OER CCOT One-Pager
Learning how to evaluate continuity and change over time helps students make sense of historical processes and the evolution of those processes. Students are asked to describe patterns of continuity and change over time (CCOT) by:•Periodizing and explaining.•Explaining the relative historical significance of specific historical developments in relation to larger patterns.•Comparing the past and the present to determine what changed and what remained stable.•Evaluating the degree to which change was global, interregional, regional, or local.•Assessing different paces of change (slow, rapid) and determining the direction or impact of change (positiveor negative).In OER Project’s CCOT Activity Progression, students examine how schools have changed over time. This gives students a concrete sense of what continuity is and what change is, in terms of historical thinking. Next, students progress to beginning activities that ask them to identify continuities and changes over longer lengths of time, but with plenty of scaffolding included to ensure their success. By the end of this progression, students should be skilled at comparing and making claims about how the same location, idea, or historical process has stayed the same or changed during a set time in history. OER Project CCOT Activity Progression Placement: Click here to find the CCOT activities in the course you teach.Thinking Tools: Thinking tools help students become familiar with the steps they should take to engage with each historical thinking skill. Over time, students will rely upon the tools less, but they’re always there to support them. The CCOT Tool is included in each of our CCOT activities, but can also be used any time you want students to practice evaluating continuity and change over time.Feedback Forms: Feedback forms break down the progression of skills that will guide students to success with each skill. Use these to evaluate how well students are progressing, and to guide instructional decisions based on student success or need for specific intervention. Note that sometimes portions of the feedback form are grayed out—not every activity asks students to meet all the criteria on the form. The CCOT Feedback Form is included in the lesson guide for each activity. Tips and Tricks from Teachers• Define continuity: Students find change easier to understandthan continuity.• Debate positives and negatives: When students can debatethe positive and negative aspects of changes or continuities ithelps them connect to theseconcepts in deeper ways.• Consider student background knowledge: Students mightneed more historical context before they can assess thecontinuities and changes.• “For every change, a degree of continuity”: Remind studentsthat while changes may be easier to spot, there’s often adegree of continuity embedded in those changes.Learn more in the OER Project Historical Thinking Skills Guide.HISTORICAL THINKING SKILL: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE OVER TIME (CCOT)OER Project CCOT Tool