KING CHARLES III TIMELINES IN 6TH COURSE

 Hello! 

In this post I want to comment about an activity that I have developed in my 6th course class, in order to complete a task for the course. This activity consisted in creating timelines with a tool called Timetoast.

I have decided to develop the activity with 6th graders because I think they are the most prepared to use the tool and to work on a biography. In fact, we were working on the past simple of verbs, so I have included this activity as a practice for them, and I have linked it to the coronation of King Charles III this May 6th. Before I start a reflection about the activity, here you have the links to some of the timelines created by my students:

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/king-charles-iii-lucia

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/king-charles-iii-omar

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/king-charles-iii-marta

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/king-charles-iii-leo

The main objectives of this activity were that pupils get used to work with ICT in class, also to work on social abilities (agreements, decisions, solving problems...), and of course to deal with the contents of this term: the past simple of verbs. It was a good decision to introduce this tool (Timetoast) to the students, as they have enjoyed working with it and they got to know another tool they can use in future projects. Not only English ones, but also those for the rest of subjects. 

One of the main advantages that I extract from working with Timetoast is that the students enjoyed the text that I presented them. If I had only given them the text and some questions, they would have been bored from the first moment. However, they saw that the information they extracted from the text was going to be reflected in another place, in their own creation, their own timeline, and that they could include titles and pictures (something they love to do).

The steps that I have followed to present the activity were divided into two different sessions of work. First, we did a bamboozle (game) to review irregular verbs, and then we saw a Genial.ly  (https://view.genial.ly/644f76bbf53280001172f677/presentation-long-live-the-king) to get to know more about the Royal Family. Then, during the second session, I taught them how to use Timetoast with a short tutorial with the whole group, and then, I organized the pupils in pairs, and each pair had a copy of a text of my own creation about King Charles III. After reading the text, they needed to create their own timeline  (using my account) about the life of King Charles III, and they were shown to the rest of the class at the end of the session. 

I was lucky I didn't find big problems when my students were working on this activity. At the beginning they find some difficulties on how to upload the pictures to their timelines, or about some words they couldn't understand in the text. I helped them with synonyms for the words, and also showing them how they could upload the photos to their work. Therefore, these problems were easy to solve and the activity was carried out successfully. 

As for the reaction of my students, they were amazed by the new tool. These pupils are used to work with ICT in class, as each one of them has their own laptop, but they had never seen Timetoast and they really enjoyed. In fact, after we finished the session, the students told other pupils in the school about it, so that they could use it in other subjects too. It was really rewarding to see them excited and happy about it. The tool really got their attention. 

Although the activity was a success, something I would change about it for the next time is to give the pupils more freedom to choose the topic they want to work with. This is, although it will be a common topic for everyone, giving them the chance to explore different texts for information, or not to focus on one person specifically. However, this activity was perfectly related to the event of the coronation of King Charles III and I only had the time to prepare one simple text for them to extract information. 

To end up, Timetoast helped me to achieve my learning objectives because my students felt attracted to the tool immediately and they had no objections to read the text that I created for them. Also, they were able to develop their scanning technique, as they needed to create different events for the timeline related to the events in King Charles life. Also, this helped me to work on verbs in past simple in an indirect way, leaving aside other activities that they are used to work on. Moreover, the fact that they were excited about being the ones to create the longest timeline, or to find the best picture for each moment, made me feel so satisfied with the activity and happy to see that they were enjoying the experience. 

That's all for the activity, folks!