After all of the other pieces of this unit are completed, students will demonstrate how much they have learned through a Persuasive Essay Writing Assessment. This assessment will cover social studies and language arts (content and form/language conventions) standards. The students will be able to use their experiences from each of the technology activities as well as the notes that they took of the Power Point report presentations.

Review the focus of the paper and the instructions of how to do the assessment using the entire writing process.

(pdf file of Guidelines not given here so that you can tailor instructions to suit your own style and needs. You can cut and paste and modify from my list below if you’d like.) Besides, lined paper is mostly what you need!) Areas that should be included are as follows:

Focus:

• Persuade the reader of your essay that “truth” in history books, television and other books is often dependent upon the perspectives of the writer(s) and may, in fact, be retold completely differently depending upon the perspective of other parties involved. (You may take these ideas from our class study of history or more current history as discovered through discussions of the portraits and/or report presentations.--You may use your notes!)

• Give at least 3 examples of instances in history that have been told one way but could have been told another way, and why.

Also include:

• 1) a paragraph on your own convictions about the importance of understanding a variety of perspectives on history rather than just one (give examples of your own experiences in this process and how you grew through those experiences.)

• 2) a paragraph on how studying history, and it’s many perspectives, can help you connect with your personal history, present and future.

Use the Writing Process:

• Brainstorm your position and then your ideas to not only support your position but also ideas that someone might use to argue against your position, so that you can address those as well in your essay.

• Organize your ideas into an outline. Be sure to have an introductory and concluding paragraph. Your Body paragraphs should cover your 3+ examples as well as the 2 application paragraphs explained above. Be sure to include topic and concluding sentences for each paragraph as well. Use 2-4 words or short phrases only on the outline.

• Write Rough Draft. Write out your essay in paragraph format. You may use printing or cursive.

• Proofread and Self-Edit your work using a different colored editing pencil. Check all areas of CONTENT (see page 1 of Rubric, and check FORM (see page 2 of Rubric.) Make any necessary corrections and additions.

• Write Final Draft. Using cursive, write your final draft, incorporating all of the corrections that you make during your editing process.

• Proofread and self-edit a final time by using your regular pencil and eraser to make last minute corrections.

• Self-Assess on Rubric (both sides) with a regular pencil.

Self-Assess Integrated Writing Rubric:

CONTENT: Once student is completely done and satisfied with his/her work, he/she should read it through once again and self circle each appropriate score on the rubric form in the area of “content” on Page 1 of the Assessment Rubric.

FORM: Afterward, using Page 2 of the Assessment Rubric, the student should read the essay through once each time he/she is marking an area of “form.” For example, when checking for punctuation errors, he/she should read the essay through. Again, when checking for spelling, the essay should be read through once again, and so on for each item of “form.” Then, student should transfer the score for each back to the front-Page 1 under “form.”

Preparing of Materials to turn in:

Have students staple their materials in this order for submission to the teacher:

1. (on top) - Assessment Rubric completed by student

2. Final Draft of Essay

3. Rough Draft of Essay with colored editing marks and additions

4. Outline

5. Brainstorm

Teacher Assesses on the Same Rubric Form

Using a different color pen, the teacher assesses the content and form, and gives the student a social studies grade , writing and various language conventions grades based upon the rubric. It is important to have these scores separate in the grade book because they provide the MOST AUTHENTIC evidence for the report card of a concept or skill learned. These applied skills are extremely important to show how well a child can transfer discrete skills into a meaningful and authentic context. To not be able to do so shows that the child has NOT mastered the skill even if he/she gets perfect scores on spelling, punctuation, or grammar tests, for example.