Virginia: The Place to Be!

Congratulations! You have just been chosen by your fellow colonial Virginians
to become the director of planning for your new settlement. So far, Virginia has a few
small groups of people (German, Scots-Irish, English, African, and American Indian)
that already live here, but you want your settlement to grow! Your first project as the
director of planning is to persuade more people to come to your awesome, new, and
diverse town!
Your job is to create a poster that talks about and shows how colonial
Virginias combination of cultures from different sets of people (German, Scots-Irish,
English, African, and American Indian) has made it such an awesome place to live! Think
back to our essential question #1 about explanation that we have been focusing on:
What are examples of ways that European immigrants, Africans, and American Indians
influenced colonial life in Virginia? Use information that we have learned in class by
answering this question to complete your poster! HAVE FUN!
Your poster should be colorful, creative, and organized (you may use supplies from the
art cart) and should include the following information:
Drawing of what the town looks like (labeled so newcomers know what each thing
is and which of the 5 groups of people listed above it came from)
List of your towns beliefs (tell which of the 5 groups of people listed above
contributed each belief)
List of your towns customs (tell which of the 5 groups of people listed above
contributed each custom)
*Important Things to Remember:
This is an individual assignment and must be done at school!
Each of you will present your finished poster to members of a JMU history
class in addition to myself! They are very excited to check out your awesome
posters and see how much you know about colonial Virginia!
I will be grading your poster based on the attached rubric.
This assignment will be due on ________________________.

Virginia! The Place to Be! Assignment Rubric

Checklist (to be filled out BEFORE you turn in your assignment):
I put my name on my poster.
_____ YES
I turned in my poster on time.
_____ YES
I followed all directions for this assignment.
_____ YES
I proofread my poster before I turned it in.
_____ YES
I attached this rubric to the back of my poster.
_____ YES
Rubric:
Point Value

Dimension

15 points

Content: Architecture
(Drawing)

15 points

Content: Beliefs

15 points

Content: Customs

10 points

Communication

Total: 50 points

Score: ___________ /50

_____
_____
_____
_____
_____

NO
NO
NO
NO
NO

Quality
The student included examples of architecture that were present in colonial Virginia
from both German and Scots-Irish backgrounds. These examples were thoughtful,
detailed, and accurate. The student thoughtfully constructed their town to resemble
that of a colonial Virginian settlement and labeled all structures in their drawing
with what it was supposed to be, and which group of people contributed it.
The student included an extensive list of beliefs that were present in colonial
Virginia from German, Scots-Irish, and English backgrounds. These beliefs were
correct and well thought out.
The student included an extensive list of customs that were present in colonial
Virginia from German, Scots-Irish, English, African, and American Indian
backgrounds. These customs were accurate and well thought out.
The student created a poster that presented the architecture, beliefs, and customs
of colonial Virginia in a way that showed how they were used in everyday life and how
all three elements were used together to create a working settlement. The student
used persuasive language and seemed enthusiastic in their attempt to convince new
people to come to colonial Virginia.
Comments:

Dear Parents/Guardians,
I am very excited to be sharing information with you about our latest big
assignment. This assignment will serve as an end-of-unit assessment showing how much
your child learned relating to one of our very important essential questions for our
Interdependence in Colonial Virginia unit. It will address our essential question for
explanation: What are examples of ways that European immigrants, Africans, and
American Indians influenced colonial life in Virginia?
For their task, your child will pretend that they have just been elected as
the director of planning for colonial Virginia. Their first project in this position is to
convince more people to come to their new settlement. They will be using information
they have learned in class to create a poster that includes a drawing of what the
towns layout and architectural elements may look like, a list of beliefs from the
diverse groups of settlers, and a list of customs from the diverse groups of settlers.
They will be responsible for explaining which group of settlers each architectural
element, belief, and custom came from, as well as explaining how all of these ideas
from various cultures worked together to build an exciting, new, and functional
society.
This assignment will not simply serve as a fun activity. Yes, your child will
have many opportunities throughout this projects completion to unleash their creative
minds, but this will most importantly serve as a performance task. A performance task
allows me to see how well your child understands the content that we have learned
throughout the unit. This assignment is of high value because it allows your child to
apply their knowledge in a life-like situation and allows them to extensively explain the
content and make connections.
To give your child a real-life audience to present their finished products to,
I have invited a group of upper-level history class from James Madison University to
visit our classroom to see the class wonderful posters. This will be an exciting
opportunity for your children to have pride in their work and show it to spectators
that are very knowledgeable about history themselves.
Should you have any questions regarding this assessment, please feel free to
contact me at searsme@dukes.jmu.edu.
Sincerely,

Morgan Sears
Morgan Sears

Performance-based Evidence
Task, Rubric, & Letter Home

Name: Morgan Sears

Date: June 19, 2015

Directions:
1. Create a task that is performance-based evidence to assess your students knowledge,
understandings, and skills of one of your essential questions. Develop the actual
handout/assignments sheet that you would give to your students. Design it so that it is kidfriendly so your students get excited about this assignment.
2. Be sure to indicate which facet(s) of understanding you are assessing. This can be described in
the actual directions to the students or listed on the rubric. Its important to know the facet to
determine if the descriptors of quality on the rubric are appropriate.
3. Develop an analytical quality rubric to evaluate the students work.
4. Write a letter home to parents/guardians explaining the assessment, its value, and how it is more
than just an activity. Include in your letter how you plan to make the audience authentic and how
they might contact you with questions. This letter should be no more than one page.
5. Attach this coversheet to your assignment.
Checklist:
Submitted on time (or consulted with Michelle)
Attached this cover sheet to your product
Followed all directions
Proofread materials so no errors exist

_x__YES
_x__YES
_x__YES
_x__YES

___NO
___NO
___NO
___NO

Evaluation Rubric:
Value
Component
You
created
an
assessment
that
is
appropriate
for the purpose, curriculum content, and grade level.
Content and
You designed the assessment so that students clearly demonstrate understanding of one of your
Thinking
essential questions. You crafted a performance-based task that richly embodied the attributes of a
(15 pts.)
quality task. You designed an analytical, quality rubric that included dimensions critical to judging
students understanding. It is obvious that you demonstrated sound judgment and thinking in the
decisions that you made.

Communication
(10 pts.)

(5 pts.)
30 pts.

You explained the directions clearly to your students, telling them what they had to do, their goal
and to whom they would be sharing their products/performances (in a kid-friendly format). You
wrote a concise, informative, and inviting letter to parents/guardians that clearly explained the task
as an assessment and hits importance as an assessment.
You paid careful attention to details such as typing, spacing, layout, clear directions, etc. so that all
products are visually appealing. You created all materials so that they are of high professional
quality.
Total
Comments: