SPECIFICATION INFORMATION:

•   AQA

  These webpages have been written to address the second and third sections: 'First World War: stalemate' and 'Ending the war' of the Conflict and tension: the First World War, 1894–1918 specification and the recommended Scheme of Work.

•   Pearson iGCSE

  These webpages cover the content of the sections 3-5 of Historical Investigation A1: 'The origins and course of the First World War, 1905–18'.

  

Contents:

1.  World War One

2.  The Schlieffen Plan fails

3.  The Schlieffen Plan - Historiography

4.  Stalemate - Trench Warfare

5.  Search for a Solution - Gallipoli: A Second Front

6.  Search for a Solution - Improvements

7.  Verdun - Start of the War of Attrition (maybe)

8.  Verdun - Historiography

9.  The Somme

10.  The Western Front in 1917

11.  The War at Sea

12.  American joins the War

13.  End of the War

14.  Haig and Foch - Historiography

15.  WWI Cascade

16.  Self-test

 

Click the yellow arrow for advice on:

• How to STUDY this topic:
  • 1.   Start by reading some easy sources – perhaps my KS3 section; or Peter Moss in the ‘Going Deeper’ panel on this page.  Get a grasp of the basic story.

    Make a list of key dates - leave space to add other dates you may discover during your studies. 

    It might be an idea to do this before you study this unit in class.

  • 2.   Work through the study sections 1-14 above.  You can do this over time as you study the topics in lessons.

            Take advantage of some of the links to explore, more deeply, aspects of the topics which attract your interest.  Try to become ‘an expert’ on some issues.

  • 3.   Study the historiographies, to learn how historians have interpreted the Schlieffen Plan, Verdun and Haig , and to consider what YOU think about the debates.
  • 4.   Plunder the Cascade webpage to help you write any essays you are given.

• How to REVISE this topic:
  • 1.   Pre-revision:
    Skim-read the study pages in this unit to refresh your memory of what you have learned in the lessons.  Read, and make notes on, your notes.
  • 2.   Four weeks to go:
    Go through the topics on the Cascade webpage; for each, use the yellow arrows to think FIRST how you would answer, before checking against my suggestions.
  • 3.   Three weeks to go:
    Choose the revision factsheet which suits you best from the ‘Going Deeper’ panel, and learn it off by heart; get someone to test you on it.  Then, using the yellow arrows to check your answers, do and re-do the Self-test until you can get every question ‘right enough’.  Also, suss out the Smartass list of specialist terms with which to wow the examiner! 
  • 4.   Two weeks to go:
    Invite a friend and revise together.  Share problems, test each other on content, and do the Revision Activies, using them as an opportunity to share all you know (and rehearse your 'explaining' skills).
  • 5.   Last week:
    Go through the blue Exam-style Questions for your specification to rehearse how you will tackle the kind of questions you will meet in the exam.  Spend the last evening re-revising your chosen revision aid.