Historians often organize their thinking about the past by determining what changed and what stayed the same over time. A fundamental building block for students is understanding basic chronologies. They can then begin evaluating events and chronologies based on the pace and scale of changes.
The below exercises offer opportunities to explicitly introduce students to the concept of continuity and change.
Pre-Lesson
Introducing Continuity and Change: Students analyze basic concepts of continuity and change through a personal timeline and community mapping exercise.
Content Application
Each of these scaffolds can be customized to support your unit of study while reinforcing the historical thinking concept.
Continuity and Change Graphic Organizer
Examples: 1920-1940 US Timeline
Culminating Project
Oral Interview: This project allows students to interview a community member about their experiences, particularly focusing continuities and changes they have observed or experienced.
Connection to Local History
Continuity and Change in Your Community: In this activity, students find examples of continuity and change in their own communities.
Teaching Reflection
Making History Teaching Reflection: Use this as a tool to refine and revise teaching strategies within this module.
Related Model Lesson
- Community Demographic Change (3rd grade)
- Ideological Change (10th grade)
- Changing Demands (11th grade)
A Note on Supporting Literacy Development: We encourage you to refer to these UCBHSSP planning templates(link is external) as you make use of the Making History modules. Additional UCBHSSP strategies can be found in our literacy handbook, Access for All Learners.