Biography Report Form Template and Organizer

A biography is the story of a person’s life. Because of their unique and personal nature, I often choose to include biographies for middle school in our studies of significant historical events. By reading about someone’s personal history and connection to an event, my teens gain valuable insight into the events we’re studying.

There are also times that I have my kids use someone’s biography as the focus of their writing assignment. Over the years we have researched the lives of authors, sports figures, famous historical figures, and tons more.

Occasionally our research is brief and we just review the key facts of a person’s life. Other times we do a more in depth study to understand the time period and circumstances surrounding a person’s accomplishments and contributions to society.

No matter how deep we go into a person’s life, my teens always need an easy way to organize their research.

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That’s why I created this Biography Report Form/Organizer. It’s a great tool that your middle schooler can use to keep track of what they’re learning.

You might chose to have your child complete this form to create a brief biography notebooking page or use the information organized on it as a starting point for a longer writing assignment. Either way, it’s an invaluable tool to use along with any biographical studies you’re doing in your home school.

With this template, your teen will explore topics like:

Basic biographical information about the person.
What is this person famous for?
A quote attributed to him/her.
If you could ask this person one question, what would it be?

Now that you have the place to record your research, how do you go about finding the information you’ll need to complete it?

Biography Resources

Primary Sources

A primary source is a first-hand account of a topic. You can gather this kind of information by talking to a person directly or by reading letters and other materials the person wrote themselves.

Secondary Sources

A secondary source is an account of a topic that isn’t a primary source. Common ways to get this type of knowledge is through books, newspaper articles, videos, and other media.

There are a number of books and online resources available to help you gather information about the person you are studying. My kids have been fans of the Who Was series (or as we call it, the Big Head books) for years.