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Identify the roles and sacrifices of individual American soldiers, as well as the unique contributions of the special fighting forces (e.g., the Tuskegee Airmen, the442nd Regimental Combat team, the Navajo Code Talkers)

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Students will be placed in groups of four to promote collaboration and help create a space for multiple opinions and world views. Once in groups they will be assigned a different individual American soldier or special fighting force from World War II with  articles, readings, and internet searches to guide their research. Possible Soldiers and fighting forces include: Navajo Code Talkers, Tuskegee Airmen, 442nd regimental combat team, and Guy Gabaldon.
Students will collectively research sacrifices, contributions, images, and background information.
This section will serve as a way to prepare students for the assessment and will not be graded.

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Students will demonstrate mastery of the standard by creating a collaborative PowerPoint or poster board with pictures, information on events, background information, and contemporary information regarding the topic they were assigned. Students will be assigned specific tasks within the group to insure that the project is a collaborative effort, with all students demonstrating the content mastery.
Groups will present their project in front of the class to complete the sharing of information of prominent figures from WWII.
Students will be graded on a scale of 40 points. 10 points will go towards presenting in front of the class, 20 points will go towards content on the slides or poster board, and 10 points will go towards completion of the assignment. The groups final score will be multiplied by 2 and the points will be divided amongst the group members with a 20 being an A. This allows students to hold each other accountable and allocate points and grades based on their participation. Every student will be guaranteed 14 points, a C, and the rest of the points will be split up as they see fit. The Teacher will monitor and act as a mediator, making sure that every student has a voice and that all students in a group agree to the grading.
Possible issues could arise when students feel that they deserve more points than what their teammates want to give them. The teacher would address this by guaranteeing 14 points to every student and by monitoring how the grades will be distributed. Another issue that could arise is complacency, students could do minimal work to all receive a C grade. This would be addressed by giving students plenty of in class time to work on their PowerPoint or poster boards with the teacher going to individual groups to ensure that they are all working on the task at hand and that all groups are pushing to do the best job they're capable of.
This grading system guarantees that every student is coming into the assignment with a C, which could motivate them to want to work harder to get a higher grade. Using collaborative work also creates a space for multiple perspectives and added peer support. Assigning tasks within the groups also ensures that all students participate and are able to add their own opinions and thoughts to the assignment.

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Students will show mastery of standard 11.9, specifically 11.9.2 and 11.9.3, by creating an American propaganda poster that portrays American attitudes towards the Soviet Union during the Cold War. This assignment will challenge students to think from the perspective of Americans during the Cold War.

This propaganda poster must include:

Important features of a propaganda poster (pictures and a persuasive slogan).

Text that clearly expresses attitudes that Americans would have during the Cold War (fears of communism).

References to key historical themes of the Cold War (containment, the Red Scare).

Students will also write a brief (1 page) explanation of their propaganda poster. This short explanation should include why their poster is a propaganda poster and what is the main attitude or argument that it is trying to convince the American people of.

Students will not be graded on how aesthetically pleasing their poster is but they will be graded on the content of both their poster and their explanation. Students content will be scored on a standards-based rubric that measures how well students:

understand what propaganda is and are able to make a persuasive slogan

accurately identify and portray American attitudes during the Cold War.

Students who show mastery will receive an A
Students who show proficiency will receive a B
Students who show basic skills will receive a C
Students who show below basic skills will receive a D

We are gonna grade this assignment on a standards-based rubric because we want students to focus on trying to gain knowledge of the content and not worry about how good of an artist they are. Students don’t need to be good artists because this assignment tests students on their ability to understand what propaganda is and make a persuasive slogan that accurately identifies and portrays American attitudes during the Cold War.

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Trace the origins and geopolitical consequences (foreign and domestic) of the Cold War and containment policy, including the following:  The era of McCarthyism, instances of domestic Communism (e.g., Alger Hiss) and blacklisting, The Truman Doctrine, The Berlin Blockade, The Korean War, The Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, Atomic testing in the American West, the “mutual assured destruction” doctrine, and disarmament policies, The Vietnam War, Latin American policy

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Students will demonstrate mastery of the Cold War and the geopolitical consequences (foreign and domestic) that arose from the race towards world supremacy by taking an exam with multiple choice questions and short essay responses.
The exam will cover topics related to proxy wars and American policies in foreign countries as well as American panic towards communist ideology. Topics covered include: Latin American policy, Bay of Pigs, Cuban missile crisis, Korean War, and Vietnam War.
Students will be given an exam with 20 multiple choice questions worth .5 each and 4 short essay questions worth 5 points each. The exam will be worth a total of 30 points.
Students will be graded individually but are allowed to have the support of one peer to assist while taking the test, they are also allowed to take the test on their own. The test will also be open notes to ensure that the multiple choice questions are answered fully while also ensuring that scaffolded academic language is used throughout their essay responses.
Essay responses will be graded based off of attempt, content mastery, critical analysis, and use of academic language. In other words, if the student attempts the question and does their personal best, points will be given.
Possible issues could arise with regard to noise management while the exam is being taken. Students will be asked to speak quietly but if a student needs complete silence, accommodations can be made. Another issue could involve cheating but that would be addressed by asking students to have their own responses and by checking that the exams responses are unique. If responses are too similar or exactly the same, students will simply be asked to retake those portions with no points being deducted. This allows students to reflect on the fact that what is necessary to succeed is their individual thoughts and voices. Students who receive less than a C will also be allowed to retake the test in an attempt to better their score. Only the missed or failed sections will need to be retested. This allows students to correct their mistakes and continue to learn and grow without penalties.

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Students will show mastery of standard 11.8, specifically 11.8.1, 11.8.2, and 11.8.4, by creating a graphic organizer that analyzes and compares different industries in America and how they were affected by the economic boom that occurred in America after WWII. Students will focus on analyzing the service industries, white color industries, professional industries, military industries, and agriculture industries in their graphic organizer.

Ideas of information students could put in their graphic organizer include:

The industry and the main products it produced.

Pictures of the industry.

How WWII affected the industry's profits.

How this industry compared to other industries in America during this time.

Students will be graded on their demonstration of the knowledge they show in the graphic organizer. If students show that they are able to critically compare the different industries in the US after WWII then they will get full marks. Students who do not demonstrate knowledge of the content will be given feedback about what to change and will get three days to make those changes and turn in their work for full credit. Our hope is that students will get full marks on this assignment.

We want to give students feedback and the opportunity to fix their mistakes because we believe in promoting a growth mindset in grading. Especially for project-based assignments, we want to focus on helping students learn how they can improve their project but also improve their knowledge so that they are better prepared for an exam or essay.

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Promoting a growth mindset in students is extremely important because it helps students see mistakes or failure as an opportunity to grow and learn. This is especially important when grading because a student might see an F on their assignment and think that they are a dumb student. However, if teachers promote a growth mindset in grading then students will see an F as a challenge to improve and work on refining their skills and knowledge.

We would implement Feldman's practice of promoting hope and a growth mindset into our mock grading system by...

First, affirming the intelligence and setting high learning expectations for each of the students. We want students to know that they have the ability to tackle challenging assignments and will push them to always be stretching their learning muscles.

Second, giving students a lot of feedback on their assignments. We want to let them know that receiving a lot of feedback is not because they did bad or they are dumb but because we want them to grow and refine their skills.

Lastly, letting students do test/ project retakes in order to emphasize the process of learning and reward students for trying to improve their mistakes.

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Students will show mastery of standard 11.8 by writing an essay that asks students to identify three major economic changes in the US after WWII and explain how those economic changes transformed society. There will be no word requirement for the paper but students will need to demonstrate their knowledge of the material by identifying specific historical events. I am not looking for a paper with a lot of fluff but a short and dense paper that is packed full of evidence and analysis of that evidence that is short and relates back to the prompt. This essay will be initially administered in class. Students will get feedback and then get three days to make changes to their essay and turn it in for a grade.

The in-class essay will not be graded but a lot of feedback will be given on it so it is important for students to try their best on it. Doing well on the in-class essay will also help students not have to do as much work when turning in their final draft. Students will get feedback on:

Answering the prompt accurately and completely.

Providing a plethora of relevant evidence.

Critically analyzing that evidence by relating it to the prompt.

The student's final draft will be graded on how well they looked at the feedback and made changes to their essay. A typical A-F grading system will be used based on the rubric. If students look at and fix their feedback then they should get a good score.

This grading system is meant to promote a growth mindset in students. By forcing students to take their feedback seriously and see it as a way to improve, our hope is that students will develop more of a growth mindset.

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When grading and evaluating student mastery, it is important for educators to emphasize and value knowledge and not grade based on subjective environmental or behavioral factors. By promoting equitable grading practices that focus on content mastery, students can be motivated towards high achievement without complacency. This also allows educators to grade on a equal basis that focuses on content and not how the educator feels about a student or how students behave.

In order to implement Feldman's practices that value knowledge and not environmental or behavioral factors educators can grade based on the mastery of content standards and no subjectively interpreted behaviors such as "effort" or "participation". This would help students stray away from complacency when paired with an educator that motivates and encourages content mastery and critical inquiry. Educators can also provide students that have cheated or copied answers with alternatives to consequences. For instance, allowing students to time to prepare to retake the exam with no point reduction so the student can demonstrate their knowledge.