Edexcel GCSE History Guidance to Students: The Controlled Assessment

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Edexcel GCSE HistoryGuidance to Students The
Controlled Assessment
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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.

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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 dont
  just write everything you know about the topic.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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. Dont forget to
  include quotations and relevant information from
  the sources in your bibliography.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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. Im 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.

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How far do these portrayals differ?What NOT to
write...

• The girl in the first account complains about
  the holiday
• because she couldnt 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 dont need to evaluate the
  representations in Bi
• Bi does not ask why they differ, just how much
  they differ!

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What a Level 2 answer might say

• The impressions in A and B are similar because
• Both accounts say it rained
• Both say they didnt 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
  doesnt
• mention this
• B says they went to some interesting place but A
  doesnt
• mention this
• This answer is only comparing individual details!

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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 didnt 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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

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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 authors 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?

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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.

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Lets 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. Im sure I got
  food poisoning as I
• was violently sick one day.

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How accurate?

• In order to evaluate the accuracy of the overall
  impression that
• she didnt 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).

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How objective?

• 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?

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How complete?

• 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 shes
• giving us the full story or just focusing on a
  couple of days.

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What about Impression B?

• 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?

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Accuracy and completeness

• 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 doesnt
  mean its
• automatically true you would need to check.