Modern History – Age of Imperialism – Scramble for Africa – how to Evaluate sources

This lesson includes:
1 x list of source types for warm up evaluation activity (can be laminated with a magnet on the back for sorting activity)
1 x PowerPoint
1 x Source Booklet
1 x Independent Work Booklet with various activities designed to help students practice the evaluation skill

Context: My school runs this program in Alternative Sequence (yr 11 and 12s in together) due to the small size of the school. The lesson begins with some teaching that both grades can do together before the year 12s are assigned some independent work and the year 11s are given some more focused teaching. Then the year 11’s do independent work while the year 12s share their answers and receive feedback.

The lesson begins with a warm up activity where students have to place types of sources on a grid in terms of how reliable and useful they typically are. Next students have to brainstorm some synonyms and antonyms for ‘reliable’ and ‘useful.’ Following this, year 12s are given a booklet which has evaluation activities (starting at simple activities and building up to those styled like the short response questions in the Term 4 exam). They begin completing these while the year 11’s get a more teacher centred lesson. In this portion of the lesson we begin with defining ‘evaluate’ before zooming in on the evaluation criteria we use in modern history – reliability and usefulness. There is information about what reliability is and that there are levels of reliability. There are tips for how to write a judgement of reliability and some things to look for when determining reliability. There is a list of reasons why a source may be deemed unreliable. There is an example reliability statement which has been colour coded to show how the writer has included various features of evidence in their evaluation.

Following this, the gradual release method is used to engage with the first few sources in the booklet. (I explain the first activity, we engage with Source 1 and then complete the question together – with me modelling my thinking process via think alouds. Students then do Source 2 as a pair and Source 3 on their own). This is followed by explicit teaching on how to determine the usefulness of a source. There is also information about the importance of corroboration (including a video from the History Skills website). This is followed by some sentence starters which can be used when corroborating. This is followed by completing activities from the booklet (first as a we do, then students do one in a pair, then they do one on their own). Following this, the year 11’s continue doing the booklet independently while I go through the answers with the year 12s.

Types of sources: a novel, a Wikipedia article, an Encyclopedia Britannica article, a pamphlet written by Mark Twain (from the perspective of King Leopold), a book written by Arthur Conan Doyle about the Congo, a textbook, a range of political cartoons (4), and a book entitled The Fortunes of Africa.