In 1930,' and use third person.

C Your turn8 min

Each row checks one feature of a biography. Read the sentences and answer carefully.

A library shelf with rows of hardback books and a reading lamp

1.
Which word is a third person pronoun?
Iyoushewe
2.
Which sentence has a formal tone?
Anil was a clever engineer who designed roads.Anil was, like, totally brilliant at roads!Anil was so cool with roads, honestly.
3.
Which sentence starts with a fronted adverbial followed by a comma?
In 1921 Anil moved to Bristol.In 1921, Anil moved to Bristol.Anil moved, in 1921, to Bristol.
4.
Join these two sentences with a relative clause using 'who' or 'which'. Write one sentence.

Say it out loud: Which feature did you spot first, the pronoun, the tone or the comma? Why did that one stand out?

D Spot the mistake3 min

A stone cottage by a river with a wooden gate

Kit says: “This is a formal biography sentence: ‘Ruth was born in 1890, and she was, like, really clever.’”

1.
Which two words make the sentence informal, so Kit is wrong?

E Think deeper4 min

Ruth learned to sail as a child. She sold lemonade at a summer fair. She won a prize in 1912 and opened her bridge in 1930.

An old workshop with wooden benches and tools on the wall

1.
A biography cannot include everything. Which small moment would you leave out, and why? Write one sentence.

How did it feel?2 min

Which feature of a biography was hardest to spot today? Tell your grown-up why.

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. they're 'Their' and 'there' sound the same but mean different things. Ask your child to say 'they are' in the gap to test each word.

2. Noun: river, bridge · Verb: swim · Adjective: calm

3. “Come here,” said Mum. The comma belongs inside the closing inverted commas. Ask your child to point to where the comma sits before the closing mark.

B

1. Ruth became a respected engineer after her studies in Leeds. They chose a sentence with chatty words such as 'like', 'super' or 'honestly'. Ask your child to find those words and say why they do not fit a biography.

2. Look for: A sentence that starts with In 1930 followed by a comma, uses she or Ruth, and is in the past tense with formal words.

C

1. she 'I' and 'we' are first person and 'you' is second person. Ask your child whose life a biography describes, then find the pronoun for that person.

2. Anil was a clever engineer who designed roads.

3. In 1921, Anil moved to Bristol. If your child chose the sentence with 'in 1921' in the middle, that is parenthesis, not a fronted adverbial. Ask what comes first in the sentence.

4. Look for: One sentence with who or which straight after engineer that adds the detail about building bridges, with no second he. If your child wrote two sentences, ask which small word could join them. Try 'who' after 'engineer'.

D

1. Look for: Names the words like and really as chatty words that spoil a formal tone. If your child says the sentence is fine because it has dates, explain that facts alone do not make a formal tone. Ask them to cross out the chatty words.

E

1. Look for: Names one small moment to leave out and gives a reason linked to why the person matters, such as the prize or the bridge.

Words to use

Say“Show me the word that tells us who the biography is about. Is it she, he or they?”

Instead of“Just tell them the features and skip the reading.”

After the sheet

Find a short leaflet or newspaper article at home. Ask your child to find one fronted adverbial with a comma and one formal word.

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

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

Mapping Darwin's life story(with a plan)
Finding Darwin's big idea(with a plan)
Planning Darwin's life story(with a plan)
Joining Darwin's early story(with a plan)
Darwin's world-changing theory(with a plan)
Presenting cause and effect(with a plan)

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