Beyond-the-Basic Productivity Tools (BBPT)

Lesson Idea Name: Timeline

Content Area: History
Grade Level(s): 9-12th

Content Standard Addressed: SSWH18 Examine the major political and economic factors that shaped world
societies between World War I and World War II.
a. Determine the causes and results of the Russian Revolution from the rise of the Bolsheviks under Lenin to
Stalin’s first Five Year Plan.

Technology Standard Addressed:

1c Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate
their learning in a variety of ways.
6a Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or
communication.

Selected Technology Tool: venngage

URL(s) to support the lesson (if applicable): https://venngage.com/

Bloom’s Taxonomy Level(s):

☒ Remembering ☒ Understanding ☒ Applying ☐ Analyzing ☐ Evaluating ☐ Creating

Levels of Technology Integration (LoTi Level):

☒ Level 1: Awareness ☒ Level 2: Exploration ☒ Level 3: Infusion ☐ Level 4: Integration
☐ Level 5: Expansion ☐ Level 6: Refinement

Universal Design for Learning (UDL):

Students can choose from a large selection of beautiful consistent clipart and can insert their own pictures
and videos. Venngage also provides maps and backgrounds. It also has polls and sign up forms that can be
inserted as well as a massive amount of templates ranging from flyers to timelines to infographics. A student
would have hard time creating a bland end product. Diagrams, graph, and contrasting colors all stick out and
provide multiple ways of grabbing attention. The diversity of tools also allows students to show their own
ability and sensitivity towards caring about perception since they are free to choose how their product will
display its information.

The use of symbols helps make it clear what is happening or at least gives a good hint as to what the subject
matter is. It is very easy to “chunk information into smaller elements”.

For the purposes of this project a simple timeline was created however, the site also has tools that help with
learning itself. Schedules, road maps and mind maps provide students with options for self-regulation.

Lesson idea implementation:

For a simple short project like this the lesson could work well as a homework assignment thereby allowing a
student to spend ample time getting familiar with the site. Or it could be done in pairs in class to allow
students to learn simultaneously.
If you choose the latter it might be a good idea to inform students of the comming lesson the day before so
that students are not overwhelmed having to do research and figuring out how to use the site. Though the
site is very simple and gives clear directions to new users and for a simple timeline I doubt the process would

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 Beyond-the-Basic Productivity Tools (BBPT)
be too overwhelming.

It is largely up to the student’s choice as to how the product will inform and differentiate learning. Templates
can be selected copied and then edited. This means that the teacher can simply have the links sent to them
then go in and insert comments. This makes grading precious since you can highlight successes and problems.
You might also choose to have student present the timeline in class. You could grade them on their
presentation abilities along with the product itself.

Reflective Practice:
Some depth and expansion could be added by having students create their own videos, music, clips art and
maps. The graphics provided are solid however, some options are locked behind a pay wall and having
student create their own art would expand their creativity ability. You could also have students present in
class this would require them to pay special attention to the structure and timing of the presentation. Things
that might seems great on a screen might not actually work so well when it comes time to present. Teaching
them this lesson will result in better results down the line. Presentations are a fact of live for many adults so
building students skills in this area would be very good for them and would likely take them to high LoTi
levels.

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