The Young Historian’s Guide to the Mock Historical Investigation

Task: To complete Criteria A, B and C

Due: By end of Term 3 Week 7

Process:

1. Read the IA booklet for details on the assessment criteria.

2. Work out your plan of investigation (A)
a. This should include:
i. Your approach
ii. Your methodology
iii. Two of the sources you plan to evaluate
b. This is an important step. Getting it wrong usually means compromising the whole investigation.

3. Identify a topic
a. The topic should be something you are interested in.
b. Topics that are based on or derived from the syllabus are fine.
c. The topic should be tightly focused and defined.

d. Good topics:i. To what extent was the fear of communist expansion on the part of the USA responsible for the outbreak of the Korean War?
ii. A Study of the Portrayal of the PAP in the Straits Times in the run-up to the 1959 General Elections
iii. Why was the Singapore Government’s Graduate Mother’s Scheme of 1983 unsuccessful?

4. Identify relevant sources
a. Identify a general history or reading pertaining to the topic/area. This will give you a broad overview and a sense of chronology
b. Identify other readings that provide:
i. Specialist insight e.g. historical monographs written by professional historians
ii. Alternative viewpoints e.g. revisionist accounts
iii. First hand information e.g. archival sources, oral histories, newspapers
iv. Representations of the topic e.g. historical fiction, movies, music

5. Work out your summary of evidence (B)

6. Evaluate your sources (C)

Submissions:

1. Sometime before Term 3 Week 6, I will leave you to decide how close you want to call it, submit a historical investigation outline as per Pages 7 to 10 of your IA Booklet.
2. The final submission would be the end of Term 3 Week 7.
3. Criteria D, E and F will be due in Term 4 Week 3.

Formatting:

1. Font: Arial Size 10
2. Spacing: 1 ½ Justified
3. All headings should be in bold, set to the left, and underlined.
4. There should be a line between each paragraph.
5. All pages must be numbered.
6. On the cover page, you must include your name, class and the title of your investigation.
7. Files and folders are not necessary.

Prayer

I was going to give you a verse or a Psalm but I could not decide on one. Except perhaps to pray for God’s benediction over all of you as you begin these few weeks of trial and examination. And so, as they always say, “Let us pray,

Our Father in Heaven
I commit these young students of mine into your hands.
As they step into the examination halls,
I pray that You grant them;
Calmness in the spirit,
Clarity of mind,
Precision in expression,
Wisdom in making choices,
Speed in thought.
Father,
I ask that Your peace be with each and everyone of them
As You watch over them.
Keep them in good health and good spirits,
And may all that they do and achieve
Serve only to glorify Your name.
In Jesus’ name we pray,
Amen.

DBQ Timed Trial – Sample Answers for N06

Overall comments – Quite well done. Please forget all the LORMs you ever learnt. Do not quote from the source if you cannot integrate it well with your text – paraphrase instead, just remember to say which source you got it from. Answer the question directly. Read your answer and ask yourself, have I answered it satisfactorily? 

Question (1a & 1b) 

No samples but many marks were lost due to carelessness. For (a), too much lifting from the source that does not answer the question explicitly. For (b), again, answers do not address the question explicitly. The implications of Prokofiev’s position and his apparent “success” were not well analysed/explored. 

Question (2)

For this question, organisation is key. Draw a table to summarise your views – it might help you compare/contrast better. Avoid “O” level style answers. 

Sources C and D both talk about the purges under Stalin but focus on different aspects. For example, Source C focuses on purges in the country, in rural and local areas”, while Source D focuses on purges in the industrial and economic sector, most likely in the cities. Perhaps from this we can see a similarity in that Sources C and D both indicate purges taking place on a large pervasive scale in their respective areas of the country.

Other than focus, the sources and their views about the purges also differ. Source C portrays a negative view of the purges, stating that blaming Soviet rural officials for harvest failures was “nothing new” and the fact that officials were also blamed for “allowing so little grain to be distributed among the kolkhoz” highlights the contradictory nature of the trials and purges and perhaps the convenient use of the officials as scapegoats for agricultural failures. Source D, on the other hand, paints a positive view of the purges stating that it, in fact, was a “positive and new programme of social organisation”, seeking to undermine the “privation and suffering” caused by the purges by highlighting employment benefits. It suggest that the purges lead to societal progress by stating that these new employees in every field, threw themselves into their work with zeal and enthusiasm.

Additionally, the sources view differ in their description of the reaction of the masses to the purges. Source C highlights the helplessness of the officials – Alekseev, a kolkhoz chairman, admits that when he saw no grain being distributed, he decided to run away – highlighting also the tacit understanding and fear that the purges had instilled in the people. Source C also shows us the local leaders of the trials undermining the system of purges themselves: the chairman tells Alekseeve to “get going as fast as you can”, a testament to the helplessness of the people and their reluctance and coercion in the system. Source D also differs from this, in stating that the people, rather those not purged has a “vested interest” in Stalin’s rule as it brought them “undreamt of” job vacancies, which they greeted with zeal and enthusiasm, “undimmed” by purges and “other recent events”.

Marker’s Comments – Excellent organisation and structure. Seamless integration of evidence to support views. Overt comparison and contrasts done with judicious selection and use of evidence.

Question (3)

Source B is an extract from “Hope Against Hope”, by N. Mandelstam, (do mention that it is a book) published in London in 1971. It is a primary source, given that its author and her poet husband were witness to the purges in the USSR. Its purpose is chiefly to provide an account of everyday life in the context of the purges. Source B’s value lies in its ability to provide detailed, first-hand perspective of the purges as viewed from one witness to them, given that it is a primary source. This would provide insight and information on everyday life and society that would be missing from official sources such as official documents. Source B however is also limited in that it is constrained to this one perspective – it would be unable to shed light on the motivations of the leaders and officials responsible for carrying out the purges…

Source E is a list created by Stalin, distributed by the head of the NKVD in 1937. Its purpose is to indicate quotas of the people to be arrested, from various regions, either to be sentenced to death or to be imprisoned for eight to ten years. Source E’s values lies in the fact that it reveals the extent to which the purges were carried out, the provision of specific figures provides a gauge of sorts of the impact of the 1937 purges. It is also valuable in that it originates from Stalin himself, it provides an indication of the extent to which the purges were centrally directed, allowing historians to assess Stalin’s role in their impact on Soviet society. However, Source E is also limited in that given its origins from the upper echelons of government, it is unable to provide insight into the actual implementation of its directives on the ground. The figures provided themselves do not match actual numbers of events. In addition, Source E, as a list (of statistics), is unable to provide detailed information on the sections of society which were impacted by the purges.

Marker’s comments: Clear and detailed, focusing on the necessary.

Question (4) [Edited]

…Stalin’s purges could be said to have created a society of extreme fear, suspicion and paranoia. This is supported by Sources B and C. Source B reveals the extreme paranoid experienced by the people of the time – that one had to perpetually walk around smiling for fear that any other expression would betray them as being complicit in activity that might be injurious to the state, and that this pretence even had to extend to one’s children for fear that “they might let something slip at school”. Source C corroborates by recounting the extreme fear of Alekseev upon hearing of his failure to distribute crops – such that he was compelled to flee. Source E also seems to corroborate by further indicating the massive and arbitrary side of the purges in inciting such extreme knowledge. From my own knowledge, fear and paranoia intensified because an essential part of the purges entailed networks of informers who would, for any reason, sell out their acquaintances to the NKVD. Thus the network contributed to the atmosphere of tension because it was difficult to perceive who was an informant in your network of acquaintances who could betray you. This lead to an atmosphere of mutual suspicion.

The purges also stifled creative expression, as evidenced by the reactions of Prokofiev in Source A and of how his art was attacked as formalist. From my own knowledge, I am also aware of other artists, such as Maxim Gorky (or Pasternak) who were similarly stifled in their creative and political views by the purges.

Lastly, the Purges caused a massive dearth of talent and useful labour in the USSR…from my own knowledge, I am also aware that the Purges eliminated a large proportion of the USSR’s military leadership, which provided detrimental to in the Second World War as there was a dearth of leadership to counter Hitler’s invasion…”

Marker’s comments: Excellent structure and synthesis of relevant information/evidence.

DBQ Timed Practice

The above scripts have been marked and will be ready for collection from The Blue Level Staffroom (if you try, you can find an Unlevel Staff Room of another colour) TOMORROW 7 Sep 2007.

I will put the scripts in a box that has been suitably labelled. You can collect them anytime from 11 am. Should you want to consult me after that, please call me at my desk or on my cellphone. I might be off wandering across a moonlit mile, don’t get me wrong.

I will also put into the box the readings I gave out this week. Please pick them up if you haven’t already done so.

In a little while, I shall put up “model” answers of the DBQ timed practice, on this blog.

Stuff

I’ve emailed the slides (in *.pps format – don’t worry, can open one) to Lavi C. If you don’t get them, give her a tinkle.

I’ve also photocopied readings on China & the USA as well as the Sino-Soviet split. Now you can read about Khrushchev and his swimming pool fiasco with Mao. The readings can be collected either tomorrow or on Wednesday. I will be in from 11 am onwards tomorrow.

Announcement

This blog has been resurrected and reconfigured for the purposes of communicating with my History SL students from this time when we will no longer be meeting formally as an intact class.