Assess the significance of the Great Depression on German History 1923- 1939′
High School Level type of work
candidates have to decide their own criteria for assessing significance (affecting Hitler’s rise to power could be one)
Word limit: 2000 words, worth 27 % of IGCSE grade
The assessment objectives in this coursework are:
AO1: an ability to recall, select, organise and deploy knowledge of the syllabus content (15 marks)
AO2: an ability to construct historical explanations using an understanding of:
cause and consequence, change and continuity, similarity and difference
the motives, emotions, intentions and beliefs of people in the past
Germany 20th Century Depth Study Key question: ˜Assess the significance of the Great Depression on German History 1923- 1939′
Candidates have to decide their own criteria for assessing significance (affecting Hitler’s rise to power could be one)
Word limit: 2000 words, worth 27 % of IGCSE grade
The assessment objectives in this coursework are:
AO1: an ability to recall, select, organise and deploy knowledge of the syllabus content (15 marks)
AO2: an ability to construct historical explanations using an understanding of:
cause and consequence, change and continuity, similarity and difference
the motives, emotions, intentions and beliefs of people in the past
(40 marks)
Level Marks Description
5 36-40 Candidates demonstrate and select and effectively deploy relevant and accurate contextual knowledge.
Candidates select a wide range of relevant information which is well organised and deployed effectively.
Candidates demonstrate excellent understanding of the significance of the key features, reasons, results or changes of societies, events, beliefs, people and situations studied with good awareness of the
importance of interrelationships and the broad context.
Candidates consistently produce relevant, effective, convincing and well-supported arguments and judgements.
Candidates produce conclusions that are entirely consistent with the rest of the answer and are effectively supported.
4 27-35 Candidates demonstrate and select and effectively deploy mostly relevant and accurate contextual knowledge.
Candidates select a range of relevant information which is generally well-organised and effectively deployed.
Candidates demonstrate a good understanding of the significance of the key features, reasons, results or changes of societies, events, beliefs, people and situations studied with good awareness of the broad context.
Candidates demonstrate some understanding of interrelationships in the period studied.
In several places, candidates produce relevant, effective, convincing and well-supported arguments and judgements.
Candidates produce conclusions that are argued and supported.
3 18-26 Candidates demonstrate and select some relevant contextual
knowledge and deploy it appropriately to address the question in several parts of the answer.
Candidates select and organise mostly relevant information which is sometimes deployed relevantly.
Candidates demonstrate a reasonable understanding of the key features, reasons, results or changes of societies, events, beliefs, people and situations studied with some awareness of the broad context.
Candidates produce structured descriptions and some reasonable explanations.
Candidates make some comparisons or links.
Candidates produce conclusions that are based on basic explanations with some support.
2 9-17 Candidates demonstrate some limited contextual knowledge.
Candidates select and organise some relevant information. This is deployed relevantly on a few occasions.
Candidates describe or narrate some relevant key features, identifying and describing some reasons, results and changes of societies, events, beliefs, people and situations studied but with limited awareness of the broad context.
Candidates demonstrate some ability to structure descriptions or narratives.
Candidates attempt some obvious comparisons or links.
Candidates assert relevant conclusions but these are not explained or supported.
1 1-8 Candidates demonstrate little relevant contextual knowledge.
Candidates demonstrate limited ability to select and organise
information.
Candidates describe or narrate a few relevant key features. The work contains a little relevant information but this is not deployed relevantly in terms of answering the question.
0 0 Candidates submit no evidence or do not address the question.
Coursework must be the learner’s own work. Any quotations, copied or paraphrased material must be fully acknowledged. This can be done within the text of the answer or in footnotes. “ see Google drive folder for help here.
Learners should, instead, try and write a focused, informed and well-argued answer to the question. Once learners have selected some relevant material and examples from the given context, they need to think about how they are going to deploy these relevantly to answer the question. Learners also need to understand that their views
need to be supported with argument that itself is informed by sound and accurate knowledge, relevant and well-chosen examples, and good understanding of the history.
The question is about significance of the depression and comparing it to other events and influences happening in Germany from 1923- 1939.
When measuring significance learners should try and measure the depression across time (impact at the time) and over time (longer-term impact).
Mini questions to help you plan your paragraphs
how many people, groups or institutions were affected in Germany?
which different types of people were affected (e.g. rich/poor)?
were men/women affected to the same degree?
were different parts of the country/world affected in the same way?
how deeply were people’s lives, beliefs and attitudes affected?
how far were other aspects, e.g. institutions, power relationships, changed?
for how long were people affected in Germany?
how important was it to people in Germany?
how powerful was the impact?
what kind of reaction was caused in Germany?
how far was the depression and its effects commented on by people at the time?
how far was it beneficial “ did any types of people not get affected?
how expected/unexpected was the depression?
how much of a change occurred between what went before and what came after, e.g. how far was it a turning point?
how much continuity occurred between what went before and what came after, e.g. how far was it part of a trend?
how far did it affect things in the longer term, e.g. was it a false dawn, how long did the impact last?
Getting down to planning and writing
One of the advantages of coursework is that it provides learners with an opportunity to carefully plan their work and produce a rough draft. Therefore, they should be in a position of knowing what their overall argument and point of view is before they start writing the final draft.
Learners should indicate their main viewpoint and argument before they start writing the final draft. One approach is to state this in the opening paragraph of the coursework. This gives focus and direction to the rest of the answer in which the learner justifies their point of view
A plan
Constructing a plan is important because it helps learners think about the question and how to answer it.
Learners will need to think about what is relevant, what to leave out and the order in which they are going to answer the question. It also gives learners an overview of the answer which they can constantly refer to when writing out their final draft.
To get started they could generate ideas (on separate bits of paper) and then begin to organise their ideas to create a kind of mind map. An outline of the
overall shape of the answer should then emerge.
(Could use mind meister)
Introduction “ learners should briefly explain how they plan to answer the question, and state what their overall argument/point of view is. There is no need to describe the content background/context.
Main body of answer “ every paragraph should directly address the question and should take the argument further. There should be a logical development from one paragraph to another. There should be an overall clear structure and organisation.
Conclusion “ this should grow out of and follow on from the argument and analysis in the main part of the answer. A direct answer to the question should be given and this needs to be substantiated and argued if this has not been done earlier in the answer.
Questions for learners to ask themselves before writing final draft:
am I within the 2000 words?
have I answered the question?
is my final answer to the main issue in the question clear, developed and supported? (This can be either
in the main part of the answer or in a dparagraph used for a new idea, aspect or argument?
does every paragraph address the question?
do the paragraphs logically flow from one to the other?
is there anything important that I have left out?
are there any sections of description or narrative or anything irrelevant that I should delete?
does sentence construction, grammar, punctuation or spelling need to be improved or corrected?
