NEW: OCR GCSE Making of America Revision Resources

As we approach exam season, I thought I'd take a few moments to upload some revision materials for Year 11s who have studied the OCR GCSE Making of America course. These are also adaptable to other boards.

You can find all the resources HERE or via the teaching resources link on the right. Feedback and tweaks always welcome @apf102.

PPT: OCR Making of America Revision Challenging
In this session (2-3 hours) I have endeavoured to help students consolidate their knowledge and apply it to the big story which underpins both the 9 and 18 mark questions. I have also tried to help them reduce the number of key events to just 16, so that they can link all other events through these 16. The assumption is that students have some basic starting knowledge. A brief summary of how I have used this presentation is given below:

1. Reminder of the point of the unit & link to the importance of the big question which over-arches most of the topic.
2. Introduce the idea that there are 16 key dates which hold almost all of the story together. Give each pair a copy of the cards from "card sort easy cut" and get them to sort into know/don't know. They should then add key details on the back of all the ones they know. Whilst they do this, check for common gaps which you can address from the don't know piles. They can then share to find out missing cards. ALTERNATIVELY you could give them notes/books to complete this task for the don't knows.
3. Now get them to find connections to the key events. They could just do one or two of these. Aim to identify 2-3 causes and 2-3 consequences as on slide 13. On the lines they should write the connection. This gives them a good approach to answer 10 markers which are almost always cause or consequence. Could model a 10 marker at this point using slides 14-16. NB, A common problem here is lack of timeline knowledge - students often put TC RR as a cause of the Gold Rush for example. This makes the next point important.
4. Get them to arrange their cards into a single timeline - groups of 4 work well for this due to the space needed. Confirm order and dates using slide 19 and then get them to stack the cards int he right order again. If you want to reinforce this you could get them to jumble the cards and do it again.
5. Return to the big question (slide 20) and note that different visions of America inspired people to act very differently. Introduce the 4 big visions of America and ensure students have the "Competing Visions" sheet to read.
6. Next they will use their cards to create a living graph of one group's story of America. They should be allocated one "vision". On A2/A1 paper they should draw a basic set of axes (Slide 22): horizontal for time and vertical to show how far the group's vision of America was coming to pass. 
7. Direct them to take each card in turn and decide how far their group's vision was being fulfilled, physically moving the card up/down on the paper (bluetac is helpful here). When they have decided they should add a brief annotation to explain. They can then move onto the next card (some overlapping is needed on A2 paper). It is helpful to model this process with them first and get a few groups to explain where they have put cards and why. A full set of events and some initial modelling are given on slides 23-60. If their knowledge was weak, you could also talk them through the events instead.
8. Get students to share the experiences of their group by explaining their charts to class or each other. Or they could write a group paragraph: How far did XXXXXXXX's vision of America come true 1789-1900?
9. Link the activity to 18 mark questions by showing how they often need to know details over time to address questions. Use slides 61-67 to show how 18 markers can be reverse engineered to help them come up with other factors.
10. Get them to follow up by completing fortune lines for other groups on a copy of the A3 chart "Visions of America Fortune Line" and completing some 18 mark questions using the "Exam questions" booklet or the "OCR Making of America Practise Question Bank"

PPT: OCR Making of America Revision Timeline
This is just a more basic version of the activity above with more teacher led instruction. This is useful if you think students have a weaker grasp of the knowledge.

1. Open as above.
2. Get them to sort cards in a time order, removing any they are not sure of.
3. Hand out the A3 chart "Visions of America Fortune Line" , getting them to check their order.
4. Now go through the key events of the story of America using slides 10-17. Students should add notes to their timeline in the boxes.
5. Return to the big question (slide 18) and note that different visions of America inspired people to act very differently. Introduce the 4 big visions of America and ensure students have the "Competing Visions" sheet to read.
6. Ask students to chart the fortunes of one group on their A3 timeline. Model on the board (slide 20). Could all do the same one, or all different ones.
7. Continue with the story, pausing at points to update the charts on the A3 sheet.
8. Get students to share the experiences of their group by explaining their charts to class or each other. Or they could write a group paragraph: How far did XXXXXXXX's vision of America come true 1789-1900?
9. Reiterate the idea that there are 16 key dates which hold almost all of the story together. Give each pair a copy of the cards from "card sort easy cut" 
10. Now get them to find connections to the key events. They could just do one or two of these. Aim to identify 2-3 causes and 2-3 consequences as on slide 55. On the lines they should write the connection. This gives them a good approach to answer 10 markers which are almost always cause or consequence. Could model a 10 marker at this point using slides 14-16. 
11. Finally explore the 18 mark questions by showing how they often need to know details over time to address questions. Use slides 61-67 to show how 18 markers can be reverse engineered to help them come up with other factors.
12. Complete some 18 mark questions using the "Exam questions" booklet or the "OCR Making of America Practise Question Bank"

PPT: OCR Making of America Revision Questions
This is just a selection of approaches to answering questions.