We would recommend that you sometimes use double continuums to sharpen your student’s historical thinking. This neat idea is really simple. We all want to make our students think more. And I have found over the years that many don’t actually like to think. So this neat idea has helped me bridge this gap, and it goes further than the use of a single line continuum. You know they type. At one end ‘Saxon justice was primitive’ at the other ‘Saxon justice was sophisticated’. Or Henry VIII was a ‘very good King’ at one end, and ‘a bad King’ at the other. Having established the line, the students are then given a bunch of statements which they plot along it to show their thinking.
I don’t know about you but I often hear from kids that one side of the argument is more important because ‘there are a more reasons on that side.’ But how important are the flippin’ reasons? Think God damn you child!