Basics of History

• Geschiedenis
• WO
• Middelbare school
• Studiejaar 2

Basics of History

Past

History

Learning goals

In this lesson you are going to learn: 

• to explain the difference between history and the past.
  
• to give examples of different types of sources.
  
• to explain the difference between change and continuity, using two examples of each.
  

What is history?

History = the study of the past. It's coming from the Greek word Historia , which means "knowledge that comes from investigation".

History is about the past of humans, which is studied by historians. They help us understand who we are.

Very important in history: sources! They give us an image of the past. Some sources are more reliable than others. For example: a photograph of a WW1 trench from 1915 is more reliable than a drawing of the trench today,

Can you name a type of source?

Building blocks of history

Time is one of the most important building blocks of history. If you're telling a story from the past, it's important to know when your story is happening.

We use the Christian calendar and we live know in the year 2023 CE (=Common Era). Everything before year 1 is BCE (=Before Common Era). 

Centuries are also used to order time in the past. 
Historical periods are blocks of time with common characteristics, things that are typical for a particular person, place of thing.

Change, continuity, cause & consequences

Change is an important tool to study the past. Change = things become different through time. 
Continuity (from the word 'to continue') are things that stays the same through time. For example: religion.

Cause: the reason that changes happen. Causes can be a lot of things, such as inventions, events, human actions or natural disasters.
Consequences: the things that happend because of the causes.

Go to Learnbeat!

• Go to Learnbeat 1.1A: Learning Goals: The Basics of History.
  
• Make the questions A, B and C.
  
• We will discuss your answers together.

Go to Learnbeat (part II)

Go to Learnbeat 1.1B: Lesson 1: The Basics of History.

Read the pages and answer the questions.

You have until the end of class to finish the questions.