Lesson Title: Biographical Timeline
Grade Level: 6th Grade
Required Time: 55 minutes
Unit Title: Scotland
Unit Connections:
Big Ideas:
 Men and women from Scotland have been responsible for the advancement of
civilization for many centuries.
 Many men and women from Scotland have helped to shape the future of the United
States into the country it is today.
Essential Questions:
 What contributions have men and women from Scotland made toward the
advancement of civilization.
 How have men and women from Scotland helped to transform the United States into
what it is today.
Key Content Learning:
 The students will learn that men and women, as well as, Scottish culture have all
contributed to the region around Scotland and to rest of the world. Many
contributions toward the advancement of society can be traced back to men and
women from Scotland.
Framing the Lesson:
Keywords:
 Biography
Timeline
Culture
Civilization
Focus Question:
 What contributions have men and women from Scotland made to civilization?
 What is a biographical timeline?
 How has America been transformed by Scottish influence?
Learning Outcomes:
 The student will know what a biographical timeline is.
 The students will know famous Scottish people and how they helped to influence
civilization and American society in particular.
Standards and Benchmarks:
 SOC. I.2.M.3 Select conditions in various parts of the world and describe how they
have been shaped by events from the past.
 SOC.II.2.M.4 Explain how humans modify the environment and describe some of the
possible consequences of those modifications.
 6 – G1.3.1 Use the fundamental themes of geography (location, place, human
environment interaction, movement, region) to describe regions or places on earth.
 6 – G1.3.3 Explain the different ways in which places are connected and how those
connections demonstrate interdependence and accessibility.
 6 – G4.1.1 Identify and explain examples of cultural diffusion within the Americas
(e.g., baseball, soccer, music, architecture, television, languages, health care, Internet,
consumer brands, currency, restaurants, international migration).
 3-5.RI.2. use digital tools to find, organize, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate
information
 3-5.RI.3. understand and discuss that web sites and digital resources may contain
inaccurate or biased information
Differentiation to meet needs of ALL learners:
 Verbal/Linguistic: Oral report in front of classmates describing biography of a
famous Scottish person.
 Visual/Spatial: Students will create a biographical timeline from all persons chosen
by the students.
 Interpersonal: Presenter will tell fellow classmates two important ideas to look for
in the presentation and brief discussion of them afterwards.
 Kinesthetic: Students will present in front of room and each will help to create a
biographical timeline.
 Auditory: Each student is responsible for listening to fellow classmates. Potential
assessment question will be derived from the presentations.
 Special Needs: To accommodate the special needs of those students who may have
certain learning disabilities such dyslexia and also to accommodate English Language
Learners this lesson should include such software which will assist these students use
the Internet and complete their assignment using keyboarding skills.
Technology Integration:
 Students will use the Internet to research the biographies of famous people from
Scotland.
 Those students with special needs will be using the computer with the Ginger Software.
This software is designed to help correct written text and uses speech feedback to assist
ELL students and others with learning disabilities to complete the research report.
Integration of the Arts:
 The students will create a piece of art representing the famous person they are
researching. This representation will be placed on the biographical timeline at the front of
the room.
Teaching the Lesson:
Lesson Launch:
 The teacher will begin by modeling this lesson with the biography of Andrew
Carnegie. The teacher will have created a timeline that will span the length of the
front of the room. The teacher will tell the students about the life of Andrew
Carnegie and the contributions that he played in our society and the advancements
to civilization in general. The teacher will then display a piece of art created to
represent Andrew Carnegie along with the dates of his life. The teacher will then
place this on the biographical timeline in the period of time where he lived his life
as an adult.
Learning Tasks:
 Once the students have good idea of what is expected of them they will be
allowed to choose a name from a teacher generated list of names of famous
people from Scotland. The list reflects the many aspects of society. The list
should include inventors, businessmen, philosophers, entertainers, politicians,
explorers, etc. The students will conduct research on these men and women. The
Ginger Software will be installed on two of the computers in the room. Because
this software is capable of helping students navigate the Internet by an audio
reading of the text in these web sites. The students with special needs will use this
software to help them listen as the information is read aloud. They will be able to
conduct the necessary research to finish the written report. The same software will
help self correct many of the words and sentences composed by those students
with special needs. The report should provide information that puts the person
into historic context and how their contributions tie into the world today. Once the
report is written the students will create some visual representation for their
person of choice. It can be a portrait or their major accomplishment. It should
have the person’s name along with the dates of their birth and death.
 Each student will then come to the front of the room to give an oral presentation
describing the biography of the Scottish person they chose. Each student will add
to the timeline. Prior to the report the student will tell the rest of the class two
important pieces of information to listen for during the report. These two pieces of
information will then be given to the teacher to be used for the final assessment at
the end of the unit.
Closing the Lesson:
 After everyone has presented the teacher will lead the class into what everyone found
interesting about the famous people. The discussion should also involve how the events
of these people could be interconnected. The students should see that some events happen
over time with the contribution of more than one person.
Assessing the Lesson:
 The students will be assessed according to the rubrics provide for this lesson. Not only
will they be assessed on their presentation but also on how well they listen to the others
who are presenting.
 Two facts provided by the students from their presentations will be added to the list of
potential final assessment questions at the end of the unit.
Resources and Materials:
 Internet
 Construction paper
 Colored pencils
 Paper and pencils
 Butcher paper for timeline
 Large markers for dates on timeline
 http://www.gingersoftware.com/
Comments and Reflections:
 For the lesson detailed above I wanted my special needs students to be able to use the
Ginger Software technology to first and foremost be an active member in the classroom.
This lesson was designed for the students to be able to conduct an inquiry into a person’s
biography and report their findings to the rest of their fellow classmates. The software
would assist my special needs students not only in the Internet research aspect of the
project but also in producing a report that was error free and would be able to help these
student heave confidence when presenting to the rest of the class. Often times students
with learning disabilities or ELL students have a difficult time translating their thoughts
to text and this software would go to great lengths to help them become active members
of the class and meet the Social Studies objectives spelled out in the benchmarks and
content expectations. A large part of this lesson revolves around the research on the
Internet and the report typed afterword. These students who have special needs would
have a greater opportunity to blend with the rest of the class after using this software. The
other benefit for using this software would be a teacher analysis of the report to find out
common mistakes either by ELL students or students with learning disabilities. This
would help the teacher create future lessons in the area of ELA in order to increase the
strategies these students can use to increase their fluency in the English Language.