ESL Speaking

Games + Activities to Try Out Today!

  • Adult Activities
  • Kid Activities
  • Textbooks
    • ESL Textbooks for Adults
    • ESL Textbooks for Children
  • Teacher Resources
    • Resources
    • Online TEFL Course
  • Learn English
    • Learn English
    • Confusing English Words

in Activities for Adults· Activities for Kids

Story Timeline ESL Activity | Reading Timelines Activity for Students

story-timeline

Story timeline activities for students

Reading kind of gets a bad rap among English students. It can indeed be kind of boring. However, it is certainly possible to spice it up a bit with some interesting reading activities. Here’s one idea you can try out during your reading lesson: story timeline. Read more to find out all the details you need to know about this time line activity!

Story Timeline Activities

If you’re looking for an ESL reading and speaking activity, check out this story timeline activity. It makes an excellent follow-up activity for whatever reading your students are doing inside, or outside of class. And it’s also a nice activity if you teach English online.

It works equally well for both children and adults. It’s an excellent 1-1 activity, or if you have a bigger class, you can put students into pairs or groups of 3-4 and have them work on it together. It’s one of the best timeline activities for students.

If you want to make it more difficult for advanced level or older students, just include some extra strips of paper with unimportant events that the student will have to leave out. It easily lends itself to just about any class or group or students, from beginner to advanced.

If you like this ESL reading and speaking activity, consider getting the book it’s from: 39 Awesome 1-1 ESL Activities for Teenagers and Adults, available on Amazon. You can find this activity in the book, plus 38 more top-quality ones to keep your students engaged and learning English!

ESL Reading Activities For Kids (6-13): Practical Ideas for the Classroom (ESL Games and Activities...
ESL Reading Activities For Kids (6-13): Practical Ideas for the Classroom (ESL Games and Activities...
  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Bolen, Jackie (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 75 Pages - 05/31/2020 (Publication Date)
Check Price on Amazon

Story Timeline ESL Activity

Skills: Reading/Speaking/Writing
Time: 10-15 minutes
Level: Beginner to Advanced
Materials: None
Optional Materials: Sentence strips of important events in a novel

Extensive reading is an excellent way to build your student’s vocabulary quickly. However, you and your student probably don’t want to spend too much class time reading novels.

What you can do is assign a novel for homework. Then, in each lesson, go over unfamiliar vocabulary or situations as well as any number of extension activities. This is one such activity that works well. Check out this reading timeline activity for more ideas.

Of course, it’s also possible to do this timeline activity in class. Try it out with your students!

Helps Students Summarize a Reading

A timeline, or chronology, of important plot events, is a useful way to have the student briefly summarize the story chapter by chapter. A timeline will help him/her keep track of the story while providing practice determining important events.

With lower-level students, you may want to scaffold the activity by providing the sentences for the student to order. Then, they just have to piece them together. Advanced students can come up with the sentences themselves. This is a great timeline activity for kids, teenagers or adults.

ESL Reading Activities for Teenagers and Adults: Practical Ideas for the Classroom (ESL Activities...
ESL Reading Activities for Teenagers and Adults: Practical Ideas for the Classroom (ESL Activities...
  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Bolen, Jackie (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 88 Pages - 02/16/2020 (Publication Date)
Check Price on Amazon

Procedure for Story Timeline:

  1. (Optional) In advance, prepare sentence strips describing important events in the plot.
  2. Have the student either order the sentence strips you have provided or determine the events on his/her own. If you are not using sentence strips, you can have the student complete the activity orally or in writing.
  3. Check answers with the students. If doing it with a big class, have students or groups compare with each other first. Then, discuss answers with the entire class.

It’s one of the best timeline activities for students so give it a try in your English classes today!

esl-reading-activity

Timeline activity for kids and adults

Try out this reading time line activity with your students today!

Looking for Some Reading Timeline Worksheets?

If you want to work on time lines with your students during and after reading, then there’s no need to reinvent the wheel! There are a ton of great resources online for reading timelines. Here are some of the best picks:

Common Core Sheets

Superteacher Worksheets

English Worksheet Land

Like this Timeline Activity?

Do you think this would be a great ESL reading activity to try out in your classes today? Yes? Thought so!

It’s from the book, 39 Awesome 1-1 ESL Activities: For Teenagers and Adults. There are dozens of top-quality private teaching activities that you can use in your classes today. It’s lesson planning made easy, guaranteed.

A Variety of Engaging Activities

The key to getting, and keeping private students is a variety of engaging activities. After all, bored students will not want to continue studying with you, right? And more students equals more money in your pocket.

Available in Various Formats

The book is available on Amazon in both print and digital formats. You can download the ebook to any smartphone, tablet, PC, or Mac by getting the free Kindle App. It’s easy!

Keep a copy on the bookshelf in your office and use it as a handy reference guide. Or, take the digital copy with you to your favourite coffee shop for lesson planning on the go.

Shop Now

Do you want a serious dose of ESL teaching awesome in your life? Then you’ll want to check out the book for yourself here:

—>Buy 39 Awesome 1-1 ESL Activities: For Teenagers and Adults on Amazon<—

1-1 ESL Activities

Reading Strategies and Activities for ELL Classrooms

Do you need more tips for teaching reading to your English learners besides this timeline activity? Yes? Thought so!

Then you’ll need to check out this short video below about some reading strategies and activities that you can use with your students today:

Have your say about this Timeline Activity!

What are some of your favourite ESL reading activities? Have you tried this story timeline activity? We’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment below and share them with us!

Also be sure to give this article a share on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. It’ll help other busy teachers, like yourself find this useful resource for teaching English.

time-line-activity-for-students

Time line activity for students

 

Last update on 2022-10-15 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

About Jackie

Jackie Bolen has been teaching English for more than 15 years to students in South Korea and Canada. She's taught all ages, levels and kinds of TEFL classes. She holds an MA degree, along with the Celta and Delta English teaching certifications.

Jackie is the author of more than 60 books for English teachers and English learners, including 101 ESL Activities for Teenagers and Adults and 1001 English Expressions and Phrases. She loves to share her ESL games, activities, teaching tips, and more with other teachers throughout the world.

You can find her on social media at:
YouTube
Facebook
TikTok
Pinterest
Instagram

« 120-Hour Online TEFL Course from Let’s TEFL: Sign Up Today
British Council vs IDP IELTS Exam: Which One is Better? »

Comments

  1. Elmo says

    at

    Do you have any recommendations for graded readers for elementary school students? I’ve been looking but haven’t found any that I really like yet.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Great Debates for ESL/EFL: 39 Important Debating Topics for English Learners
Great Debates for ESL/EFL: 39 Important Debating Topics for English Learners
Check Price on Amazon
103 Fun ESL Games & Activities for the Classroom : Interactive, Minimal Prep TEFL Ideas for All Ages
103 Fun ESL Games & Activities for the Classroom : Interactive, Minimal Prep TEFL Ideas for All Ages
Check Price on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. What does this mean? I recommend products (only ones that I like) and if you purchase a product through that link, I earn some money.

Search this site

39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: For English Teachers of Teenagers and Adults Who Want...
39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: For English Teachers of Teenagers and Adults Who Want...
Check Price on Amazon
101 Activities and Resources for Teaching English Online: Practical Ideas, Games, Activities & Tips...
101 Activities and Resources for Teaching English Online: Practical Ideas, Games, Activities & Tips...
Check Price on Amazon
101 ESL Activities: Games, Activities, Practical ideas, & Teaching Tips For English Teachers of...
101 ESL Activities: Games, Activities, Practical ideas, & Teaching Tips For English Teachers of...
Check Price on Amazon

ESL Phrasal Verbs: Games, Activities, Lesson Plans & Worksheets

ESL Conversation Activities for Adults | ESOL Speaking Activities Adult

Adverbs of Frequency ESL Activities, Games, Worksheets, Lesson Plans

Tell a Story, ESL style | ESL Speaking Adults

Choose your Own Adventure ESL Writing Activity

Online TEFL Courses

Get Certified Entirely Online

67 ESL Conversation Topics with Questions, Vocabulary, Writing Prompts & More: For English Teachers...
67 ESL Conversation Topics with Questions, Vocabulary, Writing Prompts & More: For English Teachers...
Check Price on Amazon
Scatter Sheets for Intermediate-Advanced Students to Improve Fluency: ESL Speaking & Vocabulary...
Scatter Sheets for Intermediate-Advanced Students to Improve Fluency: ESL Speaking & Vocabulary...
Check Price on Amazon
1001 English Expressions and Phrases: Common Sentences and Dialogues Used by Native English Speakers...
1001 English Expressions and Phrases: Common Sentences and Dialogues Used by Native English Speakers...
Check Price on Amazon
39 ESL Warm-Ups: For English Teachers of Kids (7+) Who Want to Get their TEFL Classes Started Off...
39 ESL Warm-Ups: For English Teachers of Kids (7+) Who Want to Get their TEFL Classes Started Off...
Check Price on Amazon
Jackie Bolen

Disclosure Statement

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

  • Adult Activities
  • Kid Activities
  • Textbooks
  • Teacher Resources
  • Learn English

Our Top-Seller

Sale 39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: For Teenagers and Adults (Teaching ESL Conversation and...
39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: For Teenagers and Adults (Teaching ESL Conversation and...
Check Price on Amazon

Search

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

More ESL Activities

manners would u rather questions for kids

20 Kids Would You Rather Questions About Manners

easy trivia questions

50 Easy Trivia Questions for Kids with Answers

present-perfect-for-and-since

Present Perfect For and Since Activities, Worksheets, Lesson Plans

road trip activities

10 Fun Road Trip Activities for All Ages

About, Contact, Privacy Policy

Jackie Bolen has been talking ESL speaking since 2014 and the goal is to bring you the best recommendations for English conversation games, activities, lesson plans and more. It’s your go-to source for everything TEFL!

About and Contact for ESL Speaking.

Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Email: [email protected]

Facebook

Pinterest

TikTok

YouTube

LinkedIn

Address: 2436 Kelly Ave, Port Coquitlam, Canada

Copyright © 2023 Jackie Bolen + ESL Speaking. All Rights Reserved.