Biography Inquiry Jump Start

To jump start an inquiry research project I chose to start with a read aloud.  Duh, I'm a librarian.  The objective is to begin a research unit on importance of past United States presidents.  Instead of the typical, fact gathering research, my hope is to make the students think deeper and more at what really matters about the subject.
So, I started with a picture of the Washington DC Mall that maps out the Presidential memorials.  They noticed only 5 out of 44 presidents have a memorial.  I then read aloud Looking at Lincoln by Maira Kalman.  This biographical information book shares the life of Abraham Lincoln and ends with a look at his memorial in Washington, DC.  After listening I asked students to write about why they think Abraham Lincoln was one of the 5 presidents chosen to have a memorial.  This is the first of two lessons on biography inquiries.  The next lesson students will choose one of the other 4 presidents to learn more about. They will have to justify why they were also chosen to have a memorial on the Mall.