Irish Writers with Time Toast

 

Timelines, Texts and Travelling: Using TimeToast to Explore Irish Writers Before Our Trip to Killarney

As part of our build-up to the school trip to Killarney, I wanted to find a meaningful and creative way to link English language learning with Irish culture. TimeToast is an online timeline tool that turned out to be perfect for this activity!

The goal was to help my students work on reading comprehension, summarising, and teamwork, while also learning about important Irish writers.

 Learning Objectives

• Develop reading strategies through text-based research

• Practise planning, summarising, and self-evaluation

• Work collaboratively using digital tools

• Learn about influential Irish writers and their key works

• Prepare background knowledge for our upcoming trip to Killarney

How We Set It Up

1. Selected short texts on Irish writers: 

• Oscar Wilde
  
• W.B. Yeats
  
• Maeve Binchy
  
• Seamus Heaney
  
• Bram Stoker
• Jonathan Swift

1. Introduced TimeToast with a short tutorial

2. Students worked in groups of five, each assigned to one author.

3. They read the text, identified key dates, and built a collaborative timeline with images and short descriptions.

4. Groups presented their timelines in class.

5. We wrapped up with a short peer/self-assessment activity and reflection.

Why did  time toast work?

TimeToast proved to be an effective tool in the classroom because of its user-friendly design, which allowed students to learn how to use it quickly and independently. Its visual format encouraged chronological thinking, helping students to organise biographical information in a clear and logical way. The platform also gave learners a sense of ownership, as they had full control over both the content and presentation of their timelines. Working in small groups, students were able to divide tasks naturally, which supported cooperative learning and ensured that everyone participated meaningfully. Most importantly, TimeToast helped bring literature to life—transforming texts into something visual, personal, and relevant, which made the subject matter more accessible and engaging for all.

 Challenges and How We Solved Them

Some groups struggled to summarise biographical texts, so I provided a simple checklist with prompts (birth/death, famous works, key influences).

Others worked at different paces, so I broke the task into mini-deadlines and created group roles (reader, summariser, designer) to balance effort.

What Students Said

Students were enthusiastic about using a new tool and liked the fact that it was linked to our trip. Many said that building the timeline helped them remember the writers better and made reading more fun. The creative freedom and working in teams also helped build confidence.

What I Would Improve Next Time

I think I should have provided a sample timeline as a model. Students would have known better when to use images and how to write the information, so next time I will also offer more structured support with writing short, meaningful descriptions. In addition, I hope I can do a scavenger hunt in Killarney if we find connections!

3 Ways TimeToast Helped Achieve Our Goals

1. It supported reading comprehension by requiring students to extract and summarise key information.

2. It encouraged metacognitive strategies like planning and group regulation.

3. It allowed us to bring Irish literature to life in an engaging, digital format students enjoyed.

Here you have some of the results:

• Oscar Wilde
  
• W.B. Yeats
  
• Maeve Binchy
  
• Seamus Heaney
  
• Bram Stoker
• Jonathan Swift