Hey everybody! I've got something great for you all! TIMELINES! I am about to make my students compare the two Spanish past tenses in the context of their own lives (preterite and imperfect) and I really think the distinction between the two can be facilitated with their making a timeline of their own life. They would have to include text on each of the events to explain the eventsthat happened in their lives (preterite) or the periods in their lives or background information (imperfect).
Some other ideas for how you can use these timelines are research projects over artists, authors, historical figures or events, and so much more!
I would assign the timeline and the finished product would have to be posted on my class blog so that it would be easy to grade all of them. I read recently from another teacher who blogs for her class, that when she has her students create a product, she picks the best to post on her blog/site. She says that the quality improves because her students want to impress her and the others who read her blog. Another friend of mine says that she likes to post all of her students' work, good and poor, because she believes her students can learn from each other by examining good products, and help their peers with poor ones, but also she says that posting all examples shows other teachers that read her blog the reality of the types of students and issues we all deal with. Also, she says the quality of the work also increases because all of her students know that their peers as well as readers from all over the world will see their work, so they take more pride in what they do. Right now, I choose to post all their work no matter what the quality because it makes for easy access and grading for me. Selfish, I know, but sometimes as teachers we just have to self-preserve, right? At any rate, you should consider these points of view when you decide how you are going to go about posting student work.
Finally, I think it is always a good idea to make one yourself prior to assigning one to your students for two reasons: 1. Showing them an example always makes for their final products better looking and better written and 2. Making one yourself educates you so that you can answer their questions, troubleshoot for them, and ease the process of the assignment.
Here are some of the sites I have found where you can make timelines:
Xtimeline , OurStory or Viygo - Create embeddable timelines to put on blogs or websites. OurStory also allows for multimedia and you can opt to have the timeline "play" where you post it.
Dipity - Create interactive timelines including Google Maps, photos, and integrate other services like Flickr that you use.
As soon as I get my students' examples, I will post them for you to see the results. Happy timelining y'all!
Amy
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