Ready to dive into Biography Writing with your students? Grab this pack of differentiated Biography Writing booklets!

My students LOVE making little books (often for comics) so I figured why not turn Biography Writing into booklet form too?! 

I’ve created several versions to help you differentiate for students of varying writing abilities. When you download this, have a scroll through to pick out what’ll work best for your students! 

Watch a preview video of this resource on Vimeo!

Biography Writing is great fun in that students get the opportunity to research a significant person of interest or influence. The trouble is that Biography Writing tends to get quite research-heavy. That's why it's important to make the recording of facts and writing up of information fun and achievable!

Using booklets gives students ownership of their writing and chunks the task into manageable bite-sized sections. And of course, the chance to colour in and add illustrations! You can even turn it into a group project by divvying up the pages amongst group members before securing them together into a full booklet!

I recommend printing out two pages per A4 sheet to make A5-sized booklets. Trim off any excess paper around the border before stapling or hole-punching and securing the pages together.

Let me know how your students get on with it! Happy writing!

Printable, differentiated biography writing booklets

Featured

Writing

Literacy

Say goodbye to constant reminders about full stops and capital letters and say hello to student-led improvements with these proofreading and editing cards!

These differentiated cards are carefully crafted to suit various writing genres, ensuring that while success criteria may change, the core elements of effective writing remain consistent. 

With this resource, students can take charge of their own writing by engaging in the essential steps of proofreading and editing (aka "re-crafting"). Encouraging independent checking and enhancing their written work not only cultivates valuable skills but also saves us precious time and preserves our teacher sanity during lessons!

Check out the different versions available within this resource to discover the perfect fit for each of your learners. You'll find: 

These versatile cards transcend specific genres, making them ideal for narratives, descriptions, recounts, and beyond! All that's left to do now is print, cut and laminate.

Printable differentiated proofreading and editing cards for students to self-check their writing

A recount writing planning sheet to help students sequence their ideas and brainstorm vocabulary.

This freebie is a sample from the resource 

'Writing Graphic Organisers' available here

...say hello to a new range of graphic organisers! These printable planning templates are perfect for both teacher modelling and student recording in the pre-writing stage of the writing process!

Not to mention, each design is different because no writing genre is the same, right? So why wouldn't we reflect that in our planning?

This 64-page resource contains a range of single page planning sheets with prompts and recording space. The planning sheets are designed to be used for students in Year 3-6 but knowing my past students, these would still be great fits for both my Year 2 and Year 7 students and I would just alter my expectation around detail, vocabulary, number of paragraphs etc to suit varying abilities.

This resource comes in both colour and grayscale versions for the following Writing genres:

It is part of a new line of teaching resources I'm working on called 

and for a limited time, ALSO includes the writing frames which correspond with each of the planning sheets!

Planning a piece of writing is one of my favourite things to do - generating ideas and vocabulary...seeing the seeds of a great piece of writing sprouting in front of my eyes...ooh it gets me excited! But I know that it is the stage of the writing process that a lot of students struggle with so I want to do the best I can to make it as easy and inspiring as I can.

Take a seat Hamburger Planners...say hello to a new range of graphic organisers!

and for a limited time, ALSO includes the writing frames which correspond with each of the planning sheets! 

Writing graphic organizers for primary-aged students

...say hello to a new range of graphic organisers! These printable planning templates are perfect for both teacher modelling and student recording in the pre-writing stage of the writing process! 

Brighten up your classroom with these editable alphabet and sight word wall displays, inspired by Burano, Venice! These are perfect for junior classrooms to use as visual prompts on the wall or as a set of flash cards for reading and writing practice.

Word Wall | Alphabet & Sight Words | Travel Inspired Classroom Decor | Venice

Brighten up your classroom with these editable alphabet and sight word wall displays, inspired by Burano, Venice! These are perfect for junior classrooms to use as visual prompts on the wall or as a set of flash cards for reading and writing practice. This product includes the hand-drawn Burano houses from 

Alphabet Wall Display | Travel Inspired Classroom Decor | Venice | Bright Theme

There are 97 pages in the PDF version of this resource. This PDF includes a link to a 58-page Google Slides document in which the text can be edited.

My inspiration for this set of classroom decor products came from my whistle-stop trip to Burano, one of the islands north west of Venice. I instantly fell in love with the bright colours and how everything seemed so ‘in place’ despite the seemingly random placement of colours.

Check out these other travel-inspired resources:

Check out these other resources inspired by my trip to Venice!

Editable alphabet and sight word wall displays, inspired by Burano, Venice!

Start of Term

Year 1 Persuasive Writing WALT and success criteria poster to use with your students!

Here's a free printable Year 1 Persuasive Writing WALT and success criteria poster to use with your students!

 with differentiated success criteria and multiple formats for students to stick into their books.

Here’s a free printable Year 1 Persuasive Writing WALT and success criteria poster to use with your students!

Year 2 Persuasive Writing WALT and success criteria poster to use with your students!

Here's a free printable Year 2 Persuasive Writing WALT and success criteria poster to use with your students!

Here’s a free printable Year 2 Persuasive Writing WALT and success criteria poster to use with your students!

KS2 Persuasive Writing WALT and success criteria poster to use with your students!

Here's a free printable KS2 Persuasive Writing WALT and success criteria poster to use with your students!

Too challenging for some of your learners? Here are some other options you can use to differentiate for your less able writers:

Success Criteria for Persuasive Writing Year 1

Success Criteria for Persuasive Writing Year 2

Here’s a free printable KS2 Persuasive Writing WALT and success criteria poster to use with your students!

Year 1 Narrative Writing WALT and success criteria poster to use with your students!

Here’s a free printable Year 1 Narrative Writing WALT and success criteria poster to use with your students!

Year 2 Narrative Writing WALT and success criteria poster to use with your students!

Here’s a free printable Year 2 Narrative Writing WALT and success criteria poster to use with your students!

KS2 Narrative Writing WALT and success criteria poster to use with your students!

Here’s a free printable KS2 Narrative Writing WALT and success criteria poster to use with your students! If you’re after more, check out 

Here’s a free printable KS2 Narrative Writing WALT and success criteria poster to use with your students!

Get set for a year of Writing units with these KS1 writing success criteria! In this resource, you’ll find child-speak success criteria for 9 genres of writing in a range of formats with two differentiated versions.

When you purchase this resource, you will be able to download a pdf which has a link to give you access to a Google Drive folder with:

 are a must-have in any classroom. Particularly when teaching Writing, I've seen a HUGE improvement in both my teaching and my students' learning when utilising them. The best thing has been seeing my 

 become empowered and motivated through using success criteria. When students know what is expected of them, the mystery of what makes a great piece of writing is uncovered. They really do take ownership of their learning as they play an active role in self-monitoring and assessing their own writing.

So let's make learning as clear as possible for 

 of our students and set them up for success 

Need some more ideas for supporting your lower-ability learners? Have a read of my blog article

Scaffolding Writing for Struggling Students

Get ready for a year of Writing units with this bundle of Writing success criteria! Here you'll find sets of success criteria for 9 genres of writing, each with differentiated options and multiple formats.

There are 3 levels of differentiation within each resource. The easiest level is suitable for Year 1/2 students (aged 5-6), the mid level is suitable for Year 2/3 (aged 6-7), and the challenge level is suitable for Year 4-6 (ages 8-10).

Get ready for a year of Writing units with this bundle of Writing success criteria! Here you'll find sets of success criteria for 9 genres of writing, each with differentiated options and multiple formats. Purchasable on 

A must-have for teaching Biography Writing! Make learning easy with these editable differentiated child-speak success criteria for biographies and autobiographies!

Studying famous figures or incredible people in the community? Get your students writing biographies full of facts and anecdotes! Want to get to know your students that much better? Get them to craft autobiographies all about themselves!

When you purchase this resource, you will gain access to a Google Drive folder with:

This resource can be used to assist with planning as it outlines text features of biography and autobiography writing to be covered in lessons and provides progression options for learners of different abilities. It does not provide additional materials e.g. explanatory slides, exemplars or lesson plans. Students would benefit from whole class/small group modelling of how to use success criteria before attempting to use the success criteria independently.

There are 3 levels of differentiation for some resources. The easiest level is suitable for Year 2 students (age 6), the mid level is suitable for Year 3-4 (aged 7-8), and the high level is suitable for Year 5-6 (ages 8-10+).

Ready to start teaching biography writing? 

Here's a helpful planning template for your students to record their information on.

Looking for other writing resources? Check out these sets:

Success Criteria for Recount Writing [editable]

Success Criteria for Narrative Writing [editable]

Success Criteria for Letter Writing [editable]

Success Criteria for Persuasive Writing [editable]

Success Criteria for Instruction Writing [editable]

Success Criteria for Explanation Writing [editable]

Success Criteria for Descriptive Writing [editable]

A must-have for teaching Descriptive Writing! Make learning easy with these editable differentiated child-speak success criteria for character, setting and object descriptions!

Simply overloading a sentence with adjectives doesn't make it a quality piece of descriptive writing, right? Help your students to craft amazing descriptions in your next Writing lesson with these child-speak success criteria!

 presentation with editable success criteria (+ pdf version)

 with full list of differentiated success criteria (+ pdf version)

This resource can be used to assist with planning as it outlines text features of descriptive writing to be covered in lessons and provides progression options for learners of different abilities. It does not provide additional materials e.g. explanatory slides, exemplars or lesson plans for descriptive writing. Students would benefit from whole class/small group modelling of how to use success criteria before attempting to use the success criteria independently.

There are 3 levels of differentiation for some resources. The easiest level is suitable for Year 1/2 students (aged 5-6), the mid level is suitable for Year 2/3 (aged 6-7), and the high level is suitable for Year 4/5/6 (ages 8-10).

Success Criteria for Biography Writing [editable]

A must-have for teaching Explanation Writing! Make learning easy with these editable differentiated child-speak success criteria!

How does that work? Why does it occur? Launching into explanation writing with your students? Get set for success with these child-speak 'I can' success criteria.

When you download this resource, you will have access to a Google Drive folder with:

This resource can be used to assist with planning as it outlines text features of explanation writing to be covered in lessons and provides progression options for learners of different abilities. It does not provide additional materials e.g. explanatory slides, exemplars or lesson plans for explanation writing. Students would benefit from whole class/small group modelling of how to use success criteria before attempting to use the success criteria independently.

There are 3 levels of differentiation. The easiest level is suitable for Year 2 students (age 6), the mid level is suitable for Year 3/4 (ages 7-8), and the high level is suitable for Year 5/6 (ages 9-10).

A must-have for teaching Instruction Writing! Make learning easy with these editable differentiated child-speak success criteria!

Step 1: Check out this handy instruction writing resource. Step 2: Download and nail your next lesson! Whether you're writing recipes for budding Master chefs, going through rules for a sport, or even just the steps for washing your hands correctly (yes, that is mightily important!), this is the resource for you!

This resource can be used to assist with planning as it outlines text features of instruction writing to be covered in lessons and provides progression options for learners of different abilities. It does not provide additional materials e.g. explanatory slides, exemplars or lesson plans for instruction writing. Students would benefit from whole class/small group modelling of how to use success criteria before attempting to use the success criteria independently.

There are 3 levels of differentiation for some resources. The easiest level is suitable for Year 1 students (age 5), the mid level is suitable for Year 2/3 (ages 6-7), and the high level is suitable for Year 3/4/5 (ages 7-9).

After some instruction writing templates? Here are some products you might like:

Writing Instructions - How to Play a Game Template

A must-have for teaching Narrative Writing! Make learning easy with child-speak success criteria for narrative writing, including sets of success criteria for character development, beginning, middle, and endings of narrative stories.

What makes a great story? We all have our favourite stories that we could read over and over. Equip your students with the tools to create their own stellar narrative stories too! Whether your students are retelling a fairytale or writing an action-packed adventure story, these success criteria will support them with following a narrative structure and developing their plot and characters.

When you purchase this resource, you will have access to a 

This resource can be used to assist with planning as it outlines text features of recount writing to be covered in lessons and provides progression options for learners of different abilities. It does not provide additional materials e.g. explanatory slides, exemplars or lesson plans for recount writing. Students would benefit from whole class/small group modelling of how to use success criteria before attempting to use the success criteria independently.

There are 3 levels of differentiation for some resources. The easiest level is suitable for Year 1/2 students (aged 5-6), the mid level is suitable for Year 2/3 (aged 6-7), and the high level is suitable for Year 3/4/5 (ages 7-9+).

If you liked this resource, check out these other writing success criteria resources:

Planning some narrative stories? Have a read of our blog article on 

! Or find some writing inspiration here: 

A must-have for teaching Letter Writing! Make learning easy with child-speak success criteria for formal, informal and persuasive letter writing!

Oh the warm fuzzies of receiving a thoughtful letter! Oh the struggle of carefully wording a formal letter! Letter writing is an important skill for our students to learn so let's give them the tools to do it well!

This resource can be used to assist with planning as it outlines text features of letter writing to be covered in lessons and provides progression options for learners of different abilities. It does not provide additional materials e.g. explanatory slides, exemplars or lesson plans for letter writing. Students would benefit from whole class/small group modelling of how to use success criteria before attempting to use the success criteria independently.

There are 3 levels of differentiation for some resources. The easiest level is suitable for Year 1/2 students (aged 5-6), the mid level is suitable for Year 2/3 (aged 6-7), and the high level is suitable for Year 4/5/6 (ages 8-10+).

Need some ideas for supporting your lower-ability learners? Have a read of our blog article 

A must-have for teaching Persuasive Writing! Make learning easy with child-speak success criteria for persuasive text and persuasive letter writing. 

Convince me why. Give me a reason. Learning to write persuasively is an important skill for our students to acquire. How else are they going to convince their parents to let them get a pet or their school to host a non-uniform day?

- Child-speak success criteria for persuasive text and persuasive letter writing

- Differentiated sets of success criteria with three levels of challenge

- Display posters with WALTs and success criteria

- Mini success criteria for students to stick into books

- Editable text fields so you can customise to suit your learners

- Link to a Google Doc with full editable success criteria

This resource is appropriate for students who are just learning to write about their opinions through to those who are working towards utilising rhetorical questions and emotive language for effect. The easiest level is suitable for Year 1/2 students (aged 5-6), the mid level is suitable for Year 2/3 (aged 6-7), and the high level is suitable for Year 4/5/6 (ages 8-10).

After more persuasive writing resources? Here are some other products you might like:

A must-have for teaching Recount Writing! Make learning easy with child-speak success criteria for personal experience, factual and imaginative recount writing.

Save time on your planning with these ready-to-go success criteria. Watch your students take ownership of their learning as they use success criteria checklists to self-monitor and assess their own writing.

There are 3 levels of differentiation. The easiest level is suitable for Year 1/2 students (aged 5-6), the mid level is suitable for Year 2/3 (aged 6-7), and the challenge level is suitable for Year 3/4/5 (ages 7-9+).

A must-have for teaching Recount Writing! Make learning easy with child-speak success criteria for personal experience, factual and imaginative recount writing. 

Are your students ready to share all of the interesting facts they've learnt? Step right up and roll out the non-chronological reports! Take a fascinating topic, a handful of categorised information and a diagram or two, then you're on the road to success.

presentation with editable success criteria (+ pdf version)

with full list of differentiated success criteria (+ pdf version)

This resource can be used to assist with planning as it outlines text features of report writing to be covered in lessons and provides progression options for learners of different abilities. It does not provide additional materials e.g. explanatory slides, exemplars or lesson plans for descriptive writing. Students would benefit from whole class/small group modelling of how to use success criteria before attempting to use the success criteria independently.

Get ready for the start of term with this colour wheel reading resources pack! This is designed to get you all set for planning and teaching beginning readers from Magenta to Gold (Levels 1-21) on the Reading Colour Wheel.

> For each of the Reading Levels (Magenta - Gold):

> A generic list of Guided Reading prompts to use before, during and after reading

These are all resources that I found invaluable when teaching my Year 2s. I had readers all the way through from Level 1 to Level 20 so I really just needed to create an easy solution for myself to keep up with differentiated planning at each of the reading levels. I hope you also find them helpful! :)

When you purchase this resource, you'll be able to download a PDF which has a link to your Google Doc. Head to File --> Make a Copy to get your own Google Doc version which you will be able to edit. 

Graphic organisers and templates to use in your next Reading lesson!

Graphic organizers and templates to use in your next Reading lesson!

Forgot to get some new reading books for today's lesson? Use what you've already got at hand and smash out some book reviews!

After reading a non-fiction text or watching an informative video, get your students to pull out 3 key pieces of information and record them in their own words. Extend out the activity by adding pictures and getting students to present their learnings.

Identifying Features of Non-Fiction Texts Worksheet

After you've looked at non-fiction text features, see if your students can identify examples of the text features independently. Grab an appropriate level non-fiction text and get started!

Before reading a non-fiction text or starting a new topic, find out what students already know (K) and want to know (W). The bang for your buck doesn't stop there though as your students later need to add what they learnt (L). 3 activities in 1!

Making Connections (Text-to-Self) Worksheet

Help your students get started with making text-to-self connections for fiction texts with these sentence starter prompts. Each page includes 2 copies so you can save on your printing budget!

Teaching synthesising always sounds like a bit of a challenge but it doesn't have to be. Here's a synthesising chart which keeps it reeeeaaal simple.

A blank Venn diagram worksheet. Simple but always handy. Use to compare characters or texts.

Build your students' vocabulary by creating their own word bank. Make sure that you have a dictionary - oh sorry *ipad* - at hand for them to find the actual definition.

Reading

Graphic organisers, templates and resources to use in your next Writing lesson!

Graphic organizers, templates and resources to use in your next Writing lesson!

So tell me about yourself. Get your students to don their interviewer hats and create bios on each other or, if they have access to the internet, get them researching famous people from a topic you're studying!

Here you have it...a blank writing frame! Use it for publishing, assessment work or fast-finishers!

A blank writing frame with space for a picture. PDF includes narrow and wider lines.

WHOOSH! WHIZ! BANG! What's more fun than creating your own superheroes to fight evil and save the world?! PDF includes 3 different templates - choose your preferred weapon!

Dear Diary, What a day it has been! Students can write about their own experiences or put themselves in the shoes of a character from a book or person from the past!

Take a drab sentence and add some sparkle! Challenge students to rewrite the given sentences to make them more interesting!

Pick a moot and challenge your students to come up with reasons for and against the statement. Don't let them get away with a one-sided argument!

Give me 3 good reasons! A graphic organizer to help your students plan their persuasive writing arguments.

You can never do enough proofreading practice; no matter how many times you remind your students to use a capital letter at the beginning of each sentence, they ALWAYS seem to forget! Practise practise practise!

Once upon a time they lived happily ever after. Use this for retelling stories, sequencing events and creating original narrative stories! Comes in 2 versions: Blank and with a space for captions.

Been learning about narrative stories? Use this template to sequence events from a known story or let your students get creative and plan their own stories!

Get your students generating ideas before a piece of writing! Comes in present tense (I can see...) and past tense (I saw...) versions so you can use it for both those descriptive moment-in-time and recount pieces of writing!

Scaffold your students with this recipe writing frame! Already followed a recipe to make something in class - super! If not, let your students pick something to create and hope it sounds at least somewhat appetizing...

Can't get outside for PE because the heavens opened up moments before your lesson was due to start? How about some cross-curricular work instead? Get your students to create their own game - complete with a comprehensive equipment list!

Looking to get the most out of your students in Writing? Check out our blog articles:

Writing a letter to that special someone? Take your pick of these 3 writing frames and let your words fly!

Writing frames with heart borders perfect for Valentine's Day writing! Comes in three versions: Wide lines with picture space, narrow lines with picture space, and full page narrow lines.

Valentine's Day

Writing a letter to that special someone this Valentine's Day? Take your pick of 3 writing frames (wide lines with picture space, narrow lines with picture space and full page lined) and let your words fly!

This free resource also comes with 4 pages of heart templates in various sizes which students can colour in and cut out to create Valentine's Day displays or cards.

Get your students generating ideas before a piece of writing! Comes in 2 versions: Present tense (I can see...) and past tense (I saw...) so you can use it for both those descriptive moment-in-time and recount pieces of writing!

Recording charts for the 5 senses. Comes in 2 versions: Present tense (I can see...) and past tense (I saw...).

Get your students generating ideas before a piece of writing!

Comes in present tense (I can see...) and past tense (I saw...) versions so you can use it for both those descriptive moment-in-time and recount pieces of writing!

WHOOSH! WHIZ! BANG! What's more fun than creating your own superheroes to fight evil and save the world?!

Comic strip and storyboard templates with and without text boxes

Creative

WHOOSH! WHIZ! BANG! What's more fun than creating your own superheroes to fight evil and save the world?! This pdf includes three comic strip templates and two storyboard templates - choose your preferred weapon!

Here you have it...a blank writing frame with space for a picture! Use it for publishing, assessment work or fast-finishers! PDF includes narrow and wider lines.

A blank writing frame. PDF includes narrow and wider lines.

A blank writing frame for publishing, assessment work or fast-finishers.

Categories include: Background, key life events, achievements, interesting facts and key quote.

Want to display your Biography Writing? Use these 

After some more Writing resources? Check out these 

A template for gathering key information for writing a biography.

A blank Biography Writing template for students to record their research information. Get your students to don their interviewer hats and create bios on each other or, if they have access to texts or the internet, get them researching famous people from a topic you're studying!

A blank Venn diagram worksheet. Simple but always handy. Use it for any subject you like!

Maths

Topic

Blank Venn diagram perfect for illustrating similarities and differences between two things.

Can't get outside for PE because the heavens opened up moments before your lesson was due to start? How about some cross-curricular work instead? Get your students to create their own game - complete with a comprehensive equipment list! 

A template for writing instructions for a game.

PE & Health

A printable story mountain template for narrative writing. Includes space for recording main character, setting, beginning, problem, rising action, climax, resolution and ending. Includes two options.

Categories

attheminute teaching

Literacy

Biography Booklets for Years 1-8

Proofreading & Editing Cards

Recount Writing Template FREEBIE from Writing Graphic Organisers

Writing Graphic Organisers

Word Wall

Success Criteria for Persuasive Writing Year 1

Success Criteria for Persuasive Writing Year 2

Success Criteria for Persuasive Writing KS2

Success Criteria for Narrative Writing Year 1

Success Criteria for Narrative Writing Year 2

Success Criteria for Narrative Writing KS2

KS1 Writing Success Criteria

Writing Success Criteria Bundle

Success Criteria for Biography Writing

Success Criteria for Descriptive Writing

Success Criteria for Explanation Writing

Success Criteria for Instruction Writing

Success Criteria for Narrative Writing

Success Criteria for Letter Writing

Success Criteria for Persuasive Writing

Success Criteria for Recount Writing

Success Criteria for Non-Chronological Report Writing

Colour Wheel Reading Resources

Reading Resources Bundle

Writing Resources Bundle

Heart Borders

Using the Senses Recording Chart

Comic Strip Template

Diary Entry Template

Blank Writing Frame with Picture Box

Blank Writing Frame

Biography Template

Venn Diagram

Instructions for a Game Template

Story Mountain Template

Writing Instructions - Blank Recipe Worksheet

Word Bank Chart

Synthesising Chart

Year 2 Proofreading Practice

Persuasive Writing Planner

Making Connections Text-to-Self

KWL Chart (portrait)

KWL Chart (landscape)

Rewriting Sentences to Add Interest

Identifying Features of Non-Fiction Texts

Persuasive Writing For & Against Chart

Fact File Template

Book Review Template

attheminute teaching