SACE Stage 2 Modern History case studies
SACE Stage 2 Modern History · Put your knowledge to work in context.
Modern History is a Stage 2 subject in the South Australian Certificate of Education, taught under subject code 2MOD20 and worth 20 credits. The SACE Board describes the subject as asking students to consider how lives might have been different if events at critical moments had produced different outcomes, and its published overview poses counterfactual questions such as what might have followed had Hitler never been born, or what it was like to be a woman in the United States during the War of Independence. The SACE Stage 2 Modern History case studies are 5 cases and about 3,218 words.
1Weighting the Source Analysis in a School Assessment Task
A Year 12 Modern History teacher has designed a school assessment task worth 20% of the subject grade. The task asks students to analyse six primary sources on the causes of World War I and write a 1000-word essay.
788 words, about 4 min2Judging Reliability When Sources Conflict
A student is analysing three sources about the 1917 conscription plebiscites in Australia. Source A is a speech by Prime Minister Billy Hughes in 1916 urging a 'Yes' vote.
603 words, about 3 min3Interpreting a Marking Guide at the Grade Boundary
Two teachers are marking a Year 12 source-analysis response worth 20 marks. The marking guide describes the top band as showing 'sophisticated analysis and evaluation of sources, sustained argument, and precise use of evidence'.
597 words, about 3 min4Planning an Investigation Under Evidence Constraints
A student proposes a Historical Study on 'How did ordinary Germans respond to Nazi propaganda between 1933 and 1939?' The student has access to: Nazi-era newspapers and propaganda posters, a collection of Gestapo reports (in translation), a memoir by a German woman who lived through the period, and a school textbook chapter. The teacher is concerned that the question asks about 'ordinary Germans' as a whole, that the student has no access to German-language sources, and that the available sources are skewed toward either regime production or retrospective memory.
589 words, about 3 min5Allocating Marks in a Research-Based External Assessment
In an external research-based assessment, students submit an investigation of up to 2000 words. The marking guide allocates marks across four criteria: (1) formulation of the research question and scope, (2) depth and range of research and use of sources, (3) analysis and argument, (4) conclusion and evaluation of the investigation's limitations.
641 words, about 3 min