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Writing an Editorial on the Industrial Revolution
10th Grade World History Chapter 6
Inspiration: Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
For this next chapter, you will all become time travelers like Bill and Ted! You will
travel back to the Industrial Revolution in Europe and conduct research. The time period
you will travel back to must be after 1850 and before 1900. Your goal is to decide
whether the events and progress of the Industrial Revolution improved the lives of the
majority of people in Europe at that time.
Your research will come from chapter 6 of the text book and any online sources you use.
After you conduct your research, you will write a newspaper or magazine editorial. An
editorial is an article that expresses an opinion of its editors or publishers. The editorial
must be at least two pages long, typed in 12 point Times New Roman font, and double
spaced.
You have a choice of two options:
1. Write your editorial as an interview. You can interview a famous person from
the time period or you can interview a fake person. Your interview must also
include your analysis of the interview and your opinion.
2. Write your editorial as if you witnessed events. Since you will be traveling
back in time, you will be able to visit places and experience things. If you
choose this option, write your editorial based on the things you experienced.
Don’t forget to express an opinion! You are deciding whether or not the lives of people
improved from the Industrial Revolution.
Your editorial must include:
 A catchy headline.
 An introductory paragraph that explains where you went or who you interviewed
 The interview, if you choose this option, and your analysis of it that proves your
opinion
 An account of the events you witnessed, if you choose this option, and your
analysis of it that proves your opinion
 A closing paragraph that summarizes your experience and opinion again
 A bibliography for any resources you use outside of the Textbook
This assignment is worth 100 points and is due November 16th!
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Possible Internet Sources
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www.historynet.com
www.lii.org
www.worldhistorynetwork.org
http://www.sjsu.edu/~jwhitlat/socstud.htm
o this site has a large list of other websites that
might be useful
 http://directory.google.com
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My class is a mainstream 10th Grade World History class with 31 students. My
class has 4 English language learners who are proficient enough not to be in an ELD
class. This assessment is based on the movie Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. I will
show the students about 15 minutes of the movie to introduce the assessment. The parts
of the movie I will show explain that Bill and Ted have to complete a history assignment
to pass their class. Another scene shows them completing the assignment. I hope to get
the students engaged in the assessment by basing it of this movie. The students have one
week, including one weekend, to complete the assessment. During the first few days of
this week, I will be providing lectures and activities that will assist the students in
completing the assignment. I will be lecturing on section one and two that I feel relate
closely to the standards. The students will be filling out study guide sheets that focus on
the positive aspects of the Industrial Revolution as they read each section in class. They
will also be analyzing primary source readings. From all of this, the students will be able
to gather evidence that will assist them in completing this assessment.
Chapter 6 of the text book I am using includes too much information that is not
important or relevant to the state standards. The book uses two chapters (five and six) for
the state standard on the Industrial Revolution. Chapter 5 focuses on the Industrial
Revolution from 1750 to 1850 in Europe and covers most of the standards for 10.3. I
went in depth for chapter five because I felt the information was relevant to the state
standards. Instead of treating the chapter 6 as a traditional chapter, I am designing this
assignment as a way for the students to glean the important parts of the chapter. I won’t
be assigning any homework during this chapter other than working on this assignment. I
am also doing this to save time because I need to be finished with the standard on
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Imperialism before the December break and the book does not cover it until Chapters 9
and 10.
By using this type of assessment, I can skip the parts of the chapter that are not
relevant to the standards. I am also teaching the students how to write persuasively based
on evidence, which is an important part of being a historian. Chapter 5 covered a lot of
the negative aspects to the Industrial Revolution, such as child labor and filthy living
conditions. The first two sections of Chapter 6 go over more positive outcomes of the
Industrial Revolution such as medical advances, improvements in cities, and
improvements in sanitation. By using this performance assessment for Chapter 6, I am
building on the students’ prior knowledge of Chapter 5 while assessing their new
knowledge of Chapter 6.
I have been assigning short written assignments in previous chapters to develop
the students’ abilities to write persuasively. They have had practice writing paragraphs
and forming opinions on topics and now I want them to be able to use these skills more
completely. I think this assignment meets my writing objective because it is asking them
to form an opinion on the effects of the Industrial Revolution and whether or not people’s
lives were improved overall.
Another objective I have is for the students to find and use evidence to support
their opinion. I am not requiring the students to do a lot of research because it would take
too long. There is enough evidence in the parts of Chapter 6 that will be covered in class
to support their opinion. I am allowing students to use outside research if they want
because some students might want to talk about something that isn’t covered in the book.
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I am not requiring the students to use sources other than their textbook and that is why I
don’t mention outside resources in the rubric.
The standards for the unit on the Industrial Revolution were pretty well covered in
Chapter 5. This assessment for Chapter 6 deepens the students’ understanding of the
standards because they will be looking at them in a different way. They will be
investigating the later part of the Industrial Revolution in Europe and will be able to
better understand some of the outcomes of the new technology, inventions, and drastic
changes they learned about in Chapter 5.
One potential RSVP problem with this assessment is practicality. It will take a
significant amount of time to read and grade each assignment. One way I have attempted
to counter the lack of practicality in this assignment is by mandating that it be typed.
When they are typed, I can more easily read each assignment and write comments
between the double spaced lines.
The assessment is standardized for all the students. Every student will get the
same cover sheet with all the same instructions and two task variations. Since I am not
requiring outside research, every student is being assessed on the same content from
Chapter 6 of the textbook. They will also have the same amount of time to complete the
assessment.
I feel that the reliability and validity of the assessment is fairly high. The tasks
that they must complete are clearly written out and they have a week to complete the
assessment. Any problems like a student being sick or having a bad day are dealt with
because the student has a week to complete the assessment. I also believe the assessment
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is valid because it relates directly to the content they are being taught. The assessment
asks the students to use evidence from the chapter they are learning about.
The rubric I have created for this assessment will be strictly followed when I have
to assign grades. I will assign points according to how well the student meets each
criterion.
The best way I can apply this assessment to the next steps of teaching is how well
the students write a persuasive essay. From this assessment I will be able to gauge how
well the students can write persuasively and where I might need to review how to write
for a history class. The outcomes of this assessment will be useful for my unit on
Imperialism because I will ask them to write a slightly longer research essay. I will be
sure to go over specific examples from this assessment to guide them when they write the
next essay during the Imperialism unit.
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Table of Specifications
Standards
Objectives
Tasks
10.3 Students analyze the
effects of the Industrial
Revolution in England,
France, Germany, Japan,
and the United States.
TSWBAT develop an
opinion on the effects of the
Industrial Revolution.
The students write an
editorial for a newspaper or
magazine after traveling
back to the late Industrial
Revolution in Europe.
10.3.2 Examine how
scientific and technological
changes and new forms of
energy brought about
massive social, economic,
and cultural change.
10.3.3 Describe the growth
of population, rural to urban
migration, and growth of
cities associated with the
Industrial Revolution.
10.3.4 Trace the evolution
of work and labor,
including the demise of the
slave trade and the effects
of immigration, mining, and
manufacturing, division of
labor, and the union
movement.
TSWBAT analyze aspects
of the Industrial Revolution
that support their opinion.
The students find evidence
that they will use in their
fake interviews or the
events they witness from
Chapter 6 of their textbook
or from research they
conduct, though it is not
required.
TSWBAT create a fake
interview or an account of
what they witnessed during
their time traveling after
analyzing evidence from the
textbook or their research.
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Rubric for project based on Bill and Ted’s Excellent
Adventure
Criteria
Opinion/
Thesis
Max 20
points
Evidence/
Structure
Max 70
points
Headline/
Mechanics
Max 10
points
High Quality
85 to 100 points
-The student develops an
opinion based on the
project goal
-The opinion is supported
by the student’s interview
or witnessed events
17-20 points
Satisfactory
70 to 80 points
-The student develops an opinion
based on the project goal
-The opinion is vaguely supported
by the student’s interview or
witnessed events
15-16 points
-The editorial includes an
-The editorial includes an
interview or an account of
witnessed events
-Evidence supports the
student’s opinion and
includes valid information
from textbook/research
interview or an account of
witnessed events
-Evidence relates to the Industrial
Rev. but does not completely
support the student’s opinion
60-70 points
49-59 points
-The editorial includes a
-The editorial includes a catchy
catchy headline that relates
to the interview/witness
account
-The editorial has a clear
intro, body paragraphs with
evidence, and a closing
paragraph
headline that relates to the
interview/witness account
-The editorial has evidence and
paragraphs but no clear intro or
closing
8-10 points
7 points
Low Quality
65 and below
-The student does
not develop an
opinion
-The opinion lacks
relevance to the
project
13 points or fewer
-The student
includes something
other than an
interview or a
account of events
-The student does
not use valid
evidence and has no
relevance to an
opinion
48 points or fewer
-The editorial has no
headline
-The editorial has no
clear structure
6 points or fewer