Use grade level standards to inform instruction (Common Core Literacy Standards, Common Core Literacy Standards for Reading History Grades 9-10, or Common Core Literacy Standards for Reading History Grades 11-12). If you are less familiar with Common Core, it might be helpful to review the progression of literacy standards to ensure you are meeting grade level standards.
Begin by choosing a text at the appropriate Lexile level. Then assess the text complexity by using the text complexity rubric for informational texts or literary texts if you are reading narratives. Both of these tools can help you select texts at the appropriate level of complexity for your students.
In order to assess the quality of your task you can use the Checklist for Creating an Artifact Prompt to improve the quality of the task you give students.
Facing History created a Common Core Writing Prompts and Strategies resource to help social studies teachers engage students in argumentative writing.
According to the Buck Institute, there are four main ways a project can be authentic. Ideally, projects combine multiple elements of authenticity into a project.
To learn see examples from each of these four categories, click here.
The Buck Institute for Education has a curated database of projects in a variety of subjects and grade levels. For additional Buck Institute resources to help you plan a rigorous, authentic project, click here.
Use this FREE database to find examples of stand alone or embedded performance assessments (artifacts). Many of the tasks are already aligned to OUR RUBRICS! The performance assessments include teacher and student versions of activities, student samples of final products, and alignment to standards. Create a FREE account and click on “Performance Tasks” to view examples.