Whangarei Girls’ High School

Level 3 History*

Course Description

This course dives into how powerful individuals can shape history and impact their communities long term. We investigate how a range of famous and infamous English and Russian rulers have used their power in the past. We ask whether they are villains or virtuous, and how their gender and ethnicity strengthened or weakened their rule. From well-loved Tudor Queen Elizabeth I’s rule of England as “Gloriana” to murderous Stalin’s brutal rule in the communist USSR, learn how and why rulers gained, held onto, and sometimes even lost, their power (and their lives).

NZ history and/or NZ in the wider world will provide a context for one of the internals.

Stalin’s handling of the brutal Ukrainian famine is the context for the second internal.

Learning Opportunities

In this course you will need to:

Develop these skills:	Explore this content:
Critical thinking- reasoning, interpreting information, analysing, identifying patterns and trends, synthesising information, making judgements based on evidence	NZ in the 19th century: early Māori; colonisation and the changing relationships between Māori and European (this will be the basis for the first internal).
Information literacy- identifying fact and opinion, making judgements about the quality of information, assessing the reliability of different sources of information such as websites	Russia: How the tsars ruled and how some famous tsars such as Ivan the Terrible had long term impacts on Russia.
Communication skills- communicating effectively in a variety of formats: for example in small group and full class discussions; written work; visual formats	How and why the last tsar, Nicholas II, failed and why he and his family were executed.
	Communism- what it is and its establishment in Russia.
	Stalin’s brutal rule of terror- why did 20 million people have to die? How is Stalin viewed by Russians today?

Year Levels/Departments:

History, Seniors

Resources Required

1B8 Exercise Book