Continuity and change over time essay

In an essay on the nature of progress during the long nineteenth century, students will more likely be able to use the local events as examples to support their understanding of change and continuity over the whole period. These techniques can be used together to foster students' ability to see the larger patterns in world history.

Those of us who have been trying to teach the continuity and change-over-time essay for the AP World History course know theoretically that students gain important skills when they must alternate from sketching the big picture of a large time period to the smaller picture where they analyze a particular event or region in depth.

The students who continued to struggle with the habit of moving from global to local and local to global also did poorly on the change-over-time question. Many of us already use a technique called a change analysis chart, developed by Linda Black and Ellen Bell. The change analysis chart helps students take notes as they proceed through a unit.

Oftentimes we ask students to analyze cause and effect or explain differences between two opposite types of political, economic, or social systems. Then some of us are disappointed when the essays are narrowly focused and don't display a broader understanding of change over time.