Topic: Time and map

Author of the script: Katarzyna Kuczyńska

Target group

5th grade student of elementary school

Core curriculum

III. Reflection on history as a science. Student:

1. explains the work of the historian;

2. indicates ways of measuring time in history and uses chronological concepts;

3. recognizes types of historical sources;

4. distinguishes history from legends.

The general aim of education

Student gets acquainted with the basic concepts and historical sources.

Key competences

• communicating in a foreign language;

• communicating in the mother tongue;

• learning to learn;

• social and civic competences.

Learning outcomes

Student:

• knows that history is a science that organizes the past primarily on the basis of the place of events on the timeline;

• understands the historian’s research attitude;

• explains the concept of a century and era, can correctly read century and era of a specific event from a day/year date;

• explains the significance of historical maps as a source of historical knowledge. He/she reads information from maps and interpret it in a simple manner;

• adopts a critical approach to the historians’ research methods, i.e. understands that historical knowledge is partly based on interpretation.

Methods/techniques

• programmed methods: using e‑textbook;

• problematic methods: activating methods: discussion, thought experiment;

• practical methods: working with text, exercises concerned;

• exposing methods: comments and explanations from the teacher.

Forms of work

• collective activity;

• activity in groups;

• individual activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/ felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Introduction

1. The teacher determines the purpose of the classes. He/she gives the students the criteria for success.

2. The teacher begins classes with a talk about history as a science and the role of the map as a historical source.

Realization

1. The teacher divides the students into two groups. Each group is given a task: “Imagine that you are going on a journey into the past. You do not know the stop (the historical period and the place on Earth) at which you are going to get out of the time vehicle. There are only five things you can take with you on this journey - determine together what it is going to be”.

2. Groups justify the choice of equipment in front of others.

3. In the commentary to the exercise, the teacher points out that the students made a mental experiment - they imagined a journey into the past and chose the things they considered to be extremely important. These things and the explanation of why they might have been needed indicated the goals, more or less clear to the students themselves, with which they could go on such a journey; e.g. the choice of military accessories indicated the willingness to survive, to win in difficult times; taking the complicated device to translate languages - communication with people of past times. Probably most of the chosen things will indicate the life needs of the students. The teacher should emphasize here that the historian’s work is a kind of journey into the past. Using his/her mind and imagination, the historian visits old times, but the goal he/she pursues is not related to his/her own so‑called life needs - the historian simply wants to get to know the past centuries. In this context, the teacher asks the students a question: “What does the historian need for his/her journey?”. If students give many interesting ideas, the teacher points out that only two of them will be discussed during the lesson: timeline and map.

4. The teacher displays a task (Exercise 1) presenting different types of time timepieces. After the exercise is performed, the teacher asks the students, e.g. “Are the time units measured by clocks sufficient for the measurements performed by the historian?”. Then, the teacher discusses resources entitled “Century” and “Era” - the students perform the exercises concerning both resources, chosen by the teacher (mandatory Exercise 2 and Exercise 3). The teacher asks the students to fulfill Instruction 1 and then discusses the concept of timeline. A student is asked to perform Exercise 4 - he/she must place the dates in appropriate places on the timeline. When doing the exercise, the students should be given the opportunity to ask the teacher or designated students (e.g. acting as experts) for help. The need for help can be indicated, for example, with table tents (three‑colour card system). The teacher makes sure that the tasks have been correctly completed and provides feedback.

5. The teacher displays a historical map – students perform Exercises 5 and 6 concerning the work with a historical map. A student looks at an interactive map of Poland and its neighbors. The teacher asks whether some of those towns/cities were once part of our country and what these changes could result from. The teacher makes sure that the tasks have been correctly completed and provides feedback.

Summary

1. At the end, the teacher adds one explanation – he/she indicates that reading historical maps is not limited to the reproduction of the information included on them. Historians try to obtain additional information from them thanks to the procedures of logical thinking and their general knowledge about the world (e.g. when we see a settlement created among high mountains, we assume that the settlers tried to protect themselves in such a way) - in this way, through interpretation, they try to explain, i.e. understand, the past.

2. The teacher gives homework for volunteer students: “Is historical knowledge the certain knowledge, like e.g. mathematical one?”.

Summary of the most important contents of the lesson

1. Discussion of history as a science about the past.

2. Learning the concepts of century and era as measures of time; exercises in using of the measure of century and era.

3. Discussion of historical map and exercises in reading historical maps.

4. Indication of the element of interpretation in the historical knowledge.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Time and maps in history

Chronology (sequence of events corresponding to their order of occurrence in time) is the basic point of reference for historians. One of the first questions a historian asks himself or herself is “When did this happen?” The basic time unit is the year. A period of a hundred years is called a century. Today, we are living in the 21Indeks górny st^stcentury. Our century began on 1 January 2001 and will end on 31 December 2100. In our calendar, we count years from the birth of Jesus Christ. When referring to an event which took place before the birth of Jesus Christ, we say “before Christ” or “BC” for short. Events which happened after the birth of Jesus Christ are labelled “anno Domini” or “AD” for short. “Anno Domini” is a Latin phrase and means “in the year of our Lord.” We use timelines to present events in their chronological order.

A map is another important element of a historian’s toolkit. Maps help us understand where past events took place. A historical map is not just a representation of a territory. It also shows e.g. sites of major battles, directions of military movements and shifts of borders. All items represented on a map are divided into categories which have their own symbols. All the symbols used in a map are called map symbolization. These symbols are explained in a map key or a map legend.