CLIL. ACTIVITIES FOR SHARING
Card #4
Compiling a Timeline [SPEAKING]
Grade
No. students
No. Lessons
Lesson
Description
Smart Goal
Language Smart
Goal
Main Technique
Technique
description
Complexity for
teachers
4th (15-16 years) Subject
History (Social studies)
25
Unit
20th century
1 (50 min)
Students order a timeline of major historical and social events from
1900-2000 (mainly focused on the U.S.) using photos of the events (e.g.
“MLK assassinated”)
a. Understand United States’ history on a macro level.
b. Use existing knowledge about historical events to organize other
less familiar events.
c. Become familiar with “big picture” events that define an era,
such as the Civil Rights Movement.
a. Formulate hypotheses with evidence.
b. Identify and understand historically specific vocabulary (e.g.
“Roaring twenties”)
Collaborative inquiry & problem-solving
Students must work together in order to determine where events go on
the timeline and use existing knowledge about history combined with the
photos displayed on events to inform their decisions.
Medium
Steps
1 As an introduction to decades throughout the era, show videos of
changes in fashion and music throughout the 20 th century.
2 Distribute ~35-40 photos of historical events randomly to students.
3 Arrange timeline in the classroom (may need a lot of space) and instruct
students to work together to piece together the timeline.
4 While they are working, check their work and give clues to help them
along. If they are really struggling, you may even give them a significant
event that is closely related to others during that time (e.g. Rosa Parks
sitting on the bus).
5 You should also encourage students to check each other’s work and ask
each other questions to use each other’s historical knowledge.
7 If there is time at the end, ask students if they can see relationships
between the events or if they make more sense now that they see when
they occurred in relationship to other historical events. Try to help
students see how events combine into a larger picture (e.g. how
prohibition led to the roaring twenties).
Strengths
Weaknesses
It is quite interactive and encourages speaking and participation. Every student
has an access point into this activity because he can rely on his own life
experience and knowledge without having studied U.S. history. It is
collaborative, meaning that all students are equally responsible for creating an
accurate timeline.
The activity is quite surface-level. It does not necessarily teach historical events
or delve into the significance of the events. It is only a starting point.
Additionally, more reserved students may not participate at all because it is not
structured so that one person is responsible for one event, so they can rely on
their classmates.
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