How to analyse and evaluate historical sources successfully

How to analyse and evaluate historical sources successfully at A Level? Aims: To unlock the skills of successful A level source evaluation. To research sources to include within your project and use the skills gained to analyse and evaluate them.

You are going to look at a number of skills you will develop as A level historians Choose an area of History you are interested in. You will then use this to complete tasks in every History seminar so you end up with a portfolio that you will present and be evaluated by others. Please fill in the submission page on the History Department ‘Bridging the gap Yr 11’ if you haven’t already done so.

How Do You Answer a Source Based Question? Comment Context Judgement The Keys to Success = C 3 J or CCCJ

Comment ¨ An initial reaction to the question? ¨ Do you agree or disagree? ¨ Let the examiner know that you have understood the question by echoing the question. ¨ The message in the cartoon is ….

Content ¨ What does the source tell you that will help you answer the question? ¨ What inferences can you make? (Reading between the lines) ¨ What facts can you get from the source? ¨ What can you see in the cartoon, picture or diagram? ¨ The source shows … ¨ The source tells us … ¨ From the source I can deduct ….

Three Key Questions: Nature Purpose PROVENANCE Origin

Context ¨ Nature – What type of source is it? ¨ Origin – When was it made and by whom? ¨ Purpose – Who was the intended audience? ¨ Knowledge – Does the information in the source agree with your knowledge of events? Events that you know were happening at the time.

Nature: This Is the Form of the Source ¨ Is it a letter, a speech, a diary, a book, a cartoon, a photograph or a newspaper article etc? ¨ What difference does the form of evidence make? ¨ For example, in which form of evidence are people most likely to write what they really believe?

Origin: Where Did the Source Come From? ¨ What do you know about the person or organisation? ¨ Was the source produced by someone who was there at the time, or was it produced later? ¨ For example, eyewitnesses can easily get things wrong, but someone writing later has the opportunity to check the facts.

Purpose: Why Was the Source Made? ¨ Advertisements are usually intended to persuade people to buy something. ¨ Speeches are usually made because the speaker wants people to do something. ¨ Cartoons are usually intended to make fun of people. ¨ Is the source one-sided or biased? If so, what would the ‘other side’ have said? ¨ One-sided or biased sources help us to understand people’s views

Useful Questions to Ask of a Source: ¨ Who made the source and why? ¨ When was the source made and did the person see the events at first hand? ¨ Is the person who made the source biased? ¨ Is the information reliable or correct when compared to your knowledge of events? ¨ How useful is the source to an historian trying to find out about a particular topic? ¨ What ideas, facts or concepts does the source not tell you about the topic you are studying? UTILITY = VALUE = WEIGHT

Useful Phrases for writing about a historical source ¨ In source A, we can clearly see …… which agrees or ¨ ¨ ¨ disagrees with my knowledge. This is backed up by source B because … When comparing source A with source B, a historian can learn …. about …. A historian has to be careful when using source A, because …. Source B is useful for finding out about …. but does not give any facts / information on …. Although this source is biased it is still useful for showing a historian … Although this source is not reliable for finding out about …. it is still reliable for ….

Judgement ¨ Does the source agree or disagree with the question? ¨ Does the information in the source agree or disagree with the other sources? ¨ What do you think? ¨ Having weighed up the evidence …. . ¨ To conclude …. UTILITY = VALUE = WEIGHT

What does this figure represent? Why are these figures shown arm in arm? Who is this? What does this figure represent? Why is this figure shown? What do you think the painter was trying to say about the Kaiser and the state of Germany when he painted this in 1918? Who is the artist appearing to blame for all the suffering? How can you tell?

Comment: What is the message of the cartoon? Content: What facts can we gather from the source? What can you deduce? Context: NOP Judgement on utility According to source what were the effects of World War I on Germany? This is making an inference

We know that there are no such things as vampires so this cartoon must be getting across a message… The cartoon was called ‘Clemenceau the Vampire’. (Clemenceau was the leader of France and heavily involved in drawing up the Treaty of Versailles. ) What do you think the other parts of the cartoon represent?

CCCJ - What inferences can you make from this source?

C C C J

‘Choose an area of History you are interested in. You will then use this to complete tasks in every History seminar so you end up with a portfolio that you will present and be evaluated by others’ You should now use these skills that you have acquired from this seminar to research sources that you can use to include within your portfolio. 1. Choose your topic for research. 2. Search for sources that are from the period of History you have selected and that reflect the event. 3. Analyse and evaluate these sources using the skills gained from this seminar and include this within your portfolio.

Web links to find historical sources: ¨ https: //www. iwm. org. uk/ ¨ https: //www. nationalarchives. gov. uk/ ¨ https: //www. johndclare. net/ ¨ https: //spartacus-educational. com/ ¨ https: //www. activehistory. co. uk/ Login for this is username salesian password sian 523 Wikipedia may also contain relevant sources for your event