Classroom Activities
Extension Activities
Chronology: Visual Timeline
Recommended for Grades 3 - 12
You can create a visual timeline using all the narratives in the set for your grade level. You can begin with the first narrative you read and add to the timeline as you go, or you can construct the timeline as a culminating exercise after reading all the narratives.
Roll out a long piece of butcher block paper and mark it in decades from the earliest time to the most recent covered in the narrative(s). Refer back to the narrative(s) and create a list of history topics and themes that are important to the story. Add these as sub-headings to the timeline at the appropriate decades.
Download and print the artifact images that go with the narrative(s) you have finished reading. Distribute artifact images to students and ask them to complete the artifact analysis worksheet. Using the worksheet as a guide, ask students to write a caption for the artifact. What does this source tell us about life in Chicago? About life in the United States? As a class, select the most important artifacts to place on the timeline by the appropriate subheading.
Give students some time to conduct additional research using the internet, library, and your textbook. What events in United States history were occurring during the same time as the Great Chicago Story(ies)? Add these events to your timeline at the appropriate decade. Hang the visual timeline in your classroom.
State Learning Standards
State Goal 2: Read and understand literature representative of various societies, eras, and ideas. Learning Standard B: Read and interpret a variety of literary works.
State Goal 3: Write to communicate for a variety of purposes. Learning Standard C: Communicate ideas in writing to accomplish a variety of purposes.
State Goal 5: Use the language arts to acquire, assess and communicate information. Learning Standard B: Analyze and evaluate information acquired from various sources. C: Apply acquired information, concepts and ideas to communicate in a variety of formats.
State Goal 16: Understand the events, trends, individuals, and movements shaping the history of Illinois, the United States and other nations. Learning Standard A: apply the skills of historical analysis and interpretation. B: Understand the development of significant political events.
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