CCOT Historical Thinking Skills
1 WHP TEACHER TAKE HISTORICAL THINKING PRACTICES: CHANGE AND CONTINUITY OVER TIMEThe human experience is not static and simple. It is dynamic and complex. Simply put, wherever there is change there is continuity and wherever there is continuity there is change. The ability to see this and write about it requires a mature way of thinking about historical processes and patterns. When test writers create this type of question, they are trying to get students to demonstrate this important historical thinking practice. But having read thousands of Change and Continuity Over Time (CCOT) essays, it’s clear many students don’t understand the concept. They fail to respond to the prompt.Define continuityStudents find change easier to understand than continuity. Even historians think and write about changes much more than continuities. But world historians—and especially “Big Historians”—impress upon their students that there are bits and pieces of our past all around us. While change may bring new technology, culture, or laws, there are still some things that stay the same before, during, and after that change. KYLE BRACKEN, WHP TEACHER, UTAH, U.S.A.
2Debate positives and negativesWhen students can debate the positive and negative aspects of changes or continuities it helps them connect to these concepts in deeper ways. I like to approach change and continuity with students using a quadrant chart like the Change and Continuity Over Time Tool from World History Project. Using a list of events and processes from a given time period, students can debate how much change occurred relative to the other events and processes. They are placing these events or processes on a continuum from continuity to change. At the same time, they are examining and placing the event in a positive or negative quadrant. For every change, a degree of continuityAnother way I like to have students think about continuity is more of a postulate, “For every change there is a degree of continuity.” I think there are two particularly productive areas for this type of exercise: the movement of religions and the use of language. I’m thinking of Christianity in the Americas or the creation of Swahili in Africa. The persistence of traditional beliefs and practices can be found in Christian communities across Mexico and the Caribbean, including Our Lady of Guadalupe and Santeria. The existence of Swahili language and culture highlights the ways Arab, Persian, and Bantu words and practices persist but also changed into a recognizable new trade language and culture. One final thought, the farther we pull back to change perspective, the more changes “flatten out,” and continuities come into view. About the author: Kyle Bracken has taught at Highland High School in Salt Lake City since 2001. He currently teaches five sections of AP World History, one section of International Baccalaureate (20th Century World History Topics) and serves as the IB Diploma Coordinator. In 2014 he received the Huntsman Award for Excellence in Education, and in 2019 was honored with the Utah Council for the Social Studies Teacher of the Year Award. Kyle, who has served as an AP Reader for the past six years, holds his teaching certification and master’s in World History from the University of Utah.Change and Continuity Over Time Tool