This is part of me trying to share the things that work best in my lessons. Unfortunately, this one starts a little weird, as it’s probably not going to be great for you without some modification. My version is all the way at the bottom of the post.
The history game
You won’t believe this, but I didn’t have a single intermediate to advanced group that didn’t get into sorting historical events. The idea is that students are given events from different ‘timelines’ (their town, their country, the industrial revolution, basic American history, whatever) and have to sort them into order.
Sure, we all know that the Declaration of Independence was signed before George Washington became president, but was that before or after the local landmark church was built?
Gameplay
I generally ask the students something like, “who do you think knows more about history, you or the person on your left?” And we sort of all talk about the other people’s history knowledge, never our own. (Because that gets more talking done.)
Then, I say we have a history test, and we’ll see. (My students all know that the ‘tests’ aren’t real, and they still get wound up.) They all insist they’re not “good at history.”
I spread out a lot of events — without year — on individual strips of paper and I make one end of the table the future, and the other end the past, and say “The rules are simple:”
- You turn over a paper and read it out loud. Then, you just fit it into our timeline. I’ll start with (takes paper), “JFK is born. Hmm. I think that happened between the future and the past.”
- The next person turns over a paper. And has to fit it into the timeline. “First steam engine invented.” That was clearly before JFK was born…
- As the game continues, we can all discuss where an event fits, but only the person who turns it over gets to make the final call. That leads to a lot of “do you think Bismark had a chance to read ‘Das Kapital’?” conversations.
- When we’re finished, we’ll check our results. Originally, I didn’t think this was an important step, but after so much energy is invested in it, it’s a hit.
Generally, we’re all impressed by some surprising things (the American wars against the Indians ended in 1924! Who would have guessed?) but impressed at how well we’ve done.
The prep
At the bottom of the post is the stuff that I use, but it’s pretty tuned to Dresden, Germany. The thing is, there are a lot of different timelines on Wikipedia, and I took events from different ones that I thought my students should know, and sorted them into one single timeline.
I took events from:
- The timeline of German history
- The timeline of United States history
- The timeline of Dresden
- The Saxony article
And I put them together. I’m not going to lie, I invested an hour or so in making this (which is why I’m sharing it). That’s more than I generally invest in a single lesson, but it was a winner across five different intermediate / advanced groups and I’ll be keeping it in my back pocket as an activity for when I fill in for a colleague or whatever.
My version
This is what I use. I copy the events twice, using the first list as the answer key and printing the second set larger and without the years in order to make the papers for the table.
7500 BC: Oldest known people in the area of Dresden
742: Charlemagne (Charles the Great) was born
800: Saxony was founded
962: Holy Roman Empire was founded
1434: The first record of the Striezelmarkt is made
1455: Gutenberg Bible was first printed
1492: Christopher Columbus lands in Puerto Rico and ‘discovers’ America
1517: The reformation started
1624: New York City (then, New Amsterdam) was founded
1670: August the strong was born
1681: Pennsylvania founded
1710: Production of Meißner Porzellan was started
1712: First steam engine was made
1743: The Church of our Lady was built
1749: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born
1776: The American Colonies declare independence
1787: The Constitution of the United States was signed
1788: The Abitur was introduced in Prussia
1789: George Washington became President
1814: The Great Garden was opened to the public
1815: Otto von Bismarck was born
1816: Steam locomotive that runs on rails patented
1818: Karl Marx was born
1820: Zugspitze climbed for the first time
1830: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons) was founded
1839: Railway between Dresden and Leipzig opens
1848: The “Communist Manifesto” was published
1849: May uprising in Dresden
1870: Deutsche Bank was founded
1871: The German Empire was founded
1889: Adolf Hitler was born
1892: The diesel engine was invented
1893: Blue Wonder Bridge was constructed
1895: First Nobel Prize was awarded
1911: Ronald Reagan was born
1917: John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born
1918: King of Saxony abdicates (quits his job)
1924: The ‘wars’ against the American Indians (native Americans) ended.
1934: Udo Jürgens was born
1945: Dresden was bombed
1946: Donald Trump was born
1954: First German World Cup victory and Angela Merkel was born
1956: First Eurovision Song Contest
1959: Hawaii becomes a state
1961: Barack Obama was born and Berlin Wall was built
1976: Apple (the computer company) was founded
1990: Germany reunified
1991: First BRN was held
1992: Soviet forces were withdrawn from Dresden
2002: The 100-year flood happens
2014: Last (most recent) German World Cup victory
Oldest known people in the area of Dresden
Charlemagne (Charles the Great) was born
Saxony was founded
Holy Roman Empire was founded
The first record of the Striezelmarkt is made
Gutenberg Bible was first printed
Christopher Columbus lands in Puerto Rico and ‘discovers’ America
The reformation started
New York City (then, New Amsterdam) was founded
August the strong was born
Pennsylvania founded
Production of Meißner Porzellan was started
First steam engine was made
The Church of our Lady was built
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born
The American Colonies declare independence
The Constitution of the United States was signed
The Abitur was introduced in Prussia
George Washington became President
The Great Garden was opened to the public
Otto von Bismarck was born
Steam locomotive that runs on rails patented
Karl Marx was born
Zugspitze climbed for the first time
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons) was founded
Railway between Dresden and Leipzig opens
The “Communist Manifesto” was published
May uprising in Dresden
Deutsche Bank was founded
The German Empire was founded
Adolf Hitler was born
The diesel engine was invented
Blue Wonder Bridge was constructed
First Nobel Prize was awarded
Ronald Reagan was born
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born
King of Saxony abdicates (quits his job)
The ‘wars’ against the American Indians (native Americans) ended.
Udo Jürgens was born
Dresden was bombed
Donald Trump was born
First German World Cup victory and Angela Merkel was born
First Eurovision Song Contest
Hawaii becomes a state
Barack Obama was born and Berlin Wall was built
Apple (the computer company) was founded
Germany was reunified
First BRN was held
Soviet forces were withdrawn from Dresden
The 100-year flood happens
Last (most recent) German World Cup victory
