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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Kindred (Family History) Project In this task, students will conduct interviews of their family and community members about their lives during world events in order to understand how their family's lives were affected. This task includes: |
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Kindred (Family History) Project In the Kindred (Family History) Project task, students will research events in the lives of members of their family or local community to find the impact of world or local history. They will be asked to interview member of their immediate family (mother, father, brothers, sisters), extended family (grandparents, uncles, aunts), neighbours or friends in the local community. They will ask them about experiences in their life that have been affected by the events of world or local history. Events may include war, natural disasters, migration, important discoveries, monuments, famous places and so on. Students will focus on the impact for the family. |
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Labor History In this task, students are assessed to their ability to contextualize two documents and place them in the correct chronological order. In this assessment, students who correctly contextualize the documents will see that Document A, which describes the President deploying troops to quell labor unrest, was likely written before Document B, which discusses gains made later in the labor movement, like collective bargaining and the notion of workers’ rights. More than just the recall of facts and dates, students must show that they have a broad understanding of how the labor movement changed over time and demonstrate the ability to use knowledge about the past to place the historical documents in present context. Resources include PDF downloads of the assessment with source materials, and a rubric with benchmark descriptors. |
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Labor Movement in the 1930's This task measures students’ ability to source and contextualize a document. Students read an excerpt from a 1994 interview with labor organizer Marianna Costa. Students must then select the two facts that help them determine whether Costa’s experience in the labor movement was typical or atypical of the experiences of most textile workers in the 1930s. 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 |
Lange's Iconic Photograph This task gauges students’ ability to source, contextualize, and corroborate a document. Students must consider how the context surrounding the creation of Lange’s iconic photograph affects its reliability as historical evidence of Dust Bowl life. Students must also analyze the photograph to determine how the content of the image might also affect its reliability. Finally, students are asked to determine missing information/perspective that would better help them evaluate the reliability of the document. The task includes a range of supplementary materials, many available for download with the creation of a free account:
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Laws of Life: Virtues Project In the Laws of Life: Virtues Project task, students will write an essay about their personal values in life. The Laws of Life Project allows students to express in their own words what they value most in life. They will submit essays about their laws of life in which they describe the rules, ideals, and principles by which they live, and explain the sources of their laws of life (i.e., life experience, religion, culture, role models, etc.). They will respond to each other's essays and interact with each other electronically. They will also be able to report on any dialogue or events that occur in their learning communities as they participate in the Laws of Life Project, and are encouraged to use what they learned about values to initiate change within the community through action projects. |
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Laws of Life: Virtues Project In this task, students will write an essay about what they value most in life. By submitting their essays in an online forum, students will be able to react to one another's essays online. This task includes: |
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Local History Project In this task, students will research their community's history and share their findings with their global fears. This task includes: |
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Local History Project In the Local History Project task, students will conduct research about the history of their local communities and then share their findings in the form of essays, power point presentations, art and photos in an on-line forum. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Louis XVI 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 that Jefferson's memoir is useful as evidence of Jefferson's thoughts on Louis XVI's leadership and his observations while in France. They will also observe that Jefferson's memoir was written many years after his time in France, making it less useful as specific evidence about Louis XVI's leadership. Resources include PDF downloads of the assessment with source materials, and a rubric with benchmark descriptors. |
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