Timeline

=  Digital Unit Plan  Lesson 4: Student Timeline Assignment  =


 * Lesson 4: Student Timeline Assignment**
 * Make a Timeline Assignment for your Students. Look for examples under Classmate Samples, Sample Timelines. (For fun, take a look at my example - Chemistry and My Life, which definitely shows how old I am).
 * You'll create two documents: a timeline assignment, scoring guide, or rubric; and a student sample timeline.
 * Note that this is a much larger assignment than the other visuals. In this activity, you have to create a student assignment and a student sample. Hopefully, you'll be able to use this assignment when you get to student teaching! Your students will love the opportunity to use technology.


 * Steps in planning your timeline assignment:**
 * Decide what your timeline will demonstrate: a sequence of events in history, story, experiment, or activity.
 * Determine whether your timeline will be single or double. Double timelines are more difficult but they also allow for higher levels of thinking through analysis and comparison. Examples of double timelines are those that demonstrate relationships of one sequence to another sequence, such as
 * the stages of bacteria reproduction
 * personal history – how the history of chemistry relates to key points in a person's life
 * a geographic area – how WWII proceeded in Japan versus Germany
 * big political events – the space race from the perspectives of different groups
 * Decide what units of time you will use (days, months, years, decades, centuries, etc.) to divide your timeline into segments It may be that your timeline is organized by steps or elements (of the scientific method, curriculum development process, writing process, mystery, or problem-solving).
 * Determine how students will choose which events to include and exclude.
 * Identify the details – how many dates, how much text, what content to include, whether images are required, how timeline is to be formatted, the starting and end points of your timeline
 * Create a scoring guide, rubric, and detailed assignment instructions.


 * For your sample timeline:**
 * Pretend you are a student who is completing the assignment. What would you do?
 * Make a list of events that you wish to put on your timeline.
 * Research and note the specific dates when the events that you wish to include occurred. It is a good idea to note your source(s), too, so that you can return later and verify the dates, if necessary.
 * List the events in a chronology or order, a sequence of earliest to latest or first to last.
 * Using the chronology that you made of events and dates, figure out where they would fall on your timeline. How will you mark and label them? For instance, you could write on the timeline, attach colored labels, or make a code that refers back to your chronology.
 * Add supporting elements.


 * WHY HAVE STUDENTS MAKE TIMELINES?**

Throughout history, different cultures and peoples have held different beliefs about the nature of time. When we make a timeline, we link units of time with events. We make a sequence that suggests a past, present, and future. Portrayed in a line, events are unique in history and do not repeat themselves in exact ways. Alternatively, you could also make a timeline in a circle, suggesting the cyclical nature of the topic. Sequences in a timeline, where some events happen before others, also suggest the possibility of cause and effect. They suggest that events exist in relationship to one another, in a context. Thematic timelines suggest turning points, linear trends, and progressions, whether or not these exist in fact. Timelines allow students to plot events in a graphic way, see possible relationships, provide mnemonic cues, and to grasp sequence. In the process, culling from the many possible dates sharpens their appreciation for the dates necessarily excluded.


 * HELPFUL RESOURCES:**


 * Article on [|Timelines: A Timeless Teaching Tool]
 * Great ways to use Excel:
 * [|How to Make a Timeline in Excel] (includes template and detailed directions)
 * [|Create a Timeline Using Microsoft Excel] (Microsoft resource; 3 examples and detailed directions)
 * [|About.com Timelines] (directions, templates, examples)
 * [|Timeline Examples from eMINTS]
 * Other Web Tools
 * TimeToast - a fabulous, free timeline generator
 * [|Read/Write/Think Interactive Timeline] - free, simple but effective; does not allow pics
 * [|Teachnology Timeline] - free, simple; does not allow pics
 * [|Xtimeline] - free, requires log-in, allows for video and pics
 * [|Allofme.com] - interactive, includes video/pics - kind of a Facebook approach
 * [|Dipity.com] - costs, but you can make 3 timelines for free - very interactive
 * Creating Timelines - great ideas for teachers plus list of Web-based timeline generators