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 |
California Propositions In this task, students create their own advertising campaigns based on real California Propositions relevant today. Students must engage in research around a particular issue, create an argument supported with evidence, and collaborate effectively in a group setting to present their reasoning in an ad campaign using a form of digital media. The project description is conveyed through a Youtube video, but does contain a general overview of teacher expectations and student work samples. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Clay's American System This task assesses students’ ability to reason how evidence supports a historical argument. Students must explain how Henry Clay's speech defending his “American System”, and an editorial critique of federal government intervention, both support the conclusion that many Americans opposed increased government regulation 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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Source Subject Grade Level |
Cold War Foreign Policy This task assesses students’ ability to contextualize two historical documents, sequencing them in the correct chronological order.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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Source Subject Grade Level |
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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Source Subject Grade Level |
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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Source Subject Grade Level |
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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Source Subject Grade Level |
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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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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