RUBRIC FOR POSTER & PRESENTATION – U.S. HISTORY
Poster: 1 Point
EXCEEDS
1
Poster illustrates the
problems that freedmen
faced in regards to the
historical event, and how
this countered Congress's
goals for Reconstruction.
Historical Content: 2 Points
2
MEETS
.75
Poster clearly illustrates
how the historical event
caused problems for
freedmen in an accurate
and appropriate manner.
1.5
Historical event is
Description of historical
accurately and thoroughly event is accurate and
explained, linked to
thorough. Clear connection
Congressional efforts for is made between event and
Reconstruction, and used to specific Congressional
explain the failure of
goals for Reconstruction.
Reconstruction as a whole.
Delivery: 1 Point
1
.75
Delivery of presentation
maximizes learning for the
audience. Audience is able
to take notes, participate,
and take something
valuable away from the
presentation.
The pace of the
presentation as well as its
organization allows for the
effective and efficient
communication of
information, and keeps the
audience focused.
APPROACHES
.50
DOES NOT MEET
.25
The historical event is
Historical event is unclear,
illustrated in a clear,
inaccurate, or
accurate, and appropriate inappropriately depicted.
manner, but goes into little
depth concerning how this
event negatively impacted
the lives of freedmen.
1
.50
Historical event is
accurately described, but
little attention is given to
how the event hindered
specific Congressional
Reconstruction goals.
.50
Explanation of historical
event is inaccurate,
incomplete, or insufficient.
.25
Information is organized in Presentation is sloppy,
a logical and predictable
unorganized, and hard to
fashion, but the pace of the follow.
presentation is too fast for
the audience to keep up or
too slow to keep their
attention.
Rationale for Formative Assessment Tool
The assignment for the rubric I have designed is a poster and presentation activity, which takes
place during a unit on Reconstruction in an 11th grade U.S. history class. The poster and presentation
activity focuses on comparing the goals of Reconstruction policy with what actually happened as a
result of that policy. This activity forms students into six groups. Each group is then assigned one of
the following historical events:
(1) Return to “white man’s rule” (the creation of terror organizations)
(2) Poll Taxes (Grandfather Clause) & Williams v. Mississippi
(3) Passage of Jim Crow laws; segregation
(4) Black Codes
(5) Plessy v. Ferguson
(6) Amnesty Act & the Stolen Election
Students are instructed to create posters illustrating how their particular historical event impacted
African Americans as well as Congress’s goals for Reconstruction. Students will have read about each
of these events for homework before class, and will be allowed to refer to their textbooks and primary
documents during this activity.
At the end of the period, each group will have roughly 2-3 minutes to present their poster and
teach their event to the rest of the class. Students will be instructed to describe the nature of their
particular historical event, and explain the significance of that event to Reconstruction. During the
presentations, students will be encouraged to take notes and ask questions. The class will also be
encouraged to comment on how accurately or inaccurately they think the posters reflect the impact of
the particular historical events on African Americans, or Congress’s Reconstruction goals. In addition,
the teacher may ask leading questions and fill in the blanks if presentations fall short of communicating
essential information to the rest of the class.
The poster and presentation activity concludes with a debriefing period where students will be
asked to hypothesize about the emotions African Americans might have felt during the period of
Reconstruction. Then, students will begin a quick-write exercise that addresses the following question:
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In what way could African Americans consider the Reconstruction amendments a failure? Unfinished
quick-writes will become homework due on the following class session.
The rubric that I will use to assess the poster and presentation activity contains three evaluative
criteria, which I have labeled poster, historical content, and delivery. For the poster, I am looking for a
clear, accurate, and appropriate illustration of the problems that freedmen faced as a result of a
particular historical event, and how that event countered Congress’s goals for Reconstruction.
Historical content refers to the information given in the presentation. Here I expect quality
presentations to accurately and thoroughly explain the historical event, link the event to specific
congressional Reconstruction efforts, and use the event to explain the failure of Reconstruction as a
whole. For example, poll taxes kept blacks from voting even though black male suffrage was a goal
for Reconstruction as evidenced by the ratification of the 15th Amendment. Poll taxes helped
contribute to the failure of Reconstruction because they prevented the improvement of African
American political power and civil rights. Finally, I am assessing the delivery of the presentations to
see that the presentations are organized and paced in a way that promotes learning for the audience
since the presentations will be teaching material back to the class. This is consistent with the listening
and speaking English-Language Arts (ELA) standards for education in California. Exceptional
presentations will be structured to facilitate note-taking, participation, and retention for the audience.
The evaluative criteria in the poster and presentation rubric are based on the following
standards and objectives:
U.S. HISTORY CONTENT STANDARD 11.1.4 Examine the effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction.
Evaluate Congress’s goals for Reconstruction and their results (reunify the nation, rebuild the south, elevate the
status of African Americans).
Analyze views of how to effect political and social change for African Americans.
Assess the problems that freedmen faced during Reconstruction and whether their freedom was a reality or merely
existed on paper.
Develop a hypothesis for why Reconstruction failed to elevate the status of African Americans in terms of
citizenship, civil rights, and political power.
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ELA Standards for grades 11-12: LISTENING & SPEAKING
1.6 Use logical, ethical, and emotional appeals that enhance a specific tone and purpose.
1.8 Use effective and interesting language, including: informal expressions for effect; standard American English
for clarity; technical language for specificity.
2.1 Deliver effective presentations: explore the significance of personal experiences, events, conditions, or
concerns, using appropriate rhetorical strategies; draw comparisons between the specific incident and broader
themes that illustrate the speaker’s beliefs or generalizations about life; maintain a balance between describing the
incident and relating it to more general, abstract ideas.
2.2 Deliver oral reports on historical investigations: use exposition, narration, description, persuasion, or some
combination of those to support the thesis; analyze several historical records of a single event, examining critical
relationships between elements of the research topic; explain the perceived reason or reasons for the similarities
and differences in historical records with information derived from primary and secondary sources to support or
enhance the presentation; include information from all relevant perspectives and take into consideration the
validity and reliability of sources.
The poster and presentation activity connects with these standards and objectives because it allows
students to use linguistic, artistic, and interpersonal means for developing a thorough understanding of
the events that led to the failure of Reconstruction to improve the status of African Americans in terms
of citizenship, civil rights, and political power.
The criteria for the poster and presentation activity will be made clear to students by providing
them with a copy of the rubric in advance and taking instructional time to explain and clarify its
contents and function. This is in line with Popham’s recommendation for teachers to make assessment
criteria available to students to help them appraise their own efforts. I am aware that making
assessment criteria clear to students can be facilitated by having them help determine the criteria for
the rubric, and that this in turn can provide them with a sense of ownership over, and consequent
motivation for, their learning. But due to the necessity to assess specific historical content, and the
relative straightforwardness of the lesson, I feel that a student-devised rubric is unnecessary and
potentially counterproductive for the nature of my particular activity. I do, however, hope to enhance
student learning and performance by teaching my students how to use the rubric I designed to guide
their own self assessment. As a class, we can assess posters created from previously completed posterand-presentation activities so that students can practice applying the evaluative criteria of the rubric to
actual student work prior to beginning their task. The evaluative criteria clearly outlines the
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expectations for the assignment and links these with the learning objectives for the unit. This lets
students know exactly what they should strive to achieve and in what direction to channel their efforts.
Before I return the rubrics to my students, I intend to write feedback on them that highlights the
strengths of their assignments as well as areas for improvement. I will make sure that my comments
refer to observable events in the actual performance so that the feedback is meaningful and verifiable.
I can also discuss whole class strengths and challenges with students after the completion of the
activity, and reteach the concepts and skills with which students may have had trouble.
The rubric is multidimensional, containing four performance levels and three independent
evaluative criteria. Popham argues that many rubrics are dysfunctional because they are excessive in
length and loaded with details. I wanted to avoid “splitting hairs” by using a rubric with too many
grading levels, and I used an even number just to be safe since one theory argues that an odd number
can result in a gravitation toward the middle when grading. Although the rubric contains multiple
criteria that is scored independently, the independent scores are used to generate a single composite
score, which corresponds with a standard letter-grade. The composite score ranges from 1 to 4
although a 0 is possible for students who fail to complete or participate in the assignment. These
numbers correspond to a standard G.P.A. scale, where a 4.0 represents an A, 3.0 a B, 2.0 a C, 1.0 a D,
and 0 an F. In addition, the historical content criterion is weighted twice as much as that of the poster
and delivery criteria because it is the most important evaluative component of the lesson in terms of its
proximity to the content standards and objectives.
I use clear and concise language, and establish consistency in describing what students can do
at each performance level while walking a tight rope between specificity and generality. Popham
warns against rubrics that are so task specific they end up measuring the particular display of a skill
instead of the essential components of that skill. He also cautions against excessively general rubrics
that offer little guidance on the key features of a tested skill, and no cues about what is genuinely
significant in a student’s response. The best rubrics, according to Wiggins, depend on a clear and
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uncontroversial definition of exemplary performance. Thus, I listed particular measurable tasks that
need to be accomplished for high achievement. I also avoided changing only adjectives across
performance levels—known as “the rubistar problem”—by describe in detail what students can do to
achieve the requirements of each particular performance level. This helped me avoid using deficit
language, which has the potential to devastate those students who receive low marks.
I realize that after I conduct this lesson a few times and have the chance to examine a sufficient
amount of student work, I may wish to adjust my rubric or develop new rubric language around the
characteristics of my samples. Nevertheless, I believe that this initial version of my rubric will be
effective for my poster and presentation activity because it possesses performance standards and
evaluative criteria based on high expectations for students, and facilitates the assessment of student
work by both instructors and the students themselves.
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