Continuity and Change in a New Century

Continuity and Change in a New Century - Experience Summary

This experience is designed to help students interpret the continuity and change between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It focuses on how historians think about events, trends, and progress. First students explain what changes and what stays the same on their thirteenth birthdays. Then they identify a turning point in American history and analyze what changed and what continued after the turning point. Next they define a period and analyze a timeline of transportation or the industrial revolution to describe the continuity and change over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Finally, they create a timeline of their own lives, identifying periods, a turning point, a change, and continuity.

Objectives:

Apply historical concepts like continuity, change, and periodization.

Scene 1 — Engage

Student Activity

Students are introduced to the focus on continuity and change between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, then imagine their thirteenth birthday and complete a two-column chart listing what has changed in their lives and what has stayed the same.

Teacher Moves

Present the lesson overview and objective, introduce key vocabulary (process, pace, gradual, benefit, transition), and lead a discussion of student chart responses to highlight that while turning thirteen may bring new labels, privileges, or responsibilities, much of daily life continues as before.

Scene 2 — Explore

Student Activity

Students learn that historians look for turning points—major moments when the direction or pace of historical development shifts—and submit examples of nineteenth-century turning points to a word cloud. They then read an explanation of continuity and change, including questions about change, continuity, progress, and decline, and complete a graphic organizer analyzing one selected turning point using those four questions.

Teacher Moves

Clarify the idea of a turning point with the example of the Declaration of Independence, provide sample nineteenth-century turning points as needed, and review several completed organizers with the class, prompting students to compare interpretations and recognize that historians can reasonably disagree.

Scene 3 — Explain

Student Activity

Students examine how historians divide the past into periods, using examples such as the Colonial Period and the twentieth century, and learn that some periods are based on turning points while others use convenient dates. They then choose either A Journey Through American Transportation or Industrial Revolution: Timeline, focus on 1800–1980, and use information from the timeline and prior knowledge to complete a four-part organizer describing change, continuity, progress, and decline around the start of the twentieth century.

Teacher Moves

Explain periodization and how the twentieth century can be subdivided around World War II, guide students in focusing on the 1800–1980 portion of their chosen timeline, and support them in filling out the organizer by encouraging partner discussion and, if needed, modeling sample responses about transportation or industry to illustrate each category.

Scene 4 — Elaborate

Student Activity

Students create a personal life timeline that includes at least two periods, at least one turning point, a trend or process that changes across two periods, and a trend or process that continues across those periods. They post their timeline or a link to it on a discussion wall and respond to at least two classmates with questions or positive comments.

Teacher Moves

Clarify expectations for periods, turning points, change, and continuity using a sample personal timeline, then monitor posts and discussion, prompting students to use historical vocabulary accurately and to ask thoughtful, respectful questions about one another’s timelines.

Scene 5 — Evaluate

Student Activity

Students complete the exit quiz by answering all the questions.

Teacher Moves

Facilitate the assessment and use student data to evaluate understanding, address misconceptions, and identify areas for growth.