It is important for children to learn about history. Often students do not want to learn about history because they find it . . . boring. I have always found history to be fascinating but I might be in the minority. I know that when I am in a classroom I might have to work extra hard to get my students interested in history. To get students excited about history often takes some effort. Students struggle with the work if it is too long, too wordy, and too much time spent in their seat. Recently I taught a lesson about the history of South Bend, Indiana. I taught this lesson to third graders. Your first thought might be that I bored them to tears, but that was not the case. In an effort to cut down on the wordiness and the length I used a timeline. Timelines are useful because they focus on the big events and they give concise explanations for the events. Students can organize dates in chronological order, which allows them to strengthen their sequencing skills, while also learning information about the history of a person, place, or event. In my lesson I put students in small groups and then had each small group organize five to six dates/events. Giving students a small number of dates/events helped the activity not be so overwhelming. Once the groups organized their dates/events they put the dates onto a big class timeline. Groups were then responsible for explaining the events that corresponded to those dates when it came time to review the large class timeline. This activity got the students out of their seats, allowed them to collaborate, and exposed them to the history of their city. This was a lesson that the students responded well to and allowed them to learn a bit of history in an engaging manner.
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