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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Photographs of Working Children This task assesses students’ ability to source, contextualize, and corroborate a document. Students are asked to consider how the contextual information affects the reliability of Lewis Hine's photography. They then must consider how the content of the photograph could affect its reliability. Finally, students must think of other information they would like to know about the photographer or the circumstances surrounding the photograph to further evaluate its 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 |
Photojournalism The Photojournalism task is a digital media project supporting young people around the world to share images about issues and stories from their communities. In 2012 - 2013, the project focused on the theme of 'Images of Social Change.' In 2013 - 2014, the project is focusing on the theme of 'Heritage, Hunger, and Food Security.' |
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Pickett's Charge This task measures students’ ability to source a document. 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 reliability may be affected. Students who understand the importance of when a document was produced will see that the painting is of little use to historians who wish to understand the immediate circumstances around Pickett's Charge because it was produced over 30 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 |
Portrait of an Iroquois Leader This task assesses whether students can source and contextualize a document. Students must first examine a painting of an Iroquois man by a British artist, then determine which facts can help them evaluate the painting's historical reliability. Strong students will be able to explain how the false impression that Hendrick was an emperor (Fact 1) and the alliance between the British and the Iroquois against the French (Fact 3) may have fostered the regal and flattering nature of the painting. 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 |
Post-Civil War South This task assesses whether students can source and contextualize a document. Students must first examine an interview about the slaves freed from a plantation, then determine which facts can help them evaluate the interview's reliability. Strong students should be able to explain how the time elapsed between the interview and the events described (Fact 1) might affect the accuracy of his account. They should also be able to explain how Carter's family's allegiance to the Confederacy during the Civil War (Fact 2) could have influenced his perspective and affected the information he chose to include. 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 |
President Grant and Horace Greeley This assessment gauges students’ ability to source, contextualize, and corroborate a document. Students must consider how the contextual information about John Defrees's pamphlet on Grant's presidency affects its reliability as historical evidence. Then, students must identify other information that would help them further evaluate the reliability of the pamphlet. 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 |
Privateers In this task, students will explore the differences of pirating and privateering as well as the morals surrounding it. This task includes: |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Questioning the Causes of the War of 1812 In this task, students will come up with questions about the cause of the War of 1812 by comparing voting patterns with President Madison's War Message to Congress. This task includes: |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Reconstruction Riots This task requires students to weigh the values and limitations of a document as historical evidence on the topic of Reconstruction. Students with a sophisticated understanding of how to source a document will be able to explain that the primary source illustrations (Harper's Weekly, 1866) might be useful because they were contemporary depictions of the riots. They will also observe, however, that the artist may not have been present at the riots- and that this is a rendition drawn either from memory or from others' accounts, making it less useful as evidence of what happened. Resources include PDF downloads of the assessment with source materials, and a rubric with benchmark descriptors. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Riis' Urban Photography This task assesses students’ ability to source, contextualize, and corroborate a document from the Industrial era. Students are asked to consider how contextual information could affect the reliability of Jacob Riis' photography. Then, students must think of other information they would like to know about Riis or the circumstances surrounding the photograph 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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