How to Present a Time Line

The reason for this article is to share information that a student needed. The assignment drove to madness the parent in search of the simple, under history books: “Facts in a time line ”.

History is the branch of knowledge dealing with past events and as Michael Crichton quoted, "If you don't know history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree." Math and History are one of the most disliked classes to many people that I have met. History caught my attention when I was in sixth grade because the teacher was one of those not frequently found; that knows how to give what she has in her brains.

My middle sister is homeschooling her son which has inspired me to write some articles in defense of homeschooling. I have learned from her many things and one of them is the use of time lines. Keeping the basic of things in order is more useful than having a bucket full where nothing is found. In case it is useful for someone else, I will share what I have found.

A time line is mainly a way of displaying a list of events in chronological order.

There are many personal ways to do and understand something. A time line is about a concept (a general idea of something). The use of pictures or words to present a concept will depend on the level of who is being taught. Keeping things simple is an indisputable form to bring understanding.

The technique that I recommend for visualizing simple relations between concepts is the use of a diagram. A concept map is the graphic tool that helps organize and represent knowledge. These types of maps came from the ideas of David Ausubel in the decade of the 60's. Let's take a look at the different main types of concept maps, and with your creativity I know you will be amazed with what you develop a time line into:

1. Hierarchical map: drawing up from a key concept that sits on top of it and leaves the other elements that go into decline.
2. Chart map. this is often used in business to set the various departments and positions that shape a particular industry or company. The information will be presented in a linear fashion.
3. Spider map:the key concept is at the center and from it the rest of emerging issues are developed around.
4. Systemic and landscape map: are other types that make up the most common classification of the so called concept maps that are being addressed.

Below you will find a list of facts (that are the base of what we live today) for a time line. It is very interesting the way my sister has used her creativity, added by her creative son; both have come up with awesome presentations. They use pictures or drawings and other amazing ways to make that history very interesting and make it significant to who they are today. To mention some are the accordion time lines, little or nested books on a concept of the time line, multidimensional models and others.

Let’s take a simple look to what seems to be extensive in a time line.

A.D. 29

Pentecost and the First Followers of Jesus.

A.D. 64-257

Martyrs of the Early Church

100 B.C.- A.D. 75

The Dead Sea Scrolls

A.D. 79

The Buried City of Pompeii

269

St. Valentine

313

Constantine I and the Edict of Milan

320-500

The Golden Age of India

350 – 900

The Mayan

382-405

The Holy Bible and the Vulgate by Jerome

389-461

St. Patrick - Missionary to Ireland

476

Fall of the Western Roman Empire

500 -1000

Daily Life in the Dark Ages

503

King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

573

Early Japan and Prince Shotoku

589 - 618

The Sui and Tang Dynasties of China

622

Mohammad and the Birth of Islam

732

Charles “Martel” and the Battle of Tours

793

Invasion of the Vikings

871

Alfred the Great - King of England

900

The Great Zimbabwe of Africa

985

Eric the Red and the Settlement of Greenland

The Third Millennium represents the Sixteenth Century.

1500

Spanish explorer Vicent Yañez Pinzón reaches the northeastern coast of Brazil.

1503

Pocket handkerchief used.

1504

Americo Vespucci discovers the New World

1507

The New World becomes known as America

1509

Watches invented

1513

Ponce de León explores Florida

1519

Magellan begins a three year voyage around the world. The Aztec empire dominated Mexico.

1521

The Protestant Reformation.

1522

Juan Sebastián Elcano continues around the world and reaches Spain.

1527

The end of the Italian Renaissance.

1530

Bottle corks invented and Don Antonio de Mendoza becomes the first Viceroy in Mexico.

1531

Halley’s Comet appeared and caused panic.

1533

Francisco Pizarro marches from Panama to Peru and kills the Inca chieftain Atahualpa of Peru.

1535

Reformation begins as Henry VIII makes himself head of the English Church after being excommunicated by the Pope.

1536

First songbook used in Spain and Michelangelo completed the largest painting, “The Last judgment” in the Sistine Chapel.

1538

Mercator drew maps with America on it.

1543

Copernicus challenged beliefs by claiming the sun as the center of the universe.

1545

French printer Garamond sets the first type.

1553

Roman Catholicism restored in England by Queen Mary I.

I hope this article has helped someone out there. History is beautiful...nice, funny, sad and true. For being true, we can not do anything about it because it has passed away since it belongs to the past but, we can do something for the future and that is in our now...today.

Blessings to all!

© Maria Magdalena Ruiz O'Farrill