President Abraham Lincoln Biography Research Organizer, PDF & Google Drive, CCSS

Skip the typical Abraham Lincoln introduction lecture as you launch a study of this U.S. president and, instead, empower students to find their own interesting facts about Lincoln’s life and presidency with this “V.I.P. of History” print/post-and-go biography activity.

This single-page worksheet (includes printable PDF and Google Drive versions) is a powerful research organizer that’ll get students digging deep into Abraham Lincoln’s background.

Please note: This download does NOT include a specific article or links to defined articles. It is an organizer tool for students to use as they conduct their own research. In my experience, students take more ownership of the material when they are the ones to research and discover the elements that make a historical figure’s life fascinating. They’ve seen enough of our introductory slideshows; this time, let your kids do the work and discuss/determine what they think is meaningful about this president’s life.

Here are a few suggested uses for this flexible research tool:

1. Book your school’s computer lab or have students access Abraham Lincoln’s biographical information on their own devices. Assign students to either work solo or in teams of two. Once the grids are complete, have students share and compare answers in small groups, focusing on Lincoln’s career successes/failures, interesting facts about his life, meaningful quotes, and his political philosophy. Then, pull the students into a full-class discussion, having each group present an interesting finding until every team has contributed. No repeats allowed.

This assignment works great as an “into” activity, but it could also be a “through” activity to add variety to your in-class routine as you work through a longer unit. It was built with both English and history/social studies teachers in mind.

2. Assign the worksheet as a traditional homework assignment. Launch the discussion mentioned in #1 at the beginning of the next class period.

3. Use the grid as the beginning assignment to a larger project where students must learn about several presidents or people from this era. Later, this research worksheet information could be turned into a compare/contrast essay or a speech presentation, if you wish to expand the assignment. (Biography sheets on all U.S. presidents and a variety of historical figures are available in my shop if you want to vary speech topics within one class.)

4. Use as an emergency sub plan.

I hope you and your students enjoy this activity!

If you need a V.I.P. of History research organizer for any famous figure not currently offered in my shop, please send a message to me through the “Ask a Question” tab and I’ll do my best to quickly make that happen. Also, please note, the image on the student PDF worksheet is slightly ghosted to save printer/copier ink. I encourage students to doodle/shade in that space as they work.

This item is included in my value-priced bundle of all of the U.S. presidents research organizers. If you need them all, please don’t purchase this individual item; instead, go here to save more than 25% on the full collection:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/US-Presidents-Biography-Research-Organizers-US-Presidents-CCSS-4527717

Thanks for stopping by!

Image credit: Alexander Gardner, WikiMedia Commons, Public domain