OK...
First, mums often post here, and you are very welcome. Many teeenagers get hang-ups and simply refuse to do things, and that's why they have mums!!
I think I know the question in question - was it
this one?
What you have to understand about the History exam is that it has two elements/skills the pupils need to address.
The first one is
knowledge and understanding. From what you say, your son seems to have this taped. It's all about factual knowledge and explanation, and - apart from persuading the pupils not to write a book on the 3-mark 'What does Source A tell us' question - there's litte to worry about.
The second skill, however, is
sourcework.
It is this that your son seems to be having the problem with.
What you need to impress upon him is that here the examiners are not testing his knowledge or understanding of history, but his ability to
process the source in the correct manner.
Actually, once the basic concept has been appropriated, the actual answer is quite simple.
The sourcework skills identified by the examiners (for Paper 1 - which is what your son appears to be doing for the Short Course) are specific and limited in number:
- Extraction from a source
- Accuracy/reliability of a source
- Why was this source produced?
- Usefulness of a source
You have to get him to be able to recognise the KIND of question from the wording, and then to answer approrpiately.
Basically, they all involve writing a paragraph on the content, and a paragraph on the provenance (who wrote it, when, where and why), and to use these to come up with ideas relevant to the skill.
Don't worry at this stage - MANY pupils find this skill bewildering at first.
And also, tell your son that he is absolutely normal in finding catoons and artwork difficult - the examiners INSIST on using them, but they make life difficult for the pupils because they put an extra layer of work in for them - befire they can try to answer the question (which is hard enough), they have first to interpret what the cartoon means.
The GREATEST mistake pupils make in the early days of trying to handle this skill is that they muddle up the skill. They will answer a 'usefulness' question and only talk about whether the cartoon is reliable; NO - the question asked you whether it was useful!!
And this - if I have got the question correct - is what your son seems to have done.
IF the WLA question was the one I remember, then it asked
why was the source produced, and the answer it wanted was linked to the needs of the country for food and the motives of the government encouraging women to volunteer and especially mentioning the word 'propaganda'. By talking about "how posters are not really representative of the whole population" he was sayingthings that would answer a 'reliability/accuracy' question.
Equally, however, as a mum, you have to realise that writing 'how important women were to the war effort and whether he agreed or disagreed' would have been just as far off the mark.
I think the way forward with your son is to drill him in two skills:
1. to recongnise the kind-of-question from the wording
2. to go automatically into the correct 'how-do-I-answer-this-one' mode when he has done so.
I know that Aspergers pupils arenotoriously bull-headed against this kind of thing, but also that - once they have 'got it' - they can be undivertably determined.
Teach him the mantra: 'GIVE THE EXAMINERWHAT HE WANTS' - write it on posters and put them up all over the house until it 'sinks in'.
If you have not yet come across my website, you need to know about it:
www.johndclare.net
You need to explore it, because it has loads of stuff your son needs to know.
But on this explicit issue, try reading:
This page on advice on how to answer questions on Paper One.
These markschemes (for the International Relations element) and
these markschemes (for the Britain at War element) - which will help you both uerstand what the examiner is looking for an how he will mark his answers.
and
this
analysis of marking of actual exam questions, which explains in detail how marks were awarded, where and why
[Remember that your son only
appears to be doing, for the Short Course, Paper One - might be best to check this out with his teacher; he's not doing the actual GCSE on Thursday, is he? (in which case I need to change some of the references to which skills above, because he's doing Paper Two not Paper One).]
Help
He is in yr 10 and has Aspergers. History is his thing and he has such a good knowlledge of the subject. Up until this year his teachers were so impressed with his work in the subject and his research skills, this has all come unravelled this yr. He has just done his mock GCSE (AQA history specification b short course). He achieved a C and the teacher is amazed as he is expected to get A* for History. His problem and it is linked to having Aspergers is his interpretation of the questions. He really dilikes the way they are phrased and the constant use of cartoons and artwork (don't know why 
). One example of his answers was they had to comment on a poster about the Women's land army. He went into a detailed description of how posters are not really representative of the whole population and a snapshot of what is happening at the time, I could go on but put it this way the vocab and language he used would have got top marks in English BUT it din't answer the question and he doesn't see that. If he had been asked to write an essay asking how important women were to the war effort and whether he agreed or disagreed he would have answered this fine. Sorry to waffle here but it seems to me a real shame that someone with his knowledge and love of History will apparently not do well because his 'condition' affects the way he interprets the questions in exams. Is it too late for him to learn some sort of technique? He had planned to take History A level and study a particular aspect of it if he goes to Uni, he now seems to think this is a bit pointless if he's never going to get what they are on about. Thanks to all those still reading and if anyone has any tips or ideas I shall be eternally grateful.
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