History

What is the nature of History at IGCSE level?

History at SJII is not a matter of learning names and dates, nor a matter of spending long periods taking notes from the teacher or the text book. It is rather a wide range of activities through which students experience, understand and analyse the events they are studying. Above all, it is a process of thinking and developing a range of skills. Naturally, in the case of Grades 9 and 10 there is a focus upon the analytical skills required in the examination at the end of the course.

What is the approach to learning in History?

The student’s experience of History at SJII will be active, diverse and engaging. It will challenge them in their skills of judgment, evaluation and reasoning, and it will strengthen their values as they study real world dilemmas. They will be given the opportunity to be original and creative, to communicate to small and large audiences, to be persuasive, to lead and to follow.

What is the nature of assessment in History?

Students will be assessed throughout the two years with IGCSE style exams leading up to the main external examinations at the end of the course. Students will sit three papers in History:

Paper 1

This is a short essay based paper of two sections. Students will complete two questions from section A and one question from section B. Students will have a choice of questions based on the course outline below for section A. Section B will be based on their ‘Depth Study’, the USA between the wars. Students are taught the need for specific detailed knowledge and how to explain the significance of events.

Paper 2

This is the source based question paper. The topic of study changes annually and is based on one of the topics of the twentieth century. Students are taught to analyse and evaluate sources for information and reliability.

Paper 4

This is the second of the essay based exams. This paper is the alternative to coursework. It is the ‘Depth Study’ which is also based on the USA between the wars.

There is one essay question worth 40 marks. Students are taught how to create an argument and how to write in essay form.

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The IGCSE course is a study in modern world history. In Grade 9 we study the following: ● International Relations 1919-39

I. The Peace Settlement remaking Europe after World War I – how the peace was made.

II. How the peace was lost – following the pattern of international relations after 1919, we chart how the optimism of the 1920’s turned into the slide towards war after the accession of Hitler to power. Along the way we also consider in detail:

III. The Great Depression

IV. The rise and fall of the League of Nations

● The USA 1919-41

I. The 1920’s – we look at the boom years in the United States, examining how the thriving economy was created and what weaknesses it contained.

II. The ‘Roaring Twenties’: American society possessed many remarkably features in the 1920’s and we examine them all – the ‘Jazz Age’, the birth of the cinema, prohibition and gangsters, and the sinister Ku Klux Klan.

III. The Wall Street Crash: How the boom turned into bust, how the Wall Street Crash turn into a depression which spread across America and the rest of the world.

IV. Roosevelt and the New Deal: In 1933 Franklin Roosevelt was elected President, promising the Americans a ‘New Deal’ which would end the Depression. We examine what Roosevelt did – and how well it worked.

In grade 10 we continue our study of international relations this time focusing on the Cold War, studying the following topics:

1. The origins of the Cold War. We look at the breakdown of the USA-USSR alliance in 1945-6; Soviet expansion into Eastern Europe to 1948, and American reactions to it; occupation of Germany and the Berlin Blockade.

2. The USA’s attempts to contain the spread of communism. We focus upon two case studies: American reactions to the Cuban revolution, including the missile crisis and its aftermath, and American involvement in the Vietnam War.

3. An analysis of the USSR’s control over Eastern Europe 19 48 – c.1989 We will look at Soviet power in Eastern Europe: including resistance to Soviet power in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968); the Berlin Wall; 'Solidarity' in Poland; Gorbachev and the collapse of the Soviet Empire.

In addition to covering and completing the syllabus content, a significant amount of time will be spent developing the essay and document skills required by this course and practicing examination questions.

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