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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Source Subject Grade Level |
Evacuating Japanese Americans This task assesses students' knowledge of the past—but rather than measure rote recall of decontextualized facts, this assessment requires students to make connections across time and construct an argument about how events are connected. Students with a strong sense of the past will be able to explain that the bombing at Pearl Harbor made Americans suspicious of Japanese and Japanese-Americans living in the United States, leading them to be imprisoned in camps. Students will also be able to place internment in the historical context of American xenophobia directed at individuals of Asian descent at the time, and explain how both the Gentlemen's Agreement and the internment of Japanese Americans were products of this. Resources available for this task include downloadable PDF versions of both the assessment with source materials, as well as the Rubric containing benchmark descriptors. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Explosion of the USS Maine This task assesses students’ ability to reason how evidence supports a historical argument. Students must explain how a report by the Naval Court of Inquiry and a San Francisco newspaper article both support the conclusion that confusion pervaded US public thought following the sinking of the USS Maine. Resources for this task include downloadable PDF versions of both the assessment as well as the Rubric with benchmark descriptors. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Gardner's Civil War Photography This task assesses students’ ability to source, contextualize, and corroborate a primary source from the Civil War era. Students are asked to consider how the content of two photographs by famous Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner could affect their reliability. Then, students must think of other information they would like to know about the circumstances surrounding the photographs in order to further evaluate their reliability. 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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Source Subject Grade Level |
Global Health Summit This unit includes an unit overview and 3 subunit overviews with built-in lessons. Unit description from the source: This unit focuses on the impact that HIV/AIDS continues to have around the world. Students look at the biology of the disease and then delve into the social and personal implications of addressing a deadly pandemic. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Good Eats 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 connection between nutrition and health. Through interdisciplinary study in Biology, Health Science, Interpersonal Relations, English Language Arts, Mathematics, and World History, they will explore the questions of why we should care about what we eat and how food is produced. Students will explore concepts ranging from the body’s physical requirements in terms of calories and nutrients to the physiological and psychological outcomes resulting from various levels of nutrition and health. They will be introduced to cellular respiration, recombinant DNA technology, and ethical issues raised by using—or withholding the use of—biotechnology to increase food production. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Haymarket Aftermath This task assesses students' ability to evaluate the relevance of contextual information for determining the motivations of an author. Students must select two facts and explain how they shed light on the cartoon's depiction of Illinois Governor Altgeld's pardon in 1893. Students with a strong understanding of contextualization will be able to explain how fears aroused by the Haymarket riot, and increasing tensions during the Depression of 1893, may help explain the cartoonist's work. 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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Source Subject Grade Level |
Immigration This task assesses students’ ability to contextualize two historical documents and place them in the correct chronological order. Drawing on students' knowledge about the American immigration boom of the 1800's, students are asked to place two related documents in order--and explain their reasoning, in effect taking their thinking beyond the rote recall of event dates, names and facts. Sources include Document A--part of an editorial from a San Francisco newspaper published in 1916, and Document B--an excerpt from a book titled A Tour in the United States by Archibald Prentice-published in 1848. Students who correctly contextualize the documents will see that Letter B, describing a rather simple immigration process for large numbers of German immigrants, was likely written before Letter A, which calls for legislation similar to the Chinese Exclusion Act in an attempt to exclude Japanese immigrants. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Inca Fortification This task requires students to weigh the values and limitations of a document as historical evidence, as it relates to resistance against Spanish rule by the Inca. Students well-versed in sourcing a document will be able to explain that a photograph of a native Inca fort is useful in that it provides some evidence of Inca fortification against Spanish attacks. However, for Question 2, Students will also observe that the photograph was taken centuries after the Spanish conquest of Tawantinsuyu-and explain how that fact limits the its usefulness as evidence of how the Inca resisted Spanish forces. Resources include PDF downloads of the assessment with source materials, and a rubric with benchmark descriptors. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Italian Atrocities This task requires students to consider the relative strengths and weaknesses of a document as historical evidence. Students with a sophisticated understanding of how to source a document will be able to explain how a news article from the time period provides a useful contemporary account of Italian actions against the Ottomon Empire. They will also observe, however, that an international news report by a local American newspaper may contain biases and second-hand information which make it less useful as evidence of what really happened--and exemplifying American Imperialism. Resources provided include a rubric and scoring guide, a downloadable PDF of the assessment with excerpted primary sources, as well as links to the original sources via the Library of Congress. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Japanese Internment This task assesses students’ ability to source and corroborate a document. Drawing on knowledge gained by sourcing an excerpt from a 2003 interview of a Japanese-American WWII Veteran, in which he recalls visiting an Internment camp, students then evaluate in several ways; Question 1 asks students to evaluate whether the excerpt provides enough evidence to draw conclusions about the conditions facing Japanese Americans interned during WWII. To answer this question, students must source the document to determine whether the account can be regarded as conclusive evidence. Question 2 asks students to identify and evaluate whether additional documents or perspectives could be used to corroborate the account. Resources include PDF downloads of the assessment with source materials, and a rubric with benchmark descriptors. |
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