Welcome to Year 13 History at Jumeirah College

Introduction
As you can see from the course outline below, Year 13 will challenge the young historians to their very utmost. The Units are designed to bring to full fruition all of the skills developed in their previous learning in a truly synoptic way. In Unit 3: Depth Studies and Associated Historical Controversies, students will undertake a depth study to explore the nature of challenges and conflict relating to societies and/or political system in the period studied, and to explore an issue of historical debate. In Unit 4: Historical Enquiry, students will carry out an enquiry which will address the aspects of a chosen theme over a period of at least 100 years. They will examine both the short-term significance of an individual, movement or event, as well as the factors affecting change throughout the whole period.

Curriculum organisation

• 6 lessons per week of 55 minutes each
• students are taught in option groups
•  Miss Horner will teach students the Unit 3 component and Mrs Arlett the Unit 4 component.  Students will thus study Units 3 and 4 simultaneously across the whole school year.

Unit 3
Unit 3 – Depth Studies and Associated Historical Controversies

Assessment Information:

Written examination: 2 hours

Students will sit the C2 option from section C. It will be split into Sections A and B:

Section A – answer one question from a choice of two (30 marks)

Section B – answer one question from a choice of two (40 marks)

In Section A the questions will have an analytical focus that will require students to reach a substantiated judgement on a historical issue or problem.

In Section B students will be provided with five or six unseen secondary sources totalling approximately 350-400 words per question. The question will require students to compare the provided source material while exploring an issue of historical debate, and to reach substantiated judgements in light of their own knowledge and understanding of the issues of interpretation and controversy.

Broad Outline of course:

Section A content:

• The economy of the United States in the 1920s
• Political and social tensions, 1917-33: the Ku Klux Klan; Prohibition and organised crime; immigration policy; the Red Scare
• Opposition to Roosevelt as President, 1933-45
• The USA, 1914-54: The impact of war and the significance of anti-communism

Section B content:

Associated controversies

Students will need to use their knowledge of the period as a whole to provide a broad context, but will in addition need a detailed knowledge of these two selected areas of historical controversy and an understanding of why this area has been the subject of debate:

a) Why did the United States suffer such a serious depression in the years 1929-33?
b) How successful was the impact of the New Deal to 1941?

Unit 4

Historical Enquiry
Option CW7 – Rebellion and Disorder in Tudor England, 1485-1587.

Students study an outline of this topic during their lessons, as per the areas listed below. Once they have covered the core content, students will be devising their own unique coursework question, on which to write their Enquiry.

Focus of Topic:

The ways in which the nature and frequency of rebellion and disorder changed during the Tudor period and the extent to which England became more politically stable during the period 1485-1603. The main areas covered are:

• The causes and nature of Tudor rebellions.
• The Reformation and Tudor religious settlements.
• Economy and society.
• Power, faction and succession.

Independent Study
Students will be set prescribed tasks and assignments from every Homework lesson.

 Independent study is integral to the Year 13 course.  It is essential that each student reads around and in depth the areas covered in class. They should achieve a detailed knowledge of the material in their main textbooks, as well as supplementing this work with additional notes, analyses and evaluations prompted by the course-related books in the library. This should be undertaken on an on-going basis.

Assessment and reporting
A2 graded assessments of differing kinds are used throughout the course to assess each student’s progress in their various skills. Some of these examination practice pieces will be closed book under timed conditions while others will be open book using notes and reference materials.

Students’ progress is also monitored by a range of other methods including on-going file checks and monitoring of performance against target and predicted grades

Skills
Each of the units develops and assesses very specialist historical skills. However, there are a number of generic skills that are required throughout the course and that are explicitly taught and enhanced as fundamental elements of each unit. These skills include:
> making inferences from and syntheses from historical sources in order to substantiate and refute judgements about the past
> evaluating the weight of the evidence and adducing relevant and specific own knowledge to supplement the evidence provided
> structuring evidence and ideas in to complex series of paragraphs
> conveying sustained and analytical arguments
> setting historical developments in to their wider context in order to reach developed judgements on them
> analysing different kinds of changes and their contributory factors
> discerning and analysing patterns and trends

Extension
Each sub-unit that the students study offers opportunities to research in to greater depth and breadth. Extended reading and research opportunities will be pointed out to the students As it becomes clear what grade each student is performing at in each cluster of skills, they will be encouraged to set targets to improve that skill and accompanying strategies for themselves for their forthcoming pieces of work.

Useful websites
www.edexcel.org.uk
www.historytoday.com
www.britannia.com/history
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
www.bbc.co.uk/history