S+Gauthier,+Andrew

Office: 210 Roberts Learning Center Office Phone: (207) 778-7353 Office Hours:**2:00 PM-3:30 PM Monday through Friday unless otherwise specified.
 * Teacher: Mr. Gauthier

Performance Task Overview
Welcome to the world of a museum curator! You love your job at the Smithsonian and are always ready to take on the challenges of the day. Today, you are approached by the highest authority of the museum. He is concerned that the lack of fresh material in the WWII section is turning guests away. He is asking you and other curators to pair up and compete with one another in creating a new video display discussing the world-wide impacts of WWII. If your display is approved over others by a panel of guests, staff, and museum authority, you are looking at a raise and a promotion. This is just the opportunity you have been waiting for. Time to make a smash-hit display to captivate and stir the audience into crowning your video display the winner and new addition to the exhibit! Best of luck!

=Expectations= Most of you are in your junior year. Having realized this, I will hold you as responsible young adults. You will be expected to be on time to this class every day with your homework completed and the essential classroom materials (notebook, pencils, etc.) on hand. In the case that you will not be making it to class it is your responsibility to contact me letting me know why you were out and asking for your homework and other class information that you missed.

Respect is of utmost importance in any classroom. In this classroom, there will be a lot of discussion and a lot of opinion swapping. You are expected to counter-argue others points from time to time but if you do so it must be in a very respectful manner.

As nature has it, the occasional absence is bound to happen. For whatever reason you are out sick, THANK YOU. You are doing myself, your peers, and other staff a favor by staying away and helping us remain healthy. However, your absences will not excuse you from your work load. In the event that you are absent it is YOUR responsibility to e-mail, call, or come see me to get the information you missed as well as assignments and projects. I will not chase you down. As a community of students between the ages of 16 and 18, I expect that you will be adults and handle situating yourself in class again. Different assignments will have different rules concerning due dates in cases of sickness. This also depends on the state of your ailment. Rather than provide one golden rule as to how to handle late work, I would prefer that you come see me and we gather your materials and make a plan for you to succeed.

In this class you will be asked to uphold the Code of Integrity. Plagiarism is not only wrong in principle but also a legal issue. When writing your papers, be sure to cite your sources properly. Failure to do with will result in a failing grade and possibly other legal measures as determined by the school handbook. All turned in research papers will be written in size 12 Times New Roman and formatted in Chicago format. This is a history class. I find both content and professional historian work to be of utmost importance. If you need more information on Chicago format you may reference your Bedford Handbook, the internet, or stop in and see me on my office hours. I am very enthusiastic when it comes to working on your professional display of work!

=Benchmarks= •Comic Life: Students will create a Comic Life time line of the events of WWII using primary and secondary sources and appropriate pictures and text. Most emphasized in this activity will be the use of primary and secondary source documents. Before working on this endeavor, we will have a class discussion concerning the difference between a primary and secondary source document as well as the values each document have. Your time line will provide you with some more information and great resources to you later in this unit. SAVE THEM ON YOUR DELICIOUS ACCOUNT!(150 points)

•Open-Choice Type II Technology: Students will create a digital story using a type II technology of choice. Alter one crucial event of WWII of your choosing and elaborate on what changes this may have made on the US and world. The options of type II technology for this product include but are not limited to iMovie, Garageband, or Comic Life. Any other type II technology ideas must be approved by me prior to completion. This project and exercise is meant to improve your interpretation in a "what could be" and "what might have been" sense of thought. Interpretations and deep analysis are important skills historians must use. Keep in mind while completing this project that history is not just the study of the past but, also making interpretations for the future based on different implications from earlier situations.(150 points)

•Wiki: Students will produce an essay using "whistle stops" to guide them through the process. Students will come up with a WWII themed thesis and post this to the class wiki for approval by the instructor. Students will also post digital versions of their drafts to the wiki for peer editing. Students will submit a final draft in digital form ( a file version) and in written form on the wiki.(200 points)

•Wiki: Students will create a wiki-page concerning an evolution of a democratic constitutional principle. Students will conclude with how you they would change the principle or if they would change it and why. This wiki should be creative, easy on the eyes, and easy to follow. How the student builds it is entirely up to them. Pictures are always a great idea! During the process of making this, keep in mind two major areas of importance: aesthetics and content. (150 points)

•Blog: Students will blog an annotated bibliography concerning research for a thesis paper. The instructor will reflect on these through commentary on the blog. Ultimately, this activity will be a test of your research skills. Having good research skills is applicable to every day life. This is your chance to show me what you have with analysis. I want you to prove to me that you can be a historian, too! (100 points)

•Pre-assessment: Students will be pre-assessed prior to the unit to reflect on how much students already know about WWII. This will involve the use of a KWL chart. We will look back on this at the end of the unit and discuss what we have learned on this topic. Passing this in at the end of the unit will result in full points for the benchmark. (50 points)

•Self-assessment: Students will blog reflecting on the working process, concerns, and strengths of their Webquest products and other projects throughout the unit. Each blog will have a specific set of guidelines to follow in order to complete them in a proper and directed manner. (50 points)

Performance Task
Welcome to the world of a museum curator! You love your job at the Smithsonian and are always ready to take on the challenges of the day. Today, you are approached by the highest authority of the museum. He is concerned that the lack of fresh material in the WWII section is turning guests away. He is asking you and other curators to pair up and compete with one another in creating a new video display discussing the world-wide impacts of WWII. If your display is approved over others by a panel of guests, staff, and museum authority, you are looking at a raise and a promotion. This is just the opportunity you have been waiting for. Time to make a smash-hit display to captivate and stir the audience into crowning your video display the winner and new addition to the exhibit! Best of luck! (300 points)

(Total: 1150 points)

=Grading Scale= **A** (93 -100), **A-** (90 - 92), **B+** (87 - 89), **B** (83 - 86), **B-** (80 - 82), **C+**(77 - 79), **C** (73-76),
 * C-** (70 - 72), **D+**(67 - 69), **D** (63 - 66), **D-** (60 - 62), **F** (0 - 59).