Question:
Was American expansionism in the late 19th and early 20th century justified?  Consider political, economic and/or cultural factors of American expansionism in the Western and Eastern hemispheres [Be sure to include examples from different countries.]

TBA

Question: New 01/10
Is Andrew Carnegie and American Hero?

Support Materials #1 Powerpoint file (5.1 mb)
Is Andrew Carnegie and American hero: Setting the Historical Context – This slide show is designed to provide students and introduction to Carnegie and his historical period. It highlights key events and ideas in Carnegies rise to prominence within the context of a national discussion of wealth, poverty, industry, and labor

Support Materials #2 pdf file | MS Word file
Carnegie assessment hook activity
This activity is designed to get students thinking about some of the key issues they will be using to evaluate whether Andrew Carnegie is an American hero?

pdf file | MS Word file

Question:
The Progressive Era philosopher John Dewey wrote, “The task of democracy is to create a freer and more humane experience in which all [people] share and all contribute.”

How successful were Progressive Era reformers, from 1900 – 1920, in making America a freer and more humane society? 

Support Materials #1 - coming soon
Progressive Era prompt - words and images from the historical context
This slide show highlights many of the social, political, and economic issues the nation faced during this time.   It provides students some historical context so they can better understand the source documents and goals of Progressives.

Support Materials #2 pdf file | MS Word file
Progressive Era assessment intro activity – “What is a free and humane society?” 
This activity is designed to help students develop and refine a criterion for evaluating the work of Progressive Era reformers.  Students work with historical and contemporary governmental actions to decide, based on specific definitions of “free” and “humane, if it made or is currently making America a more free, and/or a more humane society. 

Support Materials #3 pdf file | MS Word file
Progressive Era prompt - note to students on developing evaluation criteria and work with sample documents
This note and activity reminds students of the need to have criteria through which to answer the question.  Students also work with practice documents to develop a tentative body paragraph they might use in their essay.

Question:
Were America’s policies and actions (1945-1975) toward Vietnam in the best interests of the American people?

Support Materials #1 pdf file | MS Word file
Note to students with practice documents.
This activity is designed to help students develop criteria for making a judgment about what is meant by, “the best interests of the American people.”  Students work with primary sources to develop a tentative thesis in response to the question.

Support Materials #2 pdf file | MS Word file
“Evidence Sandwich” activity.  This activity uses the primary sources from the previous activity to help students practice writing about evidence using a structure designed to support that task.

Support Materials #3 pdf file
"Working MLK's Beyond Vietnam Speech"
Lesson Plan from History Magazine by Erin Cook and Stan Pesick

Support Materials #4 pdf file | MS Word file
An Oral history project on the Vietnam War

Question: Updated (05/10)
In 1876, at the end of Reconstruction many of the political, social, and economic goals of African Americans had not been fulfilled.  The right to vote was greatly limited, laws and practices enforced segregation and discrimination, and, consequently, African Americans had great difficulty in achieving economic advancement. 

Agree or disagree:  The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s successfully met the political, economic, and social goals of African Americans that had not been achieved during the Era of Reconstruction.

Civil Rights Assessment 2010 - note to teachers MS Word file
What does the prompt ask students to consider? What do they need to know and understand? Helping students develop an evaluation criteria.

Civil Rights Assessment - Historical context slide presentation Powerpoint file
This slide reviews the events of Reconstruction and then highlights many of the social, political, and economic goals and achievements of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. It provides students some historical context so they can better understand and analyze the source documents on the assessment

Civil Rights Assessment - Slide presentation worksheet MS Word file Student worksheet to use while viewing slide presentation.

Civi Rights Assessment - Point of View Study Guide MS Word file
Gathering background information: “Point of View” Study Guide – This activity is connected to the 11th grade history textbook and is designed to help students gather background information necessary for developing a thoughtful response to the assessment question. It asks students to interpret how important individuals and groups mentioned in the book might view or respond to a specific historic event or individual.

Question:
How successful were the “Great Society” programs and policies of President Lyndon B. Johnson?  By 1972 had America become a “great,” “almost great,” or “not so great” society?

Support Materials #1 - coming soon
Images and words from the historical context -
This slide show highlights many of the social, political, and economic issues the nation faced during this time.  It provides students some historical context so they can better understand the source documents and goals of Johnson’s Great Society programs.

Support Materials #2 pdf file | MS Word file
Note to students on evaluation criteria, and a focus on integrating content and evidence -
This activity is designed to help students develop and evaluation criteria for the “Great Society,” and to address a particular writing issue noticed by teachers as they read student essays on previous assessments. 

Teachers observed that a number of students had some difficulty in writing an essay in which they include both evidence from source documents and information taken from what was learned in class through readings and discussion.  Weaving the two together is an important skill because it means you are able to successfully demonstrate a fundamental academic literacy task—making an historical argument [a claim], providing background to the argument, and then supporting the argument with evidence.   In this activity students work with background information and source documents about a number of New Deal programs to write potential body paragraphs the integrate the two.

Support Materials #3 pdf file | MS Word file
A focus on working with charts and graphs -
The Great Society assessment includes a number of graphs and charts as evidence students can use to develop and support their arguments.  In past assessments, teachers observed that students often avoided using these documents because they were not skilled in reading and analyzing th information.  This activity is designed to give them practice with types of documents and to use them in developing a tentative thesis about the Great Society.