It's been ages, I know. I suppose because all of the stuff went up last year, I haven't needed to update so much...
The Trial HSC will be held in Week 5. The format will be as follows:
5 minutes reading time 3 hrs writing time 4 sections (45 mins per section) 100 marks (25 marks per section)
Section 1: Pompeii. Multiple choice and short answer, using sources (15 marks). One extended response on conservation & reconstruction of the past (10 marks).
Section 2: Sparta. 4 or 5 questions, ranging from a 2-marker to a 10 or 12 marker. Focus on all aspects of Spartan society, government, and economy.
Section 3: Xerxes. One 10 mark question (describe/outline type) and one 15 mark question (explain/assess type). Could be on any aspect of his career or legacy.
Section 4: Greek World. One 25 mark question. You will be given two choices, one focusing on the Persian Wars, one on the Delian League era.
You should aim to write approx. one page per 10 marks. Make sure you use the sources EXPLICITLY. That is, say things like, 'Source A shows that...' or 'As Source B tells us...' The best exam prep you can do is to write practice responses. Access previous exams on the BOS web page.
Hi Year 12. The half-yearly is coming up very soon - Monday - so here is a list of what you should study:
Pompeii - everything in the syllabus, making sure you have plenty of detailed knowledge of large topics such as: public buildings, everyday life (religion, politics, leisure, commerce), and archaeology/conservation.
Sparta - everything in the first two syllabus areas: Sparta's geography, society and government (including areas such as the agoge, the army, women, and Lycurgus).
On that note - here is the PowerPoint we did on Lycurgus...
Hi folks. I thought I would post the Germany and Conflict in Europe essay questions that have been in the past three years' HSC exams. The new syllabus has only been examined since 2006, so these are the best questions to give you an idea of what they will ask you.
Read them, have a go at answering them, and focus on the wording of the questions, and the dot points that they cover.
Germany:
2008: (a) Account for the successes and failures of democracy in Germany in the period 1918– 1933. OR (b) To what extent can Nazism in power be seen as totalitarianism in the period 1933– 1939?
2007: (a) Explain how and why German social and cultural life changed in the period 1923-1939. OR (b) Assess the impact of Nazism on German foreign policy in the period 1933-1939.
2006: (a) Assess the importance of nationalism as a cause of the failure of democracy in Germany in the period 1918–1934. OR (b) To what extent was Hitler responsible for the development and implementation of Nazi racist policies in Germany in the period to 1939?
Conflict in Europe (only tested since 2006)
2008: (a) Evaluate the view that the air war determined the outcome of the European War. OR (b) Assess the significance of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact to the outbreak of war in 1939.
2007: (a) Evaluate the view that Operation Barbarossa was the major turning point of the European war. OR (b) To what extent did Allied and Axis strategies during World War II affect civilians?
2006: (a) Evaluate the view that the dictators Hitler and Mussolini were primarily responsible for the tensions that led to the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939. OR (b) To what extent was the Soviet Union (Russia) responsible for the Allied victory in the conflict in Europe?
Hi Ancients and Moderns. The end is very nearly nigh, as we cruise into the home straight before the HSC next month.
We have started our revision in class (the whole syllabus has been tackled - hurray!) but you should now be formulating your home study plans.
Everyone has a different way of learning, but I will give you some very general tips.
1) First, print off a copy of the four relevant syllabus pages for your class topics. You can access them via the link to each syllabus to the left of this post.
Ancient: Pompeii, Sparta, Greek World 500-44BC, Xerxes Modern: WW1, Germany, Conflict in Europe, Albert Speer
2) For each dot point in the syllabus, take a sheet of A4 paper, and try to write a page of notes on that point. You could do it as a mindmap, or as full sentences, or as dot points. Whatever works best.
3) If you can't scrape together a page of notes - you need to study that topic in more detail! Go back to your books and do some reading!
4) Then, have a go at some past exams. Go to this page to access past exam papers, from 2001 to 2008:
5) Download the papers, try writing responses in Word (set yourself the same time limit as you would have in the HSC), and email them to me. I will gladly read and comment on them.
6) Get used to all of the relevant terms used by the Board of Studies. Go to this page to make yourself familair with words like describe, outline, assess, explain, evaluate, account for:
7) Make some judgements about what we have learned this year. As you are revising, ask yourself, 'What do I think about this?' Was Xerxes a tyrant? Was Speer a self-serving opportunist? Was Hitler a madman? Did the Great Depression cause the rise of the Nazi party? Was Sparta a democracy? Was the battle of Salamis really a turning point? Why did Germany lose WW1? Was the Treaty of Versailles too harsh? Did the Soviet Union win WW2 for the Allies? What is the most important building excavated at Pompeii? Should we display the casts of human bodies pioneered by Fiorelli?
Remember - take a stance, and support it with evidence.
8) For each topic, memorise four or five short and general quotes. Quotes always look good in an essay! Find some that you could sue in a wide range of essays. Maybe some Pliny for Pompeii, Herodotus for Xerxes/Greek World, Plutarch for Sparta...
9) If there are gaps in your knowledge - now is the time to fill them. Email me - I'm here to help!
Another bunch of ancient sources for your study purposes...this time on Sparta. I have included the full translation of Plutarch's Lycurgus just because it is so important.
Sources on Xerxes and the Persian Wars to follow...
Hi everyone. As promised, here are some ancient sources you can quote in your exam responses for Pompeii & Herculaneum. I have included some grafitti inscriptions, commerical wax tablet inscriptions, and the letter from Pliny the Younger about the eruption.
Sources on Sparta, Xerxes and the Greek World will follow soon...
Well, the Trial HSC will be this Friday. A bit of last-minute advice for all you Modern students...
For WW1, focus on perspective, reliability and usefulness of sources. Be prepared to write extended responses on the larger topics: for example, the nature of warfare on the Western Front, the reasons for the stalemate, the changing attitudes of soldiers and civilians, the effects of 'total war' on civilians, the turning points of the conflict, and the aims of the Big Three at Versailles.
For Germany, remember you will have a choice of two essays. Usually, one will focus on Weimar, the other on Nazi Germany. Be sure that you know all about the problems faced by the Weimar Republic, how the Nazis achieved power, and the nature of Nazi society from 1933-1939, as well as Nazi foreign and religious policy.
For Speer, have a working knowledge of his career (maybe memorise ten important landmarks in his life). Make a list of all of his achievements and failures. Formulate an opinion on his significance as a historical personality. Be able to argue whether he was a successful person, or an unsuccessful person, and back it with evidence. Have an opinion on the guy!
For Conflict in Europe, know the steps leading to war (LA-SCRAMCUP, dictatorships, failure of the League of Nations), and the chronology of the war from 1939 to 1943. Have a detailed knowledge of the early successes of Germany (Poland, Denmark, Norway, France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Yugoslavia, Greece) as well as the failed Barbarossa campaign up to and including the Battle of Stalingrad. Revise the Battle of Britain, the Battle of El Alamein, and the effects of the war on civilians in Britain and Germany. Make sure you know about Nazi racial policies in Europe.
Have a go at some practice exams on the BOS website. Try this link for last year's paper.
Most of all - good luck! Email me if you have any problems on thomas.griffith@det.nsw.edu.au
Hi guys. This PowerPoint contains a bunch of slides all about the archaeologists who have worked at Pompeii, from Fiorelli onwards. I have borrowed this presentation from online, so it is not my own work. It has enough information to help you fill out the worksheet I handed out during the tutorial. Grab one from me in class if you didn't get one.
Modern History will have their next major assessment on Tuesday afternoon, in the double. The format will be as follows:
Time Allowed: 70 minutes
Part 1: 25 marks (35 minutes) Essay question on Conflict in Europe, using 'assess' or 'evaluate'.
Assess = make a judgement of value Explain = make a judgement based on criteria
So the question will ask you to make some sort of judgement about some aspect of the background to WW2. You should definitely revise the following points:
the dictatorships in Italy and Germany
the foreign policy actions of Mussolini (e.g. Abyssinia) and Hitler (LA-SCRAMCUP - League of Nations, Austrian coup, Saar plebiscite, Conscription, Rearmament, Anschluss, Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia, USSR-Nazi Pact, Poland)
the failure of the League of Nations (especially in the Abyssinia crisis, and the Spanish Civil War)
the policy of appeasement, followed by Britain and France until 1939
the Nazi-Soviet Pact, signed in August 1939
I have provided some revision sites below.
Part 2: 25 marks (35 minutes) 25-mark question assessing/evaluating the life of Albert Speer
Make sure you know:
his personal background, and the main events in his life/career
his main achievements (as an architect, as Minister of Armaments, as a Nazi, as a repentant war criminal, as a historical figure)
his main failures
the major controversies about Speer: did he know about the Holocaust? To what extent did he use slave labour? Was he complicit in demolishing Jewish residences? Was he a willing Nazi, or a man thrust into an important position by Hitler? Was he really sorry for what he did? Did his work as Armaments Minister make the war last longer than it would have?
The key to this question is to have an opinion, as you will be making a judgement about Speer. Make sure you back your opinion up with real evidence!!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2318929114565469665(Video about Speer) http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/speera1.shtml (Audio interviews with Speer himself) http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/speer.html (Speer's own sworn testimony at Nuremberg) http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Speer1.html (Short bio of Speer)
I have created a Word document that has the HSC exam questions on Xerxes and the Persian Wars from the 2004-2007 papers. They should give you an idea of how the questions are worded, and what content area is tested. You can download or view it here.
As you can see, the breakdown is this:
Xerxes' relationships with Persians/non-Persians 2007 Xerxes' achievements as king 2007 How Xerxes became King 2006, 2004 Xerxes' attempts to expand Persia 2006, 2004 Xerxes' personal background 2005 Xerxes' building program 2005 Xerxes' impact on Greece and Persia 2005 Xerxes' influence in his lifetime 2004
Assess the importance of naval battles 2007 Assess the contribution of Miltiades and Leonidas 2006 Evaluate the contribution of Themistocles 2005 Assess the significance of two military events 2004
Here are a few fun little flash games that you can play in about 5 minutes...all of the questions are on Germany 1918-1939, and with the 'Walk the Plank' games, you even get to make an avatar of your teacher (that would be me), and make me 'walk the plank' if you get 10/10 questions right.
Hi Ancient and Modern students. I hope it has been a relaxing and enjoyable Easter break for all of you. Now, back to work!
Term 2 will be a pretty tough one for all of you - there is a lot of content to cover, plus some assessment towards the end of term. Just to give you an idea, here is what we will be working on from Week 1:
MODERN: We will go straight into how Hitler turned Germany into a dictatorship in 1933-34. From there we will study some of the major policies of the Nazi Party, the nature of German society in the 1930s, and the forms of repression used by the Nazis. We will finish by examining the lead-up to World War Two.
These are the syllabus dot points we will cover:
– initial consolidation of Nazi power 1933–1934 – Hitler’s role in the Nazi state – Nazism as totalitarianism – the role of propaganda, terror and repression; SA and SS; opposition to Nazism – social and cultural life in the Nazi state: role of Hitler Youth, women, religion – Nazi racial policy; anti-Semitism: policy and practice to 1939 – nature of Nazi foreign policy: aims and strategies to September 1939 – impact of ideology on Nazi foreign policy to September 1939
This will take us into our conflict study for this year, the War in Western Europe. This overlaps with the Nazi Germany topic a bit, and covers the years 1935 until 1945. As well as the reasons for war, and the actual battles that were fought, we will be looking at the Holocaust, and the Nuremburg War Crimes trials.
This website is designed for school students, and has some excellent summaries of the major themes and concepts.
ANCIENT: We will spend the first few weeks of term finishing off Sparta - particularly focusing on everyday life, culture (art/literature/architecture), and the economy.
These are the syllabus dot points we shall cover (although some we have already looked at):
– land ownership: agriculture, kleroi, helots – technology: weapons, armour, pottery – economic roles of the periokoi (‘dwellers around’) and helots – economic exchange: use of iron bars, trade – art: sculpture, painted vases, bone and ivory carving – architecture: Amyklaion, Menelaion, the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia – writing and literature: Alcman and Tyrtaeus – Greek writers’ views of Sparta – daily life and leisure activities – food and clothing – marriage customs – occupations
This will lead us into our Period Study - the Greek World 500-440BC. This huge topic covers the Greco-Persian Wars (you know, Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis), as well as the lead-up to the Peloponnesian Wars, and the growth of Athenian democracy.
This website will introduce you to some of the most important people, places and themes associated with Ancient Greece during this time period.
Hi Ancient History folks. Hope you are having an equally wonderful holiday to my Modern students, and doing plenty of homework and revision while you're sitting there bored at home...
...if you do feel the urge to remind yourselves what Sparta is all about, then try this webpage. It has been put together by the British Museum, and it allows you to look at some Spartan artefacts, as well as play a very simple flash game that takes you through the stages of the agoge.
Enjoy the holidays, and see you in a couple of weeks!
Hi guys. Hope you are having a great holiday. I know you are probably spending this first week just relaxing and forgetting about the half-yearlies, but if you do feel the urge to do some revision/preparation next week, before coming back to school, then here you go:
This is a powerpoint designed by Mr Moorhouse, on Hitler's rise to power.
This is another powerpoint by a Mr Ellis, which charts how Hitler turned Germany into a Nazi dictatorship.
And here is a summary of how Hitler cemented his dictatorship from 1933 to 1934.
The revision notes I have already issued on archaeological issues connected to Pompeii/Herculaneum are a little brief, so I have been trying to track down some more comprehensive ones online. Below is an extract - posted by mel9589, so thankyou very much, mel9589 - from a set of notes available on Bored of Studies. They are by no means exhaustive, but will add to what you already have.
For those of you who don't use the site, boredofstudies is a very useful resource. You need to register, but it is free, and you could spend hours wading through the thousands and thousands of resources, essays, notes and forum posts.
Investigating, reconstructing and preserving the past
Changing methods and contributions of nineteenth and twentieth century archaeologists to our understanding of Pompeii and Herculaneum
-Excavations of Herculaneum began in 1738
-Excavations of Pompeii began in 1748
-Work under the Prince d’Elbeuf and Rocco de Alcubierre has led to the destruction of much archaeological evidence
Francesco La Vega
-Became director in 1765
-His practice was to leave the excavated monuments in view (in situ)
-He defended the system of uncovering each building in its entirety and preparing maintenance works in order to preserve in situ the architectural structures
Karl Weber
-Changed the approach of archaeology
-His job was to keep the site logbooks
-He made a slow and systematic approach to digging
-He made sketches and plans of newly discovered buildings in the tunnels and galleries
-He issued daily and weekly reports of the recovery process
-Artefacts were listed to create inventories of goods to be sent to wealthy private collectors
Giuseppe Fiorelli
-Director between 1863-1875
-Developed a method of injecting plaster into the spaces left vacant by the flesh as it decomposed
-This enabled them to recover the shape of the bodies, roots of trees and all the organic elements which left a mould in the volcanic ash after their decomposition
-Developed a method of studying archaeological strata; observation, recording, preservation and reporting
-He had excavations carried out from above in order to recover all elements constituting a house
-He was the first to divide the city of Pompeii into nine regions. Each insulae was given a name and number for easy identification
-He gave houses names based on the ancient owner, the suggested profession of the last owner, a notable feature in the house, a particular striking object or a famous visitor present during excavation
-He established a training school for archaeologists where they could learn the techniques of excavation
-He set up a museum and archive at Pompeii
Antonio Sogliano
-Spent a lot of time and money preserving the houses and buildings
-Any mosaics and frescoes were left where they were found and guarded against robbery
-Paid particular attention to solving Pompeii’s basic archaeological problems by promoting and then carrying out the first in-depth samplings in the Triangular Forum and Civil Forum area, in an attempt to understand the various states of Pompeii’s urbanistic development
Vittorio Spinazzola
-He did not take down the walls of houses
-Archaeologists were forced to guess the purpose of the house by interpreting the paintings, election posters and graffiti that covered their facades
-He tried to preserve the upper levels of houses
-This was done because many of the walls contained pictures and graffiti, which were mostly political slogans
-He believed that the city could not be understood without understanding the daily lives of the people and how they expressed this
-One of his innovations was the recording of all phases of the excavation with photographs
-One of the major excavations was of the Via dell’Abbondanza
Amedeo Maiuri
-Director between 1924-1961
-One of the most dynamic and controversial directors in the excavations’ history
-Intensive activity
-Completely excavated the city walls
-Discovered the largest necropolis ever known in Pompeii
-He instituted a policy of recreating the atmosphere of the interiors of the houses by leaving domestic utensils in place and restoring walls and ceilings
-His aim was to give the visitor an impression of what life was like immediately before the eruption
-Perhaps one of Maiuri’s greatest contributions to archaeology and public education was his series of guidebooks for Pompeii and Herculaneum. They were published in many languages and still provide a lively and informative commentary for the visitor
-Deepened the excavations at significant locations to investigate pre-Roman levels
August Mau
-Created a system for categorising the Roman wall paintings into four basic decorative styles
-Although Mau’s work has been modified over the years, it still provides the framework for the study of ancient Roman paintings
See Archaeological sources: Wall paintings
De Franciscis
-1961-1976
-Concentrated on restoration work
Zevi and Irelli
-1977-1982 and 1982-1984
-Mainly focused on damage caused to the town by the earthquake of 1980
Conticello
-1984 – 1994
-A large amount of funding became available
-Initiated the systematic philological restoration of all the funds
Guzzo
-1994
-Concentrating on finding a solution to management and financial problems
Professor Haraldur Sigurdsson
-Before Sigurdsson, Amedeo Mairui believed that Pompeii was destroyed by the rapid fall of pumice and ash
-Sigurdsson and his colleagues conducted the first systematic examination of the Vesuvius deposits
-Sigurdsson cross examined the evidence with other evidence from modern eruptions
-His examination revealed that there were two phases of eruption and Pompeii was only hit by a surge while Herculaneum was hit by a surge and a flow
The research of Sigurdsson and his colleagues presented a new reconstruction of the eruption by:
-Combining the stratigraphical evidence from the volcanic deposits and the letters of Pliny the Younger
-Contrasting the different effects of the pumice fall, pyroclastic surges and pyroclastic flows on Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis and Stabiae
-Establishing a chronology for the main events during the eruption
-Identifying the different types of deposits resulting from the eruption and reconstructing the processes that occurred during the event
Changing interpretations: impact of new research and technologies
-Since the beginning of excavation at Pompeii and Herculaneum there has been a change in the method of which excavation took place
-In the beginning, excavation was haphazard and random. No care was taken and many archaeological remains were destroyed
-There was no system of recording artefacts and many artefacts were sold to wealthy collectors
-Karl Weber and Vittorio Spinazzola later introduced a method of systematic excavation
-Further on, new technology has allowed for the preservation of artefacts
-New technology has also allowed for the restoration of artefacts
-New technology has also allowed for the plaster injection method to identify casts
-The work has been further enhanced since the 1990s by the introduction of computer technology, such as computer-aided design (CAD) software, which allows 3-D constructions to be made
-Advanced technology has allowed us to discover more about skeletal remains such as tooth decay, calcium deficiency etc
-X-ray technology and CT scans are non-invasive techniques which allow us to examine casts
Issues of conservation and reconstruction: Italian and international contributions and responsibilities; impact of tourism
Responsibilities of the Italians
-A number of international rescue missions were undertaken at Pompeii in the 1980s to prevent further deterioration of the site
-Some of the conservation methods used in the recent past is now causing new conservation problems in the present
-The University of Bologna in Italy has worked on the House of Centenary
Responsibilities of the world
-The Anglo-American Project in Pompeii is an international team working in Insula VI
-The World Monuments Fund and the Kress Foundation have made a major investment in plans for conserving the House of the Silver Wedding
-The Packard Humanities Institute and the BritishSchool at Rome have begun a significant conservation program at Herculaneum
Projects
-Houses in Pompeii – investigate and salvage buildings that had been excavated over the preceding centuries
-Insula of Menander – 3 stage analysis and documentation of a whole city block to draw general conclusions about the insula’s structure over time and its final form in 79AD
-Pompeian forum – challenge widely published and generally accepted views about the Forum in order to produce more accurate plans and elevations and to understand Pompeian urbanism
-The Herculaneum Conservation Project – a joint venture with the local heritage authority to preserve and enhance the ancient city
Impact of tourism
-This has led to the deterioration of sites in both Pompeii and Herculaneum
-This highlights the need for conservation of these sites
Ethical issues: study and display of human remains
-The ancient Romans believed that for a soul to rest peacefully in the afterlife, the body had to be given a proper burial
-Very little respect was paid to the victims of the 79AC eruption, and during earlier excavations they were sometimes treated as theatre props or as archaeological specimens
-Early excavators and treasure hunters often showed little regard for human remains, often discarding and smashing them carelessly, removing them, displaying them for the grisly entertainment of visitors, or leaving them forgotten, wrapped in newspaper in the dark, dirty basement of museums
Show Cause aspects of the NSW Bail Act
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We have all been the victim of some form of discrimination at one point or
another. However this is the face of injustice via the Victorian justice
syste...
The Quadratic Formula Song
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Having trouble remembering the quadratic formula? Try this.....
(not for the faint hearted)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvXgFLV2gOk
Year 12 Economics: The dollar
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Click on the link below, read the article, and make 3 comments.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/ignore-cries-of-woe-over-soaring-dollar-20091016-h13i.html
Into the World
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Into the World, Taken from BOS Website, link can be found on "useful links"
and also at the bottom of this post.
*ELECTIVES: StandardMODULE C: Texts and...
