Clarification details
Updated March 2025. This document has been updated to reflect the changes made to the standard at the end of 2024.
Annotations
The intent of the standard is for students to think as historians when following a research process. Therefore, students can attain the higher grades by writing relatively brief annotations that are directly linked to specific, identified evidence, and which demonstrate their ability to think like historians. For Merit and Excellence these must be analytical and critical.
While the types of comments made in the annotations are similar at both Level 2 and 3, Level 3 annotations must show a deeper and more critical assessment of the source. Annotations at Level 3 should 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.
Awarding Excellence
For Excellence, showing initiative in the gathering and selecting of 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, comments need to be analytical and should show an awareness of how the strengths and weaknesses discussed impact 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. Only one focus question is required.
‘Specific possible sources’ means, for example, specific book or article titles or URLs. Students are also expected to specifically state how the information cited from the sources identified during preliminary reading could contribute to the research.
The expectation for this standard is that students will select and present sufficient evidence to allow comprehensive analysis of the context. This is a step up from the equivalent standards at Level 1 and 2. The collection of sources should be of an appropriate depth and complexity to reflect curriculum level 8, and there should be meaningful engagement with both primary and secondary sources.