Timeline Visualizer

Skill: Plot

Citation

Lesson 4 of The Writing Process

The next step in the writing process that the teacher laid out was for the students to create the plot for their children's book. As I look at student progress on their book, I have noticed that many students have tried to skip this step entirely. The teacher asked that students create a simple plot diagram to show what will happen in their story. The students that have skipped this step are the ones who are having difficulty with the writing process and figuring out the pace of the story. 

If I were to plan this lesson, I would have students use  Sutori. Students seem to be lacking the understanding of the importance of planning out the pace of the story. When creating the plot diagrams, students are simply writing what very little about each event. They are also having difficulty determining the order of events in their stories. 

Sutori allows students to look at and create timelines of their own. By having students create a timeline of the events happening in their story, they will be able to visually see the timing and pace of their story. 

Sutori is very easy to use. It is an online website that students can log in and create an account using their google account. With a free account, students are able to create story timelines, share their timelines, and join groups to work on timelines together. Unfortunately with a free account students are limited in some of these aspects, they can only create two groups for collaboration.

When first logging on, Sutori will guide you through using the website. To create a story timeline, click on the center create box. Students begin with entering the title and description of their story. They are then able to add events chapters, pictures, etc. Sutori will even auto-save for students! I have already had multiple students tell me they have lost their work, both paper/ pencil and electronic.

Students add their events by clicking the plus button and inserting text, images, video, audio, and more. Sutori even allows users to rearrange the order of their timeline/story at any time.

When they are finished with their timeline, students are able to share it and allow others to edit. Using this tool would have been great in the classroom I am in because students would be able to share their timelines and drafts of their stories with their teacher so that they could make sure that they have all of the elements she is looking for. It would also allow for her to edit their stories online and give feedback so that the students know what they need to fix. Students are even able to print their story.

SAMR
According to the SAMR model, the use of Sutori in this lesson is substitution and augmentation. This lesson could be done with paper and pencil in students' ELA notebook however, the use of the website allows for better editing and reorganization which are so important in the early stages of writing. It also allows for better collaboration of peers and interaction between teacher and students.