Good history teachers use chronological storytelling

• We link units of time with events.
• We make a sequence that suggests a past, present, and future.
• We provide a direction that says time and history proceed in a line, not a circle.
• We demonstrate that sequences in a chronology shows how some events happen before others, which in turn, suggest the possibility of cause and effect.
• We show how events exist in relationship to one another.

Thus, making a chronology allows us to graphically plot events, to see possible relationships, to help memory, and to grasp sequence.

• Example of a simple historical chronology - The War in Afghanistan at http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-501704_162-5850224.html
• Examples of creative chronologies:
  • The History of Religion in 90 seconds at http://www.mapsofwar.com/ind/history-of-religion.html
  • The Sights and Sounds of 1968 at http://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-03-2008/1968_timeline.html
  • The History of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade at http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_history_of_american_slavery/2015/06/animated_interactive_of_the_history_of_the_atlantic_slave_trade.html
• Example of academic, annotated chronologies
  • The Struggle for the Black Hills at http://users.humboldt.edu/ogayle/sed741/lakota.html
  • The Civil Rights Movement at http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html/
  • The Makah: Resistance and Resiliency at http://users.humboldt.edu/ogayle/sed741/MakahWhalingChronology.html

1. Select a topic that interests you.
2. Review and select a variety of research resources - both secondary and primary documents.
3. Begin reading whatever book or article that most interests you about the topic.
4. As you read this first source, write down dates and brief descriptions for the most important historical events. In other words, annotate your chronology.
5. When you are finished with your sources - you will have a long chronology of events - edit your chronology by deleting those you no longer think are important and marking places where you still do not have enough information to tell the story.
6. Find new resources to fill in the blanks in your chronology.
7. Carefully examine your chronology to find the story that has emerged.  This will help you decide the part of the story where you will focus your lesson plan.