Watergate for GCSE

This will allow you to deliver the Watergate GCSE topic from scratch, although it could easily be used as a plenary / revision / homework activity. Most of my students have additional SEND, so I tend to do this over two lessons. Also works well as an emergency cover-lesson.

Part 1: Cloze sheet (25 gaps) on the Watergate affair: what it was, what it led to; the political context, the military context; consequences for U.S. politics and Vietnam War.

Missing words boxed at the bottom of the sheet; each word is used once only. Differentiated four ways, 4 - least help to 1 - most help thus: (e.g. missing word is durable)

4: gap is __________________
3: gap is __ __ __ __ __ __ __
2: gap is d_________________
1: gap is d __ __ __ __ __ __

(this doesn’t display correctly on TES, so please see also previews of the bottom corners of the sheets, showing how the differentiation works). I let students in the same class choose their own level of differentiation - although I have very small classes (in a PRU), so it isn’t a big ask.

Part 2: 16 questions from the text. Questions begin with straightforward fact recall, becoming more challenging (broadly following Bloom’s Taxonomy), moving through analysis and ending on evaluative / interpretative questions.

V1 of the questions provides a grid for students’ answers; V2 if for more able students, answering in exercise books, with scope for more expansive answers.

Answer sheets for both parts (although final “free response” questions will generate a great variety of answers from students).

All word documents are fully editable: you may wish to tweak some of the instructions or questions to suit your class.