2nd Year History – Class Based Assessment 1

The Past in My Place – Family and Local History

What do you have to produce for your CBA?

This is what the official guidelines say: “Students will present their research in the form of a
display, of the type that they may encounter in a museum, heritage centre or library.
However, students should not confine themselves to simply presenting information. Rather,
they are encouraged to use their research evidence to interpret the past and to display their
understanding of the nature of history.”

So what does that mean? The best thing to do is to think of your CBA as a poster, full of the
information that you have found out during your research. For example, you might do a
mixture of text and images, you could produce a film or comic strip of images with text or
you could build a model with text to explain the model. You might think of another way to
present your work in a display format, but remember all the information necessary for
someone to understand the work you have done must be in the display. You will not have to
present it your CBA before the class, but you might be asked questions on it by your
teacher.

How will it be marked? How do you do well?

There are three areas that the CBA will be marked under according the official guidelines:
1. Developing historical consciousness
2. Working with evidence
3. Acquiring ‘the big picture’

Historical Consciousness
This means how did you use the information you have. What have you found out? Is the
information correct? How well do you present the information to make it interesting and
engaging for the person looking at it?

Under this heading, marks will be awarded for:

a) The text you have written. Your work must be typed and should be about 500 words.
You should be sure to include any background information to the topic needed.
b) The images you use. The number and variety of different types of images for you CBA is
important. They all must be properly labelled and you should make sure to explain what
each one is and why it is included. You can use photos or diagrams or hand drawn
pictures.
c) The overall presentation of the work. Think about things like the font you use, the
headings on the information, the use of the images, is it printed in colour and so on.
Remember this the kind of thing you might see in a museum so it has to be engaging for
the viewer.
Working with Evidence
This means the sources of the information you have used for your CBA. What are the
sources you have used? How do you reference them in your display?

Under this heading, marks will be awarded for:

a) Using your sources. In you text, you need to show where the information came from.
When you mention an important fact, reference where you learnt it. Was it in an
interview or a book or on a website? Put that information in brackets after it. If you have
original artefacts or papers or documents, take a picture of them and include them in
the display.
b) Evidence based conclusions. You need to show how you have based your conclusions
about the topic on the evidence that you have gathered.
c) Assessing the sources. How reliable were the sources? Did you cross check the
information provided by them with another source? Were there conflicts between the
information provided by different sources?

The Big Picture

This means the importance of your topic. Why does your topic matter? What is its historical
importance? How does your topic connect to wider history?

Under this heading, marks will be awarded for:

a) Making connections. You should clearly explain how your topic fits into the wider history
of your local area or of Ireland or the wider world (or all of them!).
b) Explaining importance. You should explain why your topic is of historical importance.
How did it impact on people’s lives? Is it still important today?

Do’s and Don’t’s

Here are some things will enhance your CBA display:
 Use lots of images, these will make your display more interesting to look at.
 Use quotes from your sources, especially from any interviews you have done.

Here are some things that you should avoid:

 Don’t just copy text from a website or a book, put it in your own words. Directly copied
information is called plagiarism and you will lose a lot of marks if you do this.