In seventh-grade language arts we are constantly looking for ways to bring the community to our students. With our schedule, that is often difficult. One way we manage to accomplish it is through an activity every fall that we call the Timeline Project. My colleague Melanie Kidder first brought this to our middle school 13 years ago. When I moved to seventh grade four years ago, I wasn’t sure what type of effect this project could have. By the time we celebrated its completion, I was hooked.
Research Phase
In early September we ask students to pick someone to interview. There are only two criteria: The person selected needs to be over the age of 50, and the person should not be their parent. Beyond that, it can be a relative, a neighbor, or a family friend—and if they truly cannot find anyone, we find a person in our building. Once the interviewee has been decided upon, our students set up a time to interview them about their life.
The students begin by creating a folder in their Google Drive for the project. We give them a packet where they need to record their interviewee’s life story. (They get a copy in Google Drive, but also a hard copy.) The packet often has small changes from year to year, but essentially there are pages to record what they learn about the following topics:
- family tree
- neighborhood memories
- growing up
- school days
- pop culture from their childhood
- memorable occupations
- adult life
- influence of a global event on them personally (a current event from their life that stands out)
- research page about the topic they selected from the Personal Global Influence
The students interview their person—in person, on the telephone, or via Skype. In class we go over interview tips so that they know how to get their subject to elaborate. Otherwise they’ll be left with short answers that will make the writing phase of the project difficult.
They also gather 10 photos of their interviewee, ideally from different points in their life, and add them to their folder in Drive. For my students who aren’t as tech savvy and cannot figure out how to get a physical photo into Drive, we take photos with a class iPad or my phone and send them to their email. They can add them from there.
Writing Phase
After giving the student a month to conduct interviews and gather photos, we move on to the writing phase. Our ultimate goal is to create a small book about the person each student selected to interview. We do this in Google Slides. My colleague and I create a template for the students and share that document with them. There is a page for each topic from their interview.
As a class, we work through two pages per day in class, talking about how to take the answers their subject gave them and craft a paragraph or two. I model this in front of them, using a packet I have with answers about my mom from when my son did this project years ago. We talk as a class about what makes the writing here stand out, how transitions work, and what kind of opening and closing you need on each page. Each day I meet with kids, looking over their writing. They also share at the table every day and get feedback from their peers.
Publishing Phase
Once the writing is complete, we add the photos to our slides and do a final proofreading of every packet. The cover has their interview subject’s name, photo, and birth date. The last page includes a dedication and a photo of the student. I remind them that the spelling of their person’s name is important, as are the dates in the project. They don’t want to get that wrong, so we work as a class to ensure everything is correct.
When we think the slides are ready, it’s time to print. In my district, as I’m sure is the case elsewhere, color ink is not to be used often. To conserve it, we print our front page in color, the rest in black and white. Once the projects are printed, students have a final chance to look over their book before handing it off to me.
For durability, we laminate the front and back pages, then bind together each student’s slide show. I typically get these assembled sometime in November. You can view Liam’s final book about his grandma by clicking here.
Celebrating
In early December, we invite our students and their families to a Timeline Reception before a middle school band concert. There we have juice and cookies. The students’ Timeline Books are spread around the cafeteria on the tables, waiting for the students and their interview subject to come and look over them. They are given as a gift to the interviewees that night. Typically the majority of kids and their subjects are there, but if kids need to take the book home and mail it to their person, or hand it off on their own, that is also completely fine. That night is simply to celebrate the work of the students and the stories of the interview subjects.
As I am getting ready to begin my fourth year of this project, I find myself anticipating what will come through this year. We spread the work out over several months, but that’s just because that’s what works with our schedule. The only class time given over to it is in the writing phase, when we have minilessons on how to take the answers from the interview and craft them into paragraphs. The rest is accomplished outside of class and/or during the workshop portion of class.
What I love is the weight we give to the stories of others through this project. Kids come in and tell me about their grandparents and how they had a party line for a phone when they were small, or how they had an outhouse until they were 10. I love that they learn how their grandparents or great-grandparents met.
Two years ago, Cora, the daughter of my friend Kathy from high school, was in my class. Cora selected Kathy’s mom for her interview subject. Kathy tried to get Cora to select her great-grandmother; after all, many of her friends didn’t have any great-grandparents living. Cora insisted on Kathy’s mom, and the two of them had several lunch dates to fill out the packet. That December we had the reception, and I laughed with Cora’s grandparents at the stories she had uncovered during their time together.
Just a few months later, Kathy’s mom passed away suddenly. As she grieved the passing of her mom, Kathy sent me a message of gratitude that we had done this project, that Cora had gotten to spend that time with her grandmother and had that memory to treasure. I will hold Cora in my heart every year we do this project from now on. We are teaching our students the importance of our elders, of knowing their stories. Although it is an assignment, it is more than that. The structure, the interview questions—those really aren’t what’s important here. It’s the time, and the memories: Those will last far beyond due dates and grades.
