Clarification details
Updated December 2020. All sections of this document have been updated to address issues that have arisen from moderation.
Annotations
The intent of the standard is for students to think as historians when following a research process. Evidence can reach the higher grades with relatively brief annotations that are directly linked to specific, identified evidence - demonstrating their ability to think like historians.
While the types of comments made in the annotations are likely to be similar at both levels 2 and 3, level 3 annotations would more frequently assess both the evidence and the source from a historian’s point of view, and would more consistently provide a higher level of specificity and detail. Several instances of annotations demonstrating higher-level thinking are required at Merit and/or Excellence.
Assessing the evidence and source from a historian’s point of view could involve, for example:
- identifying different perspectives
- cross referencing specific information or ideas between sources to support the analysis of the evidence
- assessing the reliability of the evidence and/or source
- identifying omissions or inaccuracies in the information
- assessing the comparative usefulness of sources.
Awarding Excellence
For Excellence, showing initiative in gathering and selecting evidence commonly includes either using at least one source that is beyond the school and beyond the internet, or selecting a good amount of worthwhile evidence from at least one source that is challenging (e.g. difficult to read, very lengthy or written in an archaic or academic way).
For all grade judgements at level 8 of the curriculum, comments made in the evaluation should be fully explained and supported by specific examples. For Excellence, the strengths and weaknesses identified in the evaluation should also include a discussion of how this is likely to have impacted on the validity of the findings.
Following a research process
The completion of preliminary reading (see the second and third bullet points of Explanatory Note 3) before the creation of the focusing question(s) may help to ensure that appropriate focusing question(s) are created that are neither too broad, nor too narrow.
‘Specific possible sources’ means, for example, specific book or article titles or URLs. Students should specifically state how the information cited from the sources identified during preliminary reading could contribute to the research.
The expectation for this Achievement Standard is that students will select and present sufficient evidence to allow comprehensive analysis of the context. An appropriate balance of primary and secondary sources should also be included. This is a step up from the equivalent Achievement Standards at levels 1 and 2.