History Around Us: Criteria Practice

Answering on the Site

The History Around Us paper is unlike any other. There are no sources written by other people and no interpretations to weigh. The evidence is the site itself. ⭐ Every question uses the same stem. Use physical features of the site as well as your own knowledge. You answer two of the three questions set. ⚠️ Name the site and say when. Start by naming the Tower of London, and signal which period of its history you are writing about.

A strong answer, and a weak one

Examiners reward some habits and give nothing for others. Hold both lists.

Order the steps of a strong answer

Put these steps for planning a History Around Us answer into a sensible order.

• Read the question and spot which criteria it brings together
• Name the Tower of London in your opening line
• Choose physical features of the site to use as evidence
• Add your own knowledge and signal the period
• Link the criteria together and reach a judgement

How the questions are built

How are the History Around Us questions built?

• Each question combines two or more of the selection criteria, so an answer must link them
• Each question tests exactly one criterion on its own
• Each question asks you to judge written sources about the site
• Each question asks you to compare historians and their interpretations

Words for studying a site

Five words that let you write about the site as evidence, not just as a place.

Spot the strong habits

Three of these are habits that earn marks on this paper. Choose the three.

• Naming the Tower of London at the start
• Linking two or more criteria in one argument
• Signalling which period you are discussing
• Comparing the views of two historians
• Listing every feature without explaining any

Use the remains, then question them

The sharpest answers do more than describe the site. They use its physical remains as evidence and then ask what those remains can and cannot tell us. Remains prompt good questions. The names and messages that prisoners carved into the walls of the Beauchamp Tower make us ask who was held there, for how long and why. The White Tower can be set beside other Norman keeps, such as Colchester Castle, to judge how far it was typical. Remains have limits too. Centuries of change, and heavy Victorian repair, mean that not everything you see is original. Combining criteria, using the remains, and weighing their limits, is the grade 9 move.

Match each idea for studying the site to its meaning

Find the sentence that combines criteria

A student answers a question on the Tower of London. Select the ONE sentence that combines two criteria and uses physical evidence.

• The inscriptions carved by prisoners in the Beauchamp Tower show that in the Tudor period the Tower of London was used to hold political prisoners, which reveals how the Crown dealt with its enemies.
• The Tower of London is very old and very famous.
• Historians disagree about the Tower, and one interpretation is more convincing.
• There are many buildings at the site and some towers.

A worked example: the detective at the scene

A good detective arriving at a scene does two things at once. They read the clues that are there, and they ask which clues might mislead them. A chair may have been moved, a window mended since, a footprint smudged by later visitors. The detective still uses what they see, but weighs how far each clue can be trusted before drawing a conclusion. Hold that idea. The strongest answers use what they can see, and then ask how far it can be trusted, before they reach a judgement.

Complete the account of studying a site

The fourteen aspects that questions can ask about are the _____. What the remains of the site can show you is _____. How far a site is like others of its kind is its _____. A picture or model of how part of the site once looked is a _____. Later repair that can hide what is original is _____.

Judge the best approach

Which is the soundest approach to a History Around Us question on the Tower of London?

• Name the site, use its physical features with your own knowledge, link the criteria the question combines, signal the period, and weigh what the remains can and cannot tell us
• Compare the interpretations of two historians and choose the better one
• List as many features of the site as possible
• Answer each criterion separately in its own paragraph

Benefits, and challenges, of studying the site

Criterion n asks you to weigh both. The Tower is rich evidence and tricky evidence at the same time.

Answer like an examiner

You are checking three approaches to a History Around Us answer. For each, choose the soundest judgement.

• An answer spends a paragraph comparing two historians and their interpretations. Is that safe?
• An answer takes each criterion in a separate paragraph and never links them. Is that safe?
• An answer assumes every stone at the Tower is exactly as it was built. Is that safe?

Write: a combined-criteria practice answer

Explain what the physical remains of the Tower of London reveal about how it was used, and how far those remains can be trusted as evidence. Use physical features of the site as well as your own knowledge. This is written in English and is not auto-marked.

• Name the Tower of London in your opening line
• Use physical features such as the White Tower or the Beauchamp Tower inscriptions
• Link what the remains show to how the site was used, period by period
• Weigh the limits of the evidence, such as later restoration
• Reach a supported judgement combining both criteria