And I mean that in a good way.
But she and illustrator Adam Rex really surprised me.
Illustrations © Adam Rex, The Next President, written by Kate Messner, published by Chronicle Books, 2020
Starting with the original GW, The Next President points at what the other living (upcoming) presidents were up to during his time in office. Since it's a picture book, the snapshot of each president is limited to a small anecdote, but that's what hooks the reader to wonder more.
If you've made it this far, you're wondering why I'm writing a blog post about this specific book. It's not just because we're in an election season. Though, that does make it timely.
As I was reading The Next President, I started wondering about how that layering technique could work in other capacities - what other timelines do we typically make 2D and sequential, that could instead give more insight with dimensionality?
Behold what I call, A WRINKLE IN TIMELINES!
What kind of timelines are we talking about?
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Important people in history
- Where are the overlaps between folks you're studying in class?
- Take it further: if ______________ were still alive, who would s/he be the same age as? What milestones did they reach in their lives? What do you notice about those timelines?
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Life milestones
- Interesting personal or family events (Before they met, Mom was getting her Masters in Banking, while Dad was signing paychecks in the Army)
- Fictional characters
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Parks, protests & political breakthroughs
- How did an idea develop into a plan, then transform a community?
- NSFW but, for example, I listened to this podcast with the first craft brewer in North Carolina as he discussed the challenges he had with the town of Manteo - it was a dry town and he built a brewery! When they told him the town is "family friendly," he built a playground in the beer garden! Yuli is credited, along with Senator Marc Basnight, for changing laws that opened doors to the craft beer boom we're living through now.
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Inventors & scientists
- What was a young Stephanie Kwolek (inventor of Kevlar) doing while Marie Curie worked furiously at the end of her life?
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Activists and changemakers
- What's changed since Ruby Bridges walked into a school and Greta Thunberg marched out?
All of these ideas will give learners an opportunity to consider:
- How do/did these events line up?
- Why did each event matter in the grand scheme of it all?
- Who was involved? How were they connected?
- What were the challenges?
- Where were the benefits or victories along the way?
Learners also can establish a deeper understanding of how to use this information to convince an audience, to debate a counterpoint, and to illustrate compromise (maybe.).
SO how can we use digital tools to really dive in?
I'd never read a book that constructed a timeline like The Next President, and that's why it was so memorable to me! But it did get me thinking of some other tools that I've used and explored that might have some potential for creatively wrinkling timelines.
READ WRITE THINK Timelines
Matt Miller provides a thoughtful post and resources on how timelines reach the critical levels of DoK on his Ditch That Textbook blog
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Vanderbilt published this article with resources on some very thorough strategies on using digital timelines on their Center for Teaching website.
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A few Books to explore...
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Some of my favorites by Kate Messner:
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