History / Year 10 / Historical Skills / Analysis and use of sources

View on Australian Curriculum website Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority
Curriculum content descriptions

Evaluate the reliability and usefulness of primary and secondary sources (ACHHS189)

Elaborations
  • understanding that the reliability and usefulness of a source depends on the questions asked of it (for example, an account may be one-sided and therefore of use in revealing past prevailing attitudes)
  • discussing the reliability and usefulness of Martin Luther King’s 1963 ‘I Have A Dream’ speech as a source to assist in understanding the aims and motivations of the US Civil Rights movement
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
ScOT terms

Historical sources,  Reliability

Interactive

Sites2See: Australia and the Vietnam War

These are online resources for the topic Australia in the Vietnam War Era, including music, images and links to archival video clips from Australian Screen with teachers' notes.

Assessment

Year 10 history assessment - Rights and freedoms in Australia

This is an assessment package that uses the Year 10 Australian Curriculum history achievement standard to gather evidence about how well students have demonstrated what they know, what they understand and what they can do for the depth study 'Rights and Freedoms (1945 – present)'. Students plan and deliver a spoken presentation ...

Video

The Fall of Singapore: The road to the fall of Singapore, 1939-42

Imagine a situation in which your country's safety was based on a myth. From September 1939, Britain and Australia were at war with Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, Japan had been invading China since 1932. Discover why Australians believed that, if Japan threatened Australia, our country could not be invaded because Singapore ...

Video

Weekend Magazine: A tour of the nation's capital

In the years following World War II, Australia sought to develop a new identity, one that honoured the past while embracing technological advances and increased political stability. As this clip shows, for many people during this period, Canberra - the nation's capital - served as a metaphor for the sort of place Australia ...

Video

Nexus: Holden, the 'all-Australian car'

What made Holden cars symbols of Australia during the 1950s, 60s and 70s? During this period, more than any other vehicle, the Holden came to reflect changing lifestyles in Australia, and helped to define for many what it meant to be 'Australian'. Find out the impact that generations of Holden vehicles have had on the lives ...

Video

The Fall of Singapore: Australians defend Singapore, January 1942

Discover the experiences of Australians who fought a desperate campaign in Malaya at the beginning of 1942, trying to hold back the Japanese army as it advanced toward 'fortress Singapore'. Watch as this video uses original film footage and interviews with veterans to explore the successes and failures of the Malayan campaign ...

Video

The Snowy Mountains Scheme

How did the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme come to be Australia's greatest economic achievement in the decades following World War II? In this clip, discover what Australia hoped to accomplish through the scheme, and some of the sacrifices that were made for it. Also learn what life was like for migrants from war-devastated ...

Text

Broome during World War II

This web site focusses on the events in Broome during World War II, in particular the air raids in 1942 and the aftermath. The site includes a virtual museum that includes photographs, newspaper articles, film clips and interviews for students to engage with historical information from a range of sources. The education ...

Video

Four Corners: Before the Referendum: Margaret Valadian speaks up

Imagine being asked to speak on behalf of your culture. Explore and compare some of the attitudes of and about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in 1967. In the national referendum of that year, 90 per cent of Australian voters agreed that the affairs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should be ...

Interactive

Laptop wrap: Voices of Vietnam

This resource is a page with a focus on developing student opinion of Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, with supporting activities and links to resources.

Interactive

The chariot of Wetwang

The interactive resource is about the discovery of an Iron Age chariot in a grave in the Yorkshire village of Wetwang in 2001. It has three parts: an account of the discovery of the burial site and the contents of the grave; a detailed explanation of the reconstruction of the chariot; and a quiz to test the knowledge gained ...

Video

Tour of NSW Government House

This resource is a YouTube playlist containing a series of videos taken as a group of senior high school students are given a guided tour of NSW Government House in 2010. The tour covers primary sources such as architecture, furniture and images significant to the history of Australia and NSW.

Interactive

Secondary history: historical inquiry - research

These seven learning activities focus on research using a variety of tools (software) and devices (hardware), and illustrate the ways in which content, pedagogy and technology can be successfully and effectively integrated in order to promote learning. In the activities, teachers provide appropriate guidance and scaffolds ...

Interactive

Secondary history: discussion

These seven learning activities focus on discussion using a variety of tools (software) and devices (hardware) and illustrate the ways in which content, pedagogy and technology can be successfully and effectively integrated in order to promote learning. In the activities, teachers facilitate discussion and model questions ...

Text

Defining moments in Australian History

This extensive web-based resource examines events, people and places of profound significance to the Australian people and their personal, community and national histories. The resource includes a list of 100 'defining moments' identified by historians supported by background information, images, video and links to the ...

Online

What sort of nation? - unit of work

This is an extended unit of work about the sort of nation Australia was and is now, how immigration and economic factors have shaped the kind of nation we are, and the sort of country we want to be in the future. It comes from the 'Discovering democracy' series of units and is organised around five focus questions that ...

Online

The 1967 referendum - unit of work

This is a unit of work about the significance of the 1967 referendum on changing the Australian Constitution to allow the Commonwealth to make laws for Aboriginal people and include Aboriginal people in the census. Intended for upper secondary students, the unit is organised around historical research into three questions: ...

Online

Australia and World War I - unit of work

This is an extended unit of work about World War I, in particular Australia's participation in the war and how it affected and continues to affect the nation's sense of identity. Intended for upper secondary students, the unit is organised around five areas of investigation: the origins of World War I; how Australians saw ...

Interactive

Sites2See: Indigenous Veterans

This resource is a page about the history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander veterans of the Australian armed forces, with case studies, activities and discussion points. The resource is relevant to selected outcomes of at least two topics in Stage 5 History including Australia's commemoration of World War I.

Interactive

Old Government House Parramatta virtual tour

This resource is about exploring Governor Macquarie’s preferred residence while learning more about the early colony through this virtual tour of Old Government House at Parramatta.