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We have produced more detailed Lesson Plans for each major history topic covered at Key Stage 2. This page gives some general suggestions about how to use the Interactive Map of World History with a topic.
At the start of the topic:
With a whole class:
Using a whiteboard, bring up the map in which the civilization or period you are about to study begins (Appendix 3, below, offers a guide to the appropriate place in the software). Look at what was going on in the world, and in the region of the world under study.
Link this to the periods for previous topics studied by the children.
Key questions:
- Does the period now being studied come after or before that period?
- Was there a long gap of hundreds of years, or was it a much shorter gap?
- Is it in the same part of the world, or in a different part of the world?
- How might the climate of that particular region affect the way the people lived? (This may require a little geographical research)
In small groups:
Using the TimeMaps Interactive Map of World History, find out when the society or civilization under study begins.
- what is the world map like at that time? (some children don’t realize that there was anything going on outside Europe, even Britain, in the past. It is useful and fascinating for them to discover that there is. Also, the National Curriculum puts “stress the Wider World”. A brief glance at the world map will be ample.)
- what other major civilizations are in existence?
- what are the neighbouring civilizations, either at the time or in the recent past, which might have had an influence on them?
- how much of the world is still not “civilized” ? (See Appendix 2 for a discussion on the meaning of the word “civilization”.)
- what date is it?
Then focus in on the region to be studied.
Use TimeMaps Interactive Map to give an overview of the key events within that civilization or period. This can either be done with the key maps, or with one or more modules that cover the period, or both.
Mark what you consider to be the key events on a timeline specially constructed for the topic.
(You can either use the Timeline template PowerPoint, at the end of the Timeline activity unit; or use a commercially available timeline builder such as Softease Timeline; or draw a paper-based one.)
At the end of the topic, look at the world map in Interactive Map at the end of the topic period.
- When did the civilization or period being studied come to an end;
- Why did it do so – did the civilization collapse, or did it develop into something else?
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- How has the world map changed from when the civilization or period started?
Mark on the approximate start and end dates for this civilization or period on the Class Timeline.
Briefly review all the topics studied so far, and mark on the timeline any major civilizations that have occurred up to this date, even though they might not have been studied by the class.
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