Structure

Part A - The Samurai• Multiple choice• Short answer• Paragraph using multiple sources

Part B - East meets West• Multiple choice• Short answer• Paragraph using multiple sources

Document study focus questions

Part A - The Samurai• How did the role of a Samurai change during the various Shogunate and Meiji

periods?• What was the nature of the philosophy of the Samurai?• What is the nature of the sources for the Samurai?

Part B - East meets West• How did people from Japan and the West respond to each other?• What was the significance of the arrival of Commodore Perry?• How did Japan change in the Meiji period? What factors contributed to this change

in the mid-late 1800s?

Key skillsComprehension• Read and understand historical texts• Sequence historical events and periods• Use historical terms and concepts

Analysis & use of sources• Identify the origin and purpose of primary sources and secondary sources• Locate, select and use information from a range of sources as evidence• Draw conclusions about the usefulness of sources

Perspectives and interpretations• Identify and describe different perspectives of participants in a particular historical context

Empathetic understanding• Interpret history through the actions, attitudes and motives of people in the context of the past

Origin (author/s, artist)

• Who produced the source and what makes them someone you would trust?• Can draw any sound conclusions about way they might be a reliable

author or not?

Purpose

Motive• Why was the source produced?• How does that motive impact on the reliability of the source?

Audience• Who was the source produced for?• How does this impact on the reliability of the source?

What Makes a Source Useful?

1. if it provides new information on a topic a historian is studying.2. if it provides information a historian already knew. It verifies or confirms existing knowledge.3. if it has a perspective. History is a continual search for some form of truth and understanding. Having different perspectives on a topic being studied assists in this search. This search takes the form of an ongoing debate about events. We all approach events based on our way of seeing the world. This provides us our perspective. Good historians embrace different perspective to help them better understand what they are studying.4. A source is of greater use if it can be determined that it is reliable. To do this historians analyse its origin and purpose.

Different perspectives…

Key concepts

• Changes and continuities over broad periods of time• Developments, decisions and events from the past that produced

later actions, results or consequences• Different perspectives on the past• The actions, attitudes and motives of people in the context of the past• The importance of an historical event, development or individual in

an historical context• Historical sources, events or issues may be interpreted differently by

historians