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.
| Source | Task |
|---|---|
|
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:
|
|
Source Subject Grade Level |
John Brown's Legacy This task gauges students' ability to source and contextualize a document. Students must first source a playbill, determining when it was created and by whom. Students then select facts that might provide the most relevant historical context in order to determine the authors' motivation, and explain how the facts might shed light on why the authors wrote the play. The task includes a range of supplementary materials, all accessible and available for download with the creation of a free account through the site:
|
|
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:
|
|
Source Subject Grade Level |
Morale after Fredericksburg This is a two-part task asking students to source and corroborate a primary source letter from a Union soldier describing low morale among Union soldiers after the Battle of Fredericksburg during the Civil War. Question 1 asks students to evaluate whether the source provides sufficient evidence to demonstrate the morale of the entire Union Army. To answer this question, students must source the document to determine whether the author represents all Union troops. Question 2 asks students to evaluate whether additional documents would corroborate the letter. The task includes a range of supplementary materials, all accessible and available for download with the creation of a free account through the site:
|
|
Source Subject Grade Level |
Opposition to the Philippine-American War This task assesses students’ ability to use evidence to support a historical argument. Students are presented with two documents that provide different perspectives on the war in the Philippines. Students are then asked to explain how each of these disparate accounts supports the same historical conclusion: many Americans opposed the war in the Philippines. The task includes a range of supplementary materials, available for download with the creation of a free account:
|
|
Source Subject Grade Level |
Slave Quarters This task reveals students' ability to source a document, in order to see both its values and limitations. Students will be able to explain how a photograph of former slave quarters provides some evidence of the living conditions of slaves. They will also observe how the fact that the photograph was taken decades after the abolition of slavery limits its usefulness as evidence of antebellum living conditions. The task includes a range of supplementary materials, many available for download with the creation of a free account:
|
|
Source Subject Grade Level |
The First Thanksgiving This task measures students’ ability to source a document. When historians interpret a document, they look at who wrote it and when. Source information presents clues about whether the document provides reliable evidence about the past. This task gauges whether students understand an important aspect of sourcing: the time elapsed between when a document (in this case, a painting) was produced, and the event it depicts. To accomplish this, students must agree or disagree with a claim about the usefulness of the source, and explain their thinking. The task includes a range of supplementary materials, many available for download with the creation of a free account:
|
|
Source Subject Grade Level |
Unions in Paterson, New Jersey This task gauges students' ability to source and contextualize a document. Students first listen to an excerpt from an interview with Marianna Costa, a union leader from Paterson, New Jersey. Students then analyze four historical facts and determine which ones can help discern whether Costa’s account of union accomplishments is historically reliable. The task includes a range of supplementary materials, all accessible and available for download with the creation of a free account through the site:
|
If you would like to recommend additional open-sourced performance task banks to be included in the database, or if you would like to report a broken link, please email Pai-rou Chen.
© Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305