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T. Hamblin teaching one thematic theme throughout the school year, instead of teaching all of the potential themes that one could draw through a look at history.

Hamblin suggests, as I have suggested, that the best approach is to combine chronological approaches to pair with thematic approaches as this leaves room for a study of causation. She also points out that teaching Thematically without an eye for chronology leaves students without appropriate background knowledge to learn about the events and people of study.

The major idea that Hamblin puts forward is to pick one theme for the year (her examples are, 'triumph and tragedy' or 'breaking barriers in history').

The best way forward, according to Hamblin, is to teach contextually: set up the context of history through themes by teaching chronologically. Create a class-wide timeline that can be edited through the year. This is also in line with my suggestions made in reviewing comparative timelines.

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I agree with the perspective of Hamblin in the History Forge article: themes need to be paired with chronology so that students can appropriately gain an understanding of context. When students understand context, they can make the most meaning of the theme, build their background knowledge, and understand causal relationships of historical events.

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In teaching intermediate history, I would use a contextual approach that combines thematic history with a chronological study. I will create a timeline for the class to fill in, identify major themes that we will be keeping an eye out for, and note when we hit those themes as we follow chronology. We will sort or categorize events into particular themes, and students can create a final project that reflects their knowledge of a theme through multiple historical events in the curriculum-guided timeline of history.

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Chronological study evaluates one time point to another time point, in order of events occurring. A predictable approach, but difficult to use to draw connections between trends.

Thematic approaches are holistic. How do themes shape the world over time? Elicits higher student engagement and helps them to make connections between historical events.

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I disagree with the downsides of the chronological approach: not drawing connections between events and their themes is not a result of teaching chronologically, it is a result of teaching chronologically exclusively. Chronological learning is important in my opinion because it helps students to see cause/effect relationships between events and peoples' behaviours. It is also important to tie in a thematic discussion: 'where do we see this today?' 'what does this remind us of?' 'where have we seen these attitudes before?'

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History Teaching Style: Thematic or Chronological

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One of the most common challenges for history teachers can be trying to fit such a vast ocean of knowledge into just one school year.

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Comparative Timelines as a Thematic Approach

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Comparative Timelines as a Thematic Approach

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Using comparative timelines helps students to look at themes that are happening at the same time throughout the world.

Themes might include 'war', 'politics', 'culture', 'presidents'

Students match up incidents happening in the country and benefit from being able to see the different events happening at the same time. The author says this "develops historical context".

Benefit:
- covers more content because you don't get stuck on certain time-based units;
- meet a variety of other standards in curricular expectations;
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How to?
1. Identify themes
2. Consider the organization of curriculum to touch on all major curricular needs
3. Plan the topics you want to include & how

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Teaching History Thematically Using Comparative Timelines (with free resource!)

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A comparative timeline seems like a great strategy to work through themes while following a chronological approach but I am hesitant to say that it could be used as the curriculum plan. It seems that things would get confused and missed. Instead, I would have it added on to the wall as a series of Bristol boards and/or charts so that students can reflect on their learning throughout the timelines.