EDEXCEL 9-1 GCSE HISTORY. Topics on a Page - The American West

These resources provide students with a 'TOPIC ON A PAGE’ summary for the component units of the EDEXCEL GCSE HISTORY. AMERICAN WEST

Topic 1 - The early settlement of the West, C1835 - 1862
Topic 2 - Development of the Plains, c1862 - 1876
Topic 3 - Conflicts & Conquest, c1876 - 1895

They fully cover the syllabus content for each topic and can be used by students and teachers to:
a) consolidate knowledge and understanding to encourage student mastery (embedding academic language and concepts) after students have completed a topic in class or as a homework task, helping them identify areas of strengths and weaknesses
b) as a quick starter activity to review prior learning or weeks/months later as a spaced retrieval practice task. I regularly take sections from the placemats and use them to support spiralled learning.
c) to encourage relevant exam responses - specifically targeting the themes of explaining the cause of illness, methods of prevention, treatments, care of the sick, public health, important individuals and factors effecting change.
d) the question squares can be completed and then cut up into cards to form KAGAN Quiz/Quiz Trade Question and Answer Cards
e) as a useful revision aid before the final exam. (Many of my Year 11 students rely on these sheets in the final weeks and days of revision and have commented that they have helped make factual recall of the huge volume of the syllabus content more achievable.
The resource includes prompt pictures to appeal to visual learners and can be used as a standalone resource or in conjunction with the Edexcel Pearson Revision Guide, where all of the answers can be found. This resource can also be used in conjunction with the topic placemats that I have produced to support students in lessons. The first box contains the same summary picture for the whole topic. In particular, I have successfully used the TOPIC ON A PAGE summaries with the ‘EXAM TECHNIQUE’ side of the placemats so when students are given exam questions, they can quickly find relevant supporting knowledge to use in a response. I have used this resource successfully with students targeted Levels 4 - 9. It could be easily adapted for students working on or below L3. The ‘fill in the gaps’ prompts can be removed for higher ability students.