Modern History - Russian Revolution - Research task scaffolding booklet

Part of a set of resources created for a senior Modern History class in Australia (QCAA syllabus). The assessment to be completed in this unit is a ‘Independent Source Investigation’ where students must develop their own key research question, write a rationale, locate sources, analyse and evaluate those sources and write a critical summary of evidence.

This is a scaffolding booklet which takes students through the planning and writing phases of their assessment.

• It begins with prompts to select an individual / group to focus on. It provides tips for writing a key inquiry question and an example for a different topic from the QCAA exemplar for IA2.
• Then, to assist the students to write 3-5 sub questions, there is information about each historical concept (which they could choose to use as a frame for their questions). There is a template for reflecting on the worth of their key and sub questions.
• After this students can create a tentative thesis statement / hypothesis. There is information to help students to do this. (Eventually this will be incorporated into their rationale section of their assessment).
• There are a series of tables where students can store the information / sources they found. There is a column for analysis and a column for evaluation where students can make dot points to gather their ideas ready to be turned into a succinct response in their assessment.
• This is followed by writing tips for the rationale and critical summary of evidence, referencing tips and a self-review checklist for students to use to check their work prior to submitting a draft.
• There is also a peer review form for students to use to receive feedback from a ‘critical friend.’