edexcel gcse history guidance to students: the controlled assessment

Edexcel GCSE History

Guidance to Students: The Controlled Assessment

GCSE09 History l Guidance to Students: The Controlled Assessment2

The purpose of this guidance

• This guidance has been written to help you to understand what you need to do in the Controlled Assessment.

• The comments have to be fairly general because there is a choice of 13 different tasks in this unit.

• Your teacher will help you to see how this guidance fits the task that you will be doing.


Part A

• This will focus on one aspect of the topic you are studying.

• Your teacher will give you the title (this may be turned into a question).

• Look at the key words in the title / question to help you to focus your answer so that you don’t just write everything you know about the topic.


Part A key words

• For example, if it says ‘why did something happen?’, you need to write about several different reasons.

• If the focus is the role of a person, you need to say what he/she did and what effect that had on the situation.


Significance

• If it is about the significance of a reason, you need to explain why that reason was important.

• If it mentions the significance or impact of an event, you need to write about what effects it had, how the situation changed.


Extent

• If it is about whether something was a turning point, how much changed or the extent of change, your answer should look at what did change but also what stayed the same.


Plan your essay

• Your answer to Part A should be written as an essay.

• When you prepare this, you should write a plan where you set out the different sections of your answer.

• Your notes should have the information you are going to use in your essay. Don’t forget to include quotations and relevant information from the sources in your bibliography.


Personal investigation

• The markscheme says you should show where you got your information from.

• You need to include a Bibliography (a list of all the books, websites, documentaries etc you used to find out your information) and show in your essay that you have used these sources of information.

• Possible ways to do this would be to write the name of the author/website/documentary in your essay, or to number the items on your Bibliography and each time you use information from one of these items, write that number in the margin.


Portrayal in Representations

• The work you do in Part B on Representations is looking at the overall message or interpretation.

• You need to focus on the opinion or judgement that is being suggested by the representation.


The portrayal of the issue could suggest:

• It was a very successful event/He was a great leader.

• Public opinion on the issue was divided.

• One factor was more important than any other, eg the media, propaganda, the use of terror.

• This issue did not affect all people in the same way.


The way this issue is being portrayed in a representation could be:

• Very dramatic and emotional, stressing the personal aspect.

• Very neutral and factual, trying to present both sides of the issue fairly.

• Stressing the importance of an event by showing what happened later.

• Selecting one aspect of an issue and focusing on it in depth.


For example

• If you have a profile on a social network, you might decide to change the picture and status because you want people to know you are happy or excited about something.

• Your school probably has open days and a prospectus for

year 6 students and will select certain aspects of the school to emphasise, eg good ICT, good sports facilities or drama productions.


Part Bi

• In Bi you are asked to compare the portrayal of an issue in two representations.

• As you prepare for this, make notes saying how the impression has been created in each representation.

• Then find examples of similarities and differences between the two.


Writing up Bi

• When you write up Bi, try to keep focused on showing ways the views in the two representations are similar (and back up your comments with references to each).

• And ways the views in the two representations are different (and back up your comments with references to each).

An example to help you understand Bi

A girl who went on holiday might portray the experience in a different way from her brother

• Impression A (girl): It was a total disaster – I wanted to top up my tan but it rained every day! I hated the food so I ended up eating chips for every meal. I’m sure I got food poisoning as I was violently sick one day.

• Impression B (boy): It rained a lot but there were some interesting places to visit. I wasn't too keen on the food but there were always chips available.


How far do these portrayals differ?

What NOT to write...

• The girl in the first account complains about the holiday because she couldn’t top up her tan and she was sick. This makes it less reliable; she is obviously angry and that will make the account biased.

Remember: you don’t need to evaluate the representations in Bi

Bi does not ask why they differ, just how much they differ!



What a Level 2 answer might say

The impressions in A and B are similar because:• Both accounts say it rained• Both say they didn’t like the food

The impressions in A and B are different because:• In A the girl says she was sick but the boy in B doesn’t mention this• B says they went to some interesting place but A doesn’t mention this

This answer is only comparing individual details!


What a Level 3 answer might say

• The accounts are similar in the way they both suggest the rain and the food were problems which affected their enjoyment of the holiday.• However, they are different in the overall impression they create. Representation A suggests she did not enjoy her holiday at all, which is highlighted by the tone and choice of language, using words such as ‘total disaster’ and exclamation marks to emphasise her dislike of the experience. Representation B gives a more positive view, saying that the rain didn’t spoil everything and that he went to interesting places.• Overall, both accounts suggest there were problems on the holiday but A creates a very negative view of the whole experience while B suggests the rain and food did not spoil everything.


Part Bii

• For Bii you will look at the two representations you have already studied and also a third one.

• In this question you are being asked ‘which representation of the issue is best?’

• You do not have to find the ‘right’ answer, you just need to explain your reasons very clearly.


How to decide what is ‘best’

• People who went on the same holiday might have different views on what was ‘best’ about it:

• Hot weather & getting a tan.• An interesting place to visit.• Meeting new people.• Doing new activities.


Reaching a decision

• People within the same family can make different judgements because they have applied different criteria (reasons for the decision).

• Therefore you need to make it very clear how you have reached your decision about which representation is ‘best’.


Applying criteria

• The exam board has suggested a range of different criteria you could use to reach your decision.

• You should aim to use three different criteria and explain your ideas fully.


Completeness

• You know that an impression has been created through:

• the way certain aspects have been chosen to be included or left out

• the way the language or the drawing has emphasised aspects

• Therefore you know that the representations might not cover the whole issue.


Accuracy & Objectivity

• You also know that the representation is a personal interpretation and therefore:

• it might not be accurate

• it might not be objective (neutral and balanced).


Assessing the representations

• As you assess the representations, you need to use your additional knowledge of the issue.

• For example, you could use your knowledge to decide whether the overall impression created in the representation is:

• Complete• Accurate• Objective


Assessing the representations

• You could also discuss whether a representation which focuses on one aspect in depth is ‘better’ than one which gives an overall view of the whole issue.

• Or think about whether the overall impression has been distorted by the author’s purpose, eg did he intend to be funny, to challenge a view that is widely accepted, or to make it interesting for people to read?


Which is ‘best’?

• It is unlikely that a single representation will be ‘best’ in every way.

• You might decide that the overall impression in representation 1 is ‘best’ in terms of accuracy.

• But perhaps representation 2 is the most complete portrayal of the issue.

• While Representation 3 is the most objective and covers both sides.


Let’s look at the girls account again

• Impression A: It was a total disaster – I wanted to top up my tan but it rained every day! I hated the food so I ended up eating chips for every meal. I’m sure I got food poisoning as I was violently sick one day.


• In order to evaluate the accuracy of the overall impression – that she didn’t enjoy the holiday – we can check on some of the details that she uses to create that impression. The key points she mentions which made her account so negative were the rain, the food and being sick.• So we can research the weather at that place and that time of the year to see if it is likely that it did rain every day or if the impression is based on inaccurate details.• We can also research the food and see if chips were usually available in this holiday spot.• We might even be able to find some sources which tell us if she was sick (perhaps her brother kept a diary).

How accurate?


• This is not a balanced account.

• Everything mentioned is negative and she doesn't include any positive points at all.

• Has she deliberately not mentioned visiting interesting places because she wants the whole account to be negative, or is it because she didn't find the places very interesting?

• Is she deliberately stressing the point about being sick?

How objective?


• It is not a complete account of the holiday as she has only chosen to focus on the weather and food.

• We know they went to visit places but she hasn't mentioned that.

• She also hasn't mentioned the hotel – perhaps it has lots of activities which you can do in any weather; maybe she enjoyed the holiday because she met some people she really liked etc.

• We would need to find out about the hotel and the facilities and try to find out what she did each day before we can tell if she’s giving us the full story or just focusing on a couple of days.

How complete?


• Impression B (boy): It rained a lot but there were some interesting places to visit. I wasn't too keen on the food but there were always chips available.

• This account seems much more balanced and neutral than A.

• It appears to be more objective because each negative point is balanced out by a positive one.

• But did the interesting places balance out the rain? What if it rained every day for a week but there were only 2 interesting places to visit?

What about Impression B?


• You would need to check the accuracy and completeness of B in the same way as you checked the accuracy of A.

• Just because B includes a detail that is not mentioned in A, doesn't make B complete.

• There could be lots of other things that neither account mentions.

• The fact they both say it rained a lot doesn’t mean it’s automatically true – you would need to check.

Accuracy and completeness

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