Summits 'Depth DVD'

The next 'depth DVD' is now available from me in room 11. This one has two 1 hour documentaries on about Cold War summits (meetings between the USA and USSR). They are excellent and will help a lot if you are planning to answer the USA and the Wider World 1929-1990 question.

Vienna 1961
How Kennedy and Khrushchev's meeting in Vienna in 1961 nearly led to world war.

Geneva, 1985
How Reagan and Gorbachev's 1985 meeting in Geneva saw an unlikely end to the Cold War.

History Revision Notes

Below are electronic copies of the three revision notes booklets that you have been given in class. These are very useful to have alongside your class exercise books and they will give you the knowledge that you need to do well. You might want to use these with some of the 'Revision Pig' techniques.

Germany 1918-1945 Revision Notes

USA 1910-1929 Revision Notes

USA 1929-1990 Revision Notes (part I)

USA 1929-1990 Revision Notes (part II)

Thirteen Days - 'Depth DVD' film

I have avaliable lots of DVDs of this film about the Cuban Missile Crisis recorded from the TV. It is fairly long but it is excellent and will REALLY help if a question on this topic comes up (it often does!). Collect a copy from me in room 11. I should have enough for everyone who wants one.

What is the film about?

What was the 'Cuban Missile Crisis'?

This is the first in a number of future 'depth DVDs' that will let you explore an issue in far more detail than we have time for in lessons.

PS - Please only take a copy if you really are going to watch it...

Past Exam Papers

'Cross train your brain!'

Follow the links for the last two years exam papers and marking schemes for each of our three topics. These are massively useful for your revision. You can use them to go through each paper and test yourself. Work out the gaps in your own knowledge and revise these bits. Work smarter, not just harder!

Germany 1919-1945 (2007)
Germany 1919-1945 (2006)

USA 1910-1929 (2007)
USA 1910-1929 (2006)

USA 1929-1990 (2007)
USA 1929-1990 (2006)

Mark Scheme (2007)
Mark Scheme (2006)

They are all provided in .pdf format and some are quite large. Feel free to share any questions as 'comments' that you are not sure about and everyone can chip in to help answer them (I will as well).

I hope that you find these useful and well done to everyone who came to today's history workshop. It's all about the mental toughness!

History Revision Workshop - 15th April 2008

Hello everyone,

We are having our Easter revision session on Tuesday 15th April (tomorrow!) from 10am until 2pm in room 11. Here the focus will be on what you want. Need help with Germany? Last minute coursework polish? Stuck on the outline USA? etc...

Mr Harris and I will be on hand to help out.

Revision Guides

Here are some resources that you could buy to help with your revision...

This is our standard class textbook, fairly basic but it covers ALL of our topics and has exam questions. It is written by the same people who write our exam. £16.25.

I have not personally seen this one but it ties in with the very good BBC bite size website and promises to be 'an interactive revision tutor' (a bit like the blog then!). Only £5.99.

Lots of pictures (!) and exam questions, very colourful and covers most of our topics but not all. £8.99

From a very good author and it looks like it will cover most of our topics, possibly not the full USA outline up to 1990. £6.59.

I have linked all of these to amazon.co.uk but there are other places to buy them from. Try www.bookbrain.co.uk or www.find-dvd.co.uk (books tab) to compare prices across the web.

We are basically doing a Modern World History course. The big difference with our WJEC Spec A syllabus is that the America outline study is very large, most books will not cover all the way to 1990. Hope this helps.

On a lighter note...

Here, as promised is an exclusive video clip from the staff history Christmas party last year. Mr Harris and I 'clubbing', laying down some phat tunes and showing off our Charleston moves, fo' shizzle. Enjoy...

Original UpRock

The Charleston Dance

Revision Pig

Below is the great 'Revision Pig' video. I suddenly thought to myself that I have been going on about getting properly started with revision for some weeks now but we have yet to discuss ways of doing it.

Now this is similar to our mind maps note taking discussions. You need to do whatever suits you and revise however you feel is best. It could be to write flash cards, doing mind maps, tape recording your notes, etc...

Revision REALLY pays off. Last year we had two Y11 girls who we were worried about being C/D borderline pupils. One achieved an A the other a B and they basically put the whole thing down to solid revision. True story.

We are now looking at minimum 3 to 4 hours history revision per week. Sounds a lot? With history being so much fun, time will just whizz by.

Enjoy the video!

Causes of the Cold War (BARE)

CAUSES OF THE COLD WAR [BARE]

1. Beliefs: Russia was a Communist country, ruled by a dictator who cared little about human rights.
America was a capitalist democracy, which valued freedom.
2. Aims: Stalin wanted reparations from Germany/ a buffer of friendly states.
Britain and the USA [led by President Truman] wanted to help Germany recover/ to prevent large areas of Europe from coming under Communist control.
3. Resentment about history: The USSR did not trust Britain and the USA – They had tried to destroy the Russian Revolution in 1918/ Stalin thought they had not helped the USSR enough in WW2.
Britain & USA did not trust USSR – Stalin had signed the Nazi-Soviet pact in 1939.
4. Events turned the mistrust into war: Yalta/ Potsdam/ Salami tactics/ Fulton/ Greece/ Truman Doctrine/ Marshall Plan/ Cominform/ Czechoslovakia

Explore more

There is also an excellent, fairly in dpeth podcast on this topic. Again I recommend that you give it a go.

Causes of the Cold War Podcast

Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' Speech

Hello Team,
Below is an excellent website that we would have used during the lesson today if we had had time. It is an interactive resource that lets you listen to Churchill's famous Iron Curtain speech (we saw a clip in the video today). Worth exploring as added depth to the causes of the cold war issue.

Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' Speech