Make a time line of the events in the life of the main character.

 There are many benefits to using a timeline as a way of responding to literature:

• Readers create timelines to help them follow the plot.
• Readers use timelines to help them understand the conflicts faced by the characters
• Readers can also benefit from slowing down their reading and retelling what has happened. If your students are reading complex chapter books, you can teach them to retell each chapter separately and then link those retellings together to retell the whole book.

Sample timeline and book used:

Entire timeline of the book Esperanza Rising, following Esperanza experiences throughout the book according to the harvest vegetation of the season.

Zooming in on an entry.

Ideas for lessons using timelines:

Unit of Study: Response to Literature

Title of Minilesson: Readers Create Timelines to Help them Follow the Plot

Intention: To have students sequence events in history and within their text.

Connection: “We have been looking at the details in our texts to help us figure out our time periods. Today, we will be creating timelines to help us follow the plot. Since our books are taking place during a historical period, our timelines will have to take that into account.”

Teaching: Introduce the timeline graphic organizers to the class. On a chart or overhead projector, fill out a timeline with events from a historical period familiar to the students. 

Active Engagement: With assistance from the class, fill out another chart for events in a narrative that the students are familiar with.

Link: You may have students fill out a Timeline Chart for the historical events of their time period and/or simply the events of the book. Students can work in groups or individually and then share their work with a partner.

Share: After students complete their individual or partner work, they can share with the class. The class as a whole can create one timeline for the historical events and one timeline for the plot events so far. These can be kept as classroom charts to assist with later discussions.

This form may be copied for single classroom use. 2003 by Lucy Calkins and Beth Neville, from Resources for Primary Writing, Units of Study for Primary Writing: A Yearlong

Curriculum, Lucy Calkins, Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH.

Lesson Developed by D75 Literacy Coaches. May be copied for single classroom use.

Forms for Creating Timelines

excerpt from:  http://donnayoung.org/history/timeline.htm

Choose the format(s) that you like best and print on heavy paper. If you wish to color code your timeline, print on heavy colored paper. Although the files are shown as horizontal, rotate them to suit your timeline book.

To Use/Choices:

• Write the dates on the printed timeline forms as you use them.
• Place them in a 3-ring notebook, or after the book is completed have them comb-bound.
• Seek or draw figures from history to use on the forms. (:::Some purchase timeline figures, some cut them from old books, some find figures on the internet, some draw figures, some use captions without figures.:::)
• Write captions on images or on plain paper. If timelines are white, write captions directly on forms. If printed on dark colored paper, write captions with gel pens. Purchased resource: History Through the Ages - Timeline Figures
• Use rubber cement to glue figures to forms. (Rubber cement preferred because of its neatness, disliked because of its smell. Read warning label on rubber cement.) OR print figures on full-sized sticky paper. Avery makes that product.
• Use the timeline resources list below to find concurrent events or research them at your library. Form TL2 is especially good for recording concurrent events. Suggested headings for concurrent events: Politics (list wars, leaders, political policies), Literature/Arts (list plays, literature, arts (paintings, sculptures, etc), architecture, and music including advances in said topics),Religion, Philosophy, Education, Daily Life (list events regarding religious rulers, births and deaths, etc, things of daily life, - plagues, things that improved life or worsened it, etc), Science, Technology (list advances in all sciences, including scientists (birth and deaths) inventions, scientific books, etc.) Recommended Reference Book: The Timetables of History

Forms for Making 3-Ring Notebook Timelines

TL-1

TL-2

TL-3

TL-4

TL-5

TL-6

TL-7

The outline below is a general suggestion on how you could date your timeline templates. Remember that you do not have to date them until you are about to use them.

For older students this is a great idea:


Character Evolution Timeline:

• Students take quotes from their book, and infer how is the character feeling from the beginning of the story to the end.

The story used in this sample is "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros.