Chronological Order Project

After our first nine-week's test, it became clear that one of the concepts my sophomores were struggling with was chronological order. I came up with this simple project to reinforce that concept, as well as review the students for a quiz at the end of the week.

We had read Acts I and II in Taming of the Shrew the past week or two. I typed specific events from the play (one or two sentences for each event).

The events were completely mixed into random order on a sheet of paper.

I paired the students with partners to help the project go a little faster and gave each group on page of events (there were eighteen events totally).

The students were given instructions to find the page number for each event, cut the events out, and glue them in chronological order on a sheet of butcher paper provided to them.

There was an extra credit opportunity if students wanted to draw a picture depicting one of the events I had given them.

I also made a model for students to look at for clarity:

In retrospect, I should have pre-taught a quick lesson on chronological order. I realized about ten minutes into the project that most of the students did not realize that if they found the page number for the event, it would correspond to the chronological order of all the events. I did decide to not tell them this since it was the main point of the activity. When the projects were turned in, I asked the students to brainstorm the most efficient way they could have completed this assignment. Students did eventually realize their mistake, and they were very upset with themselves. However, they did very well on the concept of chronological order after this project.