Dueling Timelines

Concept

To create a framework for understanding that there are causes and effects of events that link countries throughout time.

Goals

To produce the understanding that the stories of history, politics, technology, religion, culture, and the arts bring us to the realities of each country in our world today. To promote the understanding that the individual stories of a country or time period are part of the global whole.

Objectives

Students will be able to

1. Identify how three specific events
   1. Altered who was in power
   2. Promoted exploration of the New World, particularly the southwestern United States and Mexico
   3. Effected colonization
2. Describe ways of living at the Pass of the North
   1. In the 16^th Century
   2. In the 17^th Century
   3. In the 18^th Century
   4. In the 19^th Century
   5. In the 20^th Century

Steps

1. Discussion
   1. Introduce a timeline as a resource for making discoveries (Use Timeline on Centennial Museum at The University of Texas website [coming soon!]) or use a timeline of your choice.
   2. Demonstrate that there are timelines that cover specific subjects, areas, and time periods.
   3. Refer to the Objectives above and discuss assignments so that class will have an understanding as to how individual group assignments will fit together.
2. Divide class into groups and assign tasks for each group to accomplish regarding a specific time period.
   1. Have group determine a moderator, recorder, and reporter for the group.
   2. Remind the groups of the role of each person in the group as a contributor of ideas based on the information they find or already know.
   3. Spell out the duties of the moderator, recorder, and reporter and remind the groups that each person must work with the others to get a presentation ready for the reporter to give to the whole class.
   4. Provide students with resource materials and encourage them to discover other resources.
   5. Have groups make presentations and the class make determinations as to what should be included in a classroom timeline that compares the Pass of the North with what is happening in other places of the world.
   6. Once the overall scope of the timeline or timelines is determined, help students to organize the production of the timeline.

Evaluation

1. Keep a chart of how often the class refers to or adds to the timeline. Students may be encouraged to keep an individual record.
2. Evaluate the quality of the graphical presentation, including neatness, spelling, use of reliable resources, and attention to details.
3. Evaluate how students worked together to develop the presentation
4. Have students write about the
   1. Experience of group cooperation in developing the classroom project.
   2. Things in the timeline that surprised them.

Resources

• Martinez, O. 1999. The Pass of the North and the Creation of the U.S.-Mexico Border. El Paso: El Paso Community Foundation.
• Website: http://museum.utep.edu/allpass/pass00.htm
• Timeline of events throughout the world (ART: ADD URL)
• Appropriate books from the school library
• Other web resources highlighting specific events in history