Please note that many tasks were constructed prior to Common Core and the task alignments to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were not identified in the task materials. To search for the performance tasks explicitly aligned to the CCSS, Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), or College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards, please go to CCSS, NGSS, and C3 tabs.
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Cold War Foreign Policy This task assesses students’ ability to contextualize two historical documents, sequencing them in the correct chronological order. Document A is an excerpt from the joint resolution by the Allies at the Moscow Conference in 1943. Document B is from an article published in the Chicago Daily News on February 14, 1951. This task draws on students' knowledge about American foreign policy but in a way that goes beyond the simple recall of facts and dates. Students must show that they have a broad understanding of how American foreign policy changed over time, and demonstrate the ability to use knowledge about the past place the two documents in context. Students who correctly contextualize the documents will see that Document A, which describes an alliance between the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China against Germany, was a product of World War II foreign policy and therefore likely written before Document B, which refers to American Cold War containment policy in Korea. Resources available with this task include PDF documents of the assessment itself (with sources), as well as a rubric. |
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Community Photojournalists In this task, students must follow professional journalism and publication guidelines to create a collection of photo essays and audio recordings that represent an investigation into community based or cultural stories. This task includes: |
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Connections to the Philippine-American War This task assesses students' historical knowledge in a way that transcends the rote recall of facts by asking students to draw on their knowledge of the past to construct an argument about how two events are connected. Question 1 asks students to connect the explosion of the USS Maine to the imprisonment of Filipinos by the American military in 1901. Question 2 asks students how the popularity of Social Darwinism in the US is likewise connected to the imprisonment of Filipinos in 1901. The task includes a range of supplementary materials, all accessible and available for download with the creation of a free account through the site:
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Creating Columbus Day This task assesses students' ability to evaluate the relevance of contextual information for determining the motivations of an author. Students must select one fact, and explain how it sheds light on why President Harrison declared Columbus Day a national holiday in 1892. Students with a strong understanding of contextualization will be able to explain how the fact that Catholic voters comprised an important voting block in the pending election might have affected Harrison's decision to honor an Italian Catholic explorer. Resources available for this task include downloadable PDF versions of both the assessment as well as the Rubric with benchmark descriptors. |
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Crime Scene Investigation This unit includes an unit overview and 3 subunit overviews with built-in lessons. Unit description from the source: In this unit, students take on the role of crime scene investigators to solve a murder that has occurred at the school. They will integrate math, science, and language arts into the study of forensic science and associated legal careers such as district attorneys, law enforcement, pathology, forensic science, and medical examination. |
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Cyrano's Funk In this task, students will focus on the story Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmund Rostand and fullfill assignments while embodying a chosen character by taking to social media. This task includes: |
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Debate Over the League of Nations This task measures students’ ability to source and contextualize a document. Students read a 1919 opinion column from The Evening Missourian. Students must then select the two facts that help them determine whether the opinions expressed in the column were typical or atypical of American attitudes about joining the League of Nations at the time. Resources available for this task include downloadable PDF versions of both the assessment as well as the Rubric with benchmark descriptors. |
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Declaration of Independence This task measures students’ ability to source a document. When historians interpret a document, they first look to find out who wrote it and when. This assessment gauges whether students understand an important aspect of sourcing: the time elapsed between when a document was produced and the event that it depicts- and how this might affect its reliability. Students are asked to agree or disagree with a claim regarding the usefulness of a painting for historians who wish to understand the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. Students who understand the importance of when a document was produced will see that this painting is of minimal use for that purpose because it was produced over 50 years after the event. The task includes a range of supplementary materials, all accessible and available for download with the creation of a free account through the site:
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Design It Clean In this task, students will get into groups and design affordable and realistic water filters. This task includes: |
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Do No Harm This unit includes an unit overview and 3 subunit overviews with built-in lessons. Unit description from the source: In this unit, students will learn about the role government plays in setting policy and supporting and regulating various aspects of the healthcare industry, and about the impact these activities have on the lives of ordinary citizens. The unit will focus on three areas in which federal or state governments have influenced biomedical research and healthcare practice: stem cell research (Subunit 1), pharmaceutical advertising (Subunit 2), and vaccination against communicable disease (Subunit 3). |
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