Biographical Questions to Consider

Source: http://learnweb.harvard.edu/alps/tfu/pop1g.cfm

Questions to Consider
These questions will guide your research. In all your work (album, essay, annotated bibliography, presentation, study guide), it should be obvious that you thought about them.
The Throughline numbers after each question suggest which Throughline each Biography Question might help you think about. After you read any source, go through this list and use information from that source to answer the questions tentatively. Write your ideas in your Process Journal.

1. What attracts you to this person? (TL #8)
2. A. What does this person's life show about the history and culture of the Colonial Era of American history? (TLs #1, #2, #5)
   B. What trends in colonial history can we see through this person's life? (TLs #1, #2, #5, #6, #11)
3. What does your person's life reveal about our present culture or your own life and values as an American? (TLs #1, #5, #6, #11)
4. What does your person's life reveal about universal human nature? (TLs #4, #6, #11)
5. Why is this person remembered in history? What did he or she do?(TLs #2, #3, #4, #6, #7, #8, #11)
6. How did historians select this person from the many people who lived at the time as someone worth remembering? (TLs #2, #4, #6)
7. What advantages and disadvantages did your person have over others who lived at the time? (TLs #4, #11)
8. What point of view, attitudes, and values does your person have? Be able to explain their biases. (TLs #1, #2, #3, #4, #6 #8)
9. A. How did your person develop into the person they became? (TLs #6, #8)
   B. Who, what, when, where, why, and how did your person live in his or her early life and later life. (TLs #2, #5)
   C. What important events shaped your person's attitudes/values? (TLs #2, #6)
10. A. Consider point of view. Compare and contrast your person's attitudes and values with others in that time and place. Especially, compare to the founding fathers we studied: Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, and Washington. (TLs #1, #2, #3, #4, #6, #7, #8, #11)
    B. Compare and contrast your attitudes and values or those of other people alive today with your person. (TLs #8, #11)