Today we will… Identify the skills questions which will be assessed in National 5 Modern Studies.

Success Criteria Using a source I can come to judgements based on evidence. I can outline how to answer a conclusion skills question.

What is a conclusion? CONCLUSION = A decision or judgement that you reach by reasoning. A decision that you can reach by using the information in the source(s).

Drawing a Conclusion In this type of question you are required to come to judgements based on the evidence in the sources. What you should not do is simply repeat what the sources tell you. Instead you are to interpret the sources and draw developed conclusions. Your teacher will now give you out the question paper Use the specimen question for this

Look at the question: The bullet points tell you what to make conclusions on: The UK electoral performance of the Conservative Party compared to 2010. The UK electoral performance of the Liberal Democrats compared to 2010. The popularity of smaller political parties in the UK. The dominant political party in Scotland after the General Election. What judgements do you think you will be able to make about these points?

Has their performance improved or got worse? • The UK electoral performance of the Conservative Party compared to 2010. Has their performance improved or got worse? • The UK electoral performance of the Liberal Democrats compared to 2010. • The popularity of smaller political parties in the UK. Smaller parties popularity growing? Decreasing? The dominant political party in Scotland after the General Election. Which party? Why?

You cannot simply copy the sources You cannot simply copy the sources. You must make a judgement based on the evidence. You then must support it by one or more pieces of evidence from the source. If you can link the sources together and use evaluative language you will get more marks.

How to write your answer 1. Write heading The UK electoral performance of the Conservative Party compared to 2010. In conclusion, it is clear that The Conservative Party performed better in the 2015 General Election than 2010. (1 mark) In source 1 it stated that the exit polls correctly predicted they would be the biggest single party in the House of Commons. This can be linked to source 3 which tells us the Conservatives gained the largest share of the UK vote, 37% which was an increase from 2010. (2 marks) 3 MARKS- strong conclusion and linking of sources. 2. Clear conclusion, in own words 3. NAME SOUCRES 4. Used evaluative language

The popularity of smaller political parties in the UK. The UK electoral performance of the Liberal Democrats compared to 2010. In conclusion, the Liberal Democrats performed very poorly in 2015 compared to their 2010 result. In source 1 it states that the Liberal Democrats saw a significant drop in both their UK share of the vote and in the number of MPs returned to the House of Commons. This can be supported by source 2 that shows that the seats won by the Liberal Democrats fell by 49, which means they only managed to get 8 MPs elected compared to their 57 MPs in 2010. The popularity of smaller political parties in the UK. In conclusion, the popularity of smaller political parties in the UK has grown in recent years. In source 1 it states that the whilst the Green Party only gained 1 MP in 2015, the percentage of their vote share increased significantly compared to 2010.This is backed up by source 3 which shows that UKIP saw a significant increase in their share of votes from just 4% in 2010 to 12% in 2015. The dominant political party in Scotland after the General Election. Attempt the last conclusion by yourself!

Remember marks are awarded for: A correct conclusion written in your own words (1 mark) Using two pieces of evidence, linked together (1 mark) Use of evaluative language when discussing evidence from sources (1 mark) Evaluative terms: Increase/Decrease Risen/fallen Dropped/spiked Majority/minority Positive/negative Steadily/slowly/quickly Balanced/equal Unbalanced/unequal Continuous/continual Poor/strong/weak Significant/insignificant Largest/biggest/smallest

Step by Step Guide Read the bullet points and assign a colour. Read the sources, highlighting info as you go. For 1st bullet point: Write out the bullet point. Make a clear conclusion, in your own words. Use evidence to back up conclusion – NAME SOURCES and use EVALUATIVE LANGUAGE. Repeat steps 3-5 for other 3 bullet points!

Was I successful? Using a source I can come to judgements based on evidence. I can outline how to answer a conclusion skills question.