UNIT 1 CONFERENCE

“Miss are we doing anything fun today?”

Strategies for the Delivery of VCE Unit 1 20th Century History

2 March 2012, HTAV

WATCH THIS CAREFULLY

QUESTIONS

1. How many numbers on clock face?

2. How many men in the row marching forward in the opening scene?

3. What was the number of the elevator?

4. Are the men of the ‘above ground’ Metropolis weaning shirts when they

are running?

NOW THAT WE ARE AWAKE

British writer Vera Brittain once stated that ‘…at no previous period has mankind been faced by a half-century which so paradoxically united

violence and progress.’

NOW THAT WE ARE AWAKE

Course Decisions and the SD

Key Outcomes

Learning Routines

Vocabulary

SACs and Preparations

The Exam

Some reality checks I have gotten along the way… and am still learning by going back to basics…

THE STUDY DESIGN

Unlike other Units, 20th Century History is far from straightforward.

Students should be familiar with the study design… the language should be part of all assessment criteria.

REALITY CHECK #1Can most teens understand what this means?

VCE HISTORY

Tension between delivering a great deal of context (factual) and at the same time developing students critical literacy skills.

Available texts may not be sufficient level of detail.

Tension between depth and breadth.

UMMM…

MAKING DECISIONS

Hot Dotting is a decision making

routine created by Quality Education.

MAKING DECISIONS

Making Decisions Explicit and Accessible

MAKING DECISIONS

Making Decisions Explicit and Accessible

OUTCOMES

On completion of this Unit the student should be able to…

Outcome 1: analyse and explain the

development of a political crisis and conflict in

the period 1900 to 1945.

Outcome 2: analyse and

discuss patterns of social life and the factors which

influenced changes to social

life in the first half of the 20th

Century.

Outcome 3: analyse the relationship

between historical

context and cultural

expression of the period

1900 to 1945.

COURSE STRUCTURE

3 Areas of Study, 3 SACs, 1 Exam

Give student Area of Study Plans not the ‘whole year.’ Make the language student friendly.

Due to the ‘for example(s)’ in the study design it is very open ended…

BUT (though its obvious) stick to the study design!

HOWEVER… because the course is open-ended make decisions that are based on Year 12 as well!

AOS 1Provide a historical context (breadth)

Break down each dot point of key knowledge (page 1)

Don’t try to do everything or you will still be teaching World War One in Term 2 – make decisions and be ruthless sticking to them.

•If you are studying Germany, do not rush past Weimar period and don’t forget unification of German state in 19th Century

•If you are looking at Russia, do not get bogged down in Tsarist Russia and be sure to make a direct link to WW1 world

•Warning! If you select Russia you need to deal with World War 2 later on…

AOS 2Usually a choice between Stalinism and Nazism

Make clear decisions about which groups you will select – and stick to them – also stick to locations (can do comparative)… choose ‘obvious’ examples…

No regime just has a negative effect

Ways in which groups organised?

Change and Continuity (page 26)

AOS 2

Be sure that these link up with Cultural Expression AOS 3

Look generally at how societies are organised, break down the study design (synonyms) not all students know what political affiliation means

Consider what will work best for your class – GeneralGouvernment

•Think about a comparative element like Fascist Italy (this is a good way to introduce Fascism)

•Whatever you choose, focus on a) continuity and change, b) different groups and c) different time periods

•DON’T FORGET KEY SKILLS DIFFERENT

AOS 3

Consider integrating to strike ‘while the iron is hot.’

Look carefully at the skills.

Be on the look out for opportunities (Mad Square etc).

KEY SKILLS SUMMARY

Explain the historical issues covered in the key knowledge;

Apply historical concepts related to the period

Analyse and evaluate written and visual historical evidence

Synthesise material and evidence to draw conclusions;

Analyse the way that the experience of the period has been interpreted and understood over time by historians and other commentators

Express knowledge and ideas in writing, presenting material using historical conventions such as quotations, acknowledgement of sources, and a bibliography.

WASN’T THIS MEANT TO BE FUN?

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Learning Activities are students safety net…

Much of your time will be ‘traditional’

But still need to mix it up to get students excited and to provide opportunities for students to access the content in many different ways

Repetition is key to LTM

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Instructional

Approaches

PERCEIVE, KNOW, CARE AB OUT

Project Zero Harvard, Visible Thinking Strategies

SEE, THINK, WONDER

Otto Dix, To Beauty, 1922.

Change and Continuity in

German Society

SEE, THINK, WONDER

Wolfgang Sievers, Total

Poverty in Berlin

Germany 1933.

Change and Continuity in

German Society

SEE, THINK, WONDER

Paris Peace Conference

Geopolitical changes due

to peace treaties

PERCEIVE, KNOW, CARE ABOUT

Project Zero

“If we are to learn anything useful from the great human

resource of past experience [it is that] the past, like the

present, is simply too complicated and too multiple to

be told in a single story.” Inga Clendinnen, Quarterly Essay, “The History

Question, who owns the past?” (Back Inc, Melbourne, 2006), 66.

DDQ

Project Zero

TRUE FOR WHO?

Project Zero, Exploring

historians views or groups etc

REALITY CHECK #2

Just because the loudest kids in the class seem to get it doesn’t mean that you haven't lost 60% of the class who are now busily wondering where you got your hot shoes from…

You are competing for the students attention… if you can find an easy way in then you can build more complex knoweldge

REALITY CHECK #2

Dr. Richard Elmore (Harvard Uni) 80% student learning factual and procedural… and students

have no idea what it means (2006).

ICT Gen – lots of info, quick, shallow understanding…

LOW LITERACY/ESL AND TEXTS

The reality is students will need to read a lot… much of it independently…

Students will need to synthesise sources which are often written in language difficult to grasp (Wilfred Owen Effect).

NSW HSC Online

GCSE Bitesize by BBC

Smartboard activities from Smart Exchange

Get these students to focus on the lesson “Key Question” and build from there

Synonym Lists and VisuWords

REALITY CHECK #3This is not university

Do something fun – create DADA inspired collages depicting society in the 21st Century, ask the dance teacher to come in and look for opportunities to get kids involved in the action and immerse them in the topic!!! You will be surprised (FB).

If students do, students will learn

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Dossier of Sources (page 1)

Postcards from Weimar Tom Ryan (page 18)

Role Plays/one simulation (page 12)

Empire Photo Albums or similar

Debates

Secret spying missions (pages 9-10) and

notes

VOCABULARY

The key is to make it accessible…

Look for opportunities for short energisers which are vocabulary based…

Combine with images

REALITY CHECK #4

Just because a kid can give you a verbatim definition does not mean that they understand the term nor that they can use it in context or a new situation.

Repetition is key.

VOCABULARY

Robert J. Marzano, Leading the Implementation of a School Wide Vocabulary Program.88,500 terms in grades 3-9 textbooks (Nagy and Anderson, 1984).

Frontloading key vocabulary BEFORE the unit commences…

Problem with Cue Cards

Draw words from the topic as well as the STUDY DESIGN…

MARZANO TABLE

VOCABULARY

Engagement and reworking until

the students really get it!

VOCABULARY

FIND YOUR PARTNER

REALITY CHECK #5

Students often want to know why Hitler sent Nazi Germany into World War One.

Lesson: assume kids know nothing!!! Explaining for two seconds will save you in the long run (depth/breadth).

CONTEXT AND GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

CONTEXT AND GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

LOW LITERACY/ESL AND TEXTS

Chapter Topic (Use Subheadings):

Concepts/Facts/Quotes Non-linguistic representations

1.

2.

3.

Topic Summary

SACS AND PREPS

USE YEAR 12 MODELS

VCAA Assessment Handbook

Page 54

SAC STRATEGIES

Know what the Year 12 Teacher is doing and model…

SAC STRATEGIES

Regular written responses and document studies not just SACs.

Present not just in a written way.Activity Time!

Was Germany responsible for World War One?

Which verdict does your witness support?

SAC STRATEGIES

If it makes sense, do it (for example, Research Project for AOS 3 fits skills)

Use Descriptors which look like Year 12 Descriptors (page 55) just change the language.

TEES (8+ on exam) (page 34)

Top 5 Report after each SAC (or even SA Questions) (page 53-54)

If you can, write up examiners reports (page 51)

WORDLE FOR SACS

Overused wordsConcepts/

terminology not includedGaps in

evidence/argument

WORDLE FOR SACS

SYNTHESIS/RESEARCH

Evidence Sheets (page 41). Wean the kids off bringing these into the SAC after SAC 1.

Can also be used for note-taking in class.

Use red for own knowledge, blue for direct quotes and green for indirect quotes.

PREPARING STUDENTS FOR EXAMS

This should be the main focus of the SACs.

Fortnightly short answer questions – very these up – modelling how to break down questions and how to include time periods and groups.

Mix this up with Document Studies and give students a model on which to analyse documents (CAB MAPS or APPARTS) (page 52, 43)

Regular timed writing tasks = familiarity, modelling, ability ‘to do’

Explicit teaching of Danger Words and Sentence Starters.

Explicit Teaching of Command Terms.

Use the power of synergy – Forums and Circle of Doom.

NO MULTIPLE CHOICE!!!

FORUMS

OUR SYNERGY

MNEMONIC DEVICES

Failure of League of Nations in 1930

French and British Self InterestAbsent PowersIneffective SanctionsLack of Armed ForcesUnfair TreatyREaching decisions too slowly

From, Ben Walsh, GCSE Modern World History.

MNEMONIC DEVICES

What are the MAIN long-term causes of WW1?

MilitarismAlliances

ImperialismNationalism

EXAMRevolutions 2010 VCAA Assessors Report Indicated that:Students misused historical quotes (relevance).

Students need to have a handle of time-frames of questions.

Examiners are looking for precise and accurate information – again why doing lots of short-answers is a good idea.

To what extent questions require students to look at both views…

Students need to read questions carefully and answers need to be focused (cut out the fluff).

Students struggle in understanding the ‘development’ of events in a chronology.

High level responses used correct and specific historical terms and ideas and included dates, places and names.

EXAMRevolutions 2010 VCAA Assessors Report- What is a high level response?

World War 1 was a major reason for the fall of both Tsarism and the Provisional Government. Firstly, although the war was initially well received by the public and was intended to unite the population in patriotism, it quickly became a source of discontent as defeats proved humiliating and economic crisis worsened. The major reason why the war contributed to a revolutionary situation in early 1917 was that the Tsar had taken control of the army from the experienced and respected Grand duke Nikolaevich in August 1915, and the subsequent military, economic and psychological devastation had come to be associated with him. This was exacerbated by the fact that in his absence, Tsarina Alexandra was left in charge and she proved to be incompetent, unpopular (as her German heritage aroused suspicion) and heavily influenced by Rasputin. Thus the impressionable lower class – workers and peasantry – associated failure with the Tsar and felt abandoned as he had left them to fight at the front, therefore increasing revolutionary sentiment against him.

OTHER EXAM REPORTS

Although our courses are different there is no reason why you cannot look at:HSC – Marking Guidelines (Modern History Course – which will help with Russia, Germany and later in Unit 2 Cold War and also personality studies)

Tasmanian Department of Education and GCSE can also be Googled.

AND FINALLY…

Enjoy the journey of learning along with the students!

Join Facebook site of HTAV

Join a local network

iTunes U

Keep up to date with Year 12 Exam Assessor Reports (VCAA)

MY CONTACT DETAILS

Agata Kula – Secondary Teacher, Humanities Leader

(The Grange P-12 College)

Kula.agata.a@edumail.vic.gov.au