civil war extra credit assignment

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In This Section

• Classroom Materials: Digitized Primary Sources
• Classroom Materials: Rubrics and Syllabi
• Classroom Materials: Sample Assignments
• Classroom Materials: Teaching Modules
• Classroom Materials: History Skills
• Classroom Materials: Reflections on Teaching
• Classroom Materials: History Lessons and Background Materials

Sample Assignments

Sample assignment showcasing the importance of local/regional history in the early american survey course.

Brittany Adams focuses on incorporating more regional history into the early survey. She also emphasizes the importance of de-centering the British colonial narrative when teaching students who identify more with western US history, as do many of her students at UC Irvine.

Assignment: Social History of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Shannon Bontrager not only incorporated global contexts into his survey, but he also used non-traditional and digital pedagogical tools to engage his students.

Chinese Immigrants in America in the 19th Century: A Study Module

These materials, produced by Vincent A. Clark as a result of his work in the Bridging Cultures program, consist of an illustrated introduction, excerpts from four contemporaneous articles, an online quiz (not included in these materials), and an assignment for an e-mail discussion. The introduction describes not only the life of the immigrants in the United States but their economic and cultural background in China. The goal is to expand the students’ knowledge to include the China from which these immigrants came. Two of the articles oppose Chinese immigrants; two praise them. They are designed to let students see the varying perceptions of the immigrants, the arguments for and against Chinese immigration, and the complex class and ethnic dimensions of this controversy.

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Extra Credit Assignment

As part of her work in the Bridging Cultures program, Cheryll Cody designed a course assignment using the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database. It requires students to answer a series of questions by looking at the database’s extensive collection of maps and charts.

The US Becomes an Empire, Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

As part of his work in the Bridging Cultures program, Carlos Contreras provided some classroom assignments and activities that challenge students to think "Atlantically" and "Pacifically" as they think broadly about American history. This set of discussion questions focuses on the expansion of the US as it becomes an imperial power and has students critically examine the US-Caribbean relationship, Hawaii and the Philippines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Discussion Questions on the Film Manifest Destiny

History and policy education program.

Oct. 2, 2015 -  Modeled on the National History Center's Congressional Briefings by Historians program, the History and Policy Education Program aims to help students appreciate the importance of bringing historical perspectives to contemporary policy conversations.  Designed to be adaptable to many courses and teaching styles, the Mock Policy Briefing initiative provides a guide for history educators to develop and host briefings about the historical dimensions of current policy questions.  Read more about the background of the initiative in the October issue of  Perspectives on History. 

Paper Assignment: Encountering Commodities in the Atlantic and the Pacific Worlds

This sample assignment requires students to use primary and secondary sources to connect American history with the Atlantic and Pacific worlds and write a paper that focuses on the circulation of commodities, peoples, and ideas throughout those worlds. This paper assignment has three major parts: a list of sources for students to read and study along with guiding questions on each reading; a mapping exercise; and the five page paper.

Paper Assignment: Localizing Global Encounters, Case Study: New Netherland/New York (Suffolk County Community College)

This sample assignment requires students to use primary and secondary sources to connect American history with the Atlantic and Pacific worlds and write a paper that focuses on encounters between different groups of Europeans in New Netherland/New York. This paper assignment has three major parts: a list of sources for students to read and study along with guiding questions on each reading; a mapping exercise; and the five page paper.

Sample Assignments from Globalized US History Courses

As part of her work in the Bridging Cultures program, Amy Forss employed wide-ranging techniques such as PechaKucha presentations, oral history research, and greater study of maps to engage her students in their globalized US history courses. She even had her students find historical recipes and try them out.

Revolutions, Independence and New Nations: The Great Transformation

As part of his work in the Bridging Cultures program, Carlos Contreras provided some classroom assignments and activities that challenge students to think "Atlantically" and "Pacifically" as they think broadly about American history. This set of discussion questions helps students consider the implications of revolution in the Atlantic world.

Discussion Questions on the Film Black in Latin America

As part of his work in the Bridging Cultures program, Carlos Contreras provided some classroom assignments and activities that challenge students to think "Atlantically" and "Pacifically" as they think broadly about American history. This set of readings and discussion questions helps students consider the complexities of the Transatlantic slave trade and the broader Atlantic world during the colonial era, particularly considering the film "Black in Latin America."

Films and Readings on the African Slave Trade and the Atlantic World

As part of his work in the Bridging Cultures program, Carlos Contreras provided some classroom assignments and activities that challenge students to think "Atlantically" and "Pacifically" as they think broadly about American history. This set of discussion questions helps students consider the complexities of the Transatlantic slave trade and the broader Atlantic world during the colonial era.

Africans in the Americas: Discussion Questions from Lepore, Benjamin, Articles, and Film

Video assignment based on isabel allende's daughter of fortune.

Oscar Cañedo crafted this creative assignment about the California Gold Rush and the experiences of people traveling from South America to get to California. He used a story from prominent Latin American novelist Isabel Allende as a backdrop for the assignment. Students craft their own characters based on Isabelle Allende's novel Daughter of Fortune and produce videos to explain why they wished to make the arduous journey to California

Plagiarism: Curricular Materials for History Instructors

History instructors can use this guide to teach students how to avoid plagiarism. It includes a discussion of how the American Historical Association defines plagiarism, tips on preventing and detecting plagiarism in student work, exercises to sharpen students’ understanding of plagiarism, a list of suggested readings for graduate students, an annotated bibliography, and a list of useful web sites.

ChronoZoom Memory and History Project Rubric

Discovering american social history on the web.

Dan Kallgren developed several sample assignments for use in his undergraduate survey course "United States History Since the Civil War," in the spring of 2000. Assignments can be used inidividually or in series, as each is accompanied by suggested reading and primary sources.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

One of Dan Kallgren's assignments. Students read a section from "Out of Many; A History of the American People" by John Mack Faragher, et al., to contextualize primary source documents about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. After analyzing the sources, the students write a short report.

The Anti-Saloon League

One of Dan Kallgren's assignments. Students analyze digital primary sources in order to contextualize and understand the motivation of the Anti-Saloon League members.

Mapping Suburbanization

One of Dan Kallgren's assignments. Using topographical maps from the University of New Hampshire, students explore how the landscape surrounding a 1950s New Hampshire city changed over time. Students are asked to consider how sociopolitical factors such as the Cold War might have affected the development of the United States.

World Civilizations: The Ancient Period to 500 CE

In David Smith's project, students use world history methods (Big Picture, Diffusion, Syncretism, Comparison, and Common Phenomena) to interpret secondary and primary materials. Primary material is handled through directed reading questions that focus on three classics: the Odyssey, the Ramayana and the Analects.

JFK's Executive Orders and the New Frontier

One of Dan Kallgren's assignments. Students analyze executive orders from President Kennedy to draw out themes and place them in the context of Kennedy's agenda.

United States History from the Civil War to the Present Syllabus

Sue C. Patrick's syllabus for her United States History from the Civil War to the Present course, which includes assignments and links to digital primary sources.

United States History through the Civil War Syllabus

Sue C. Patrick's syllabus for a United States History through the Civil War course. The syllabus includes assignments and links to digital primary sources.

Sample Assignment: Charting Your Journey with ORBIS

Created by John Rosinbum as part of his Teaching with #DigHist series on AHA Today, This assignment asks students to craft a hypothetical journey using ORBIS, a digital humanities project at Stanford University that allows users to plot a route between sites in the Roman Empire and simulate the journey. After rationalizing the choices made when planning their trip, students use a comic strip or travel diary to recount the trials and tribulations of their journey. The assignment helps develop skills in writing narratives, real or imagined. In addition, it develops the historical skills of contextualization and causation by asking the students to ground their narratives in a place they have already learned about and then justify the steps in their journey. While designed for middle school students, the assignment and attached rubric could easily be adapted for students ranging from elementary school to entry-level undergraduate.

Sample Assignment: Comparing Spatial Depictions of the Roman World

Created by John Rosinbum as part of his Teaching with #DigHist series on AHA Today, this assignment requires students to analyze the depictions of the Roman world created in digital projects ORBIS and the Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilizations. Designed for high performing high school students and freshman/sophomore undergraduate students, the assignment pushes students to compare the two projects and gives them the opportunity to explore how purpose, argument and data shape a project.

Sample Assignment: Visualizing the Transatlantic Slave Trade with Voyages

Created by John Rosinbum as part of his Teaching with #DigHist series on AHA Today, this assignment offers students the opportunity to use their visual and/or technical skills to create a visualization of the transatlantic slave trade. Students will use the information provided by Voyages to create either a digital or an analog data visualization of the trade. In addition they will write a detailed guide explaining their process and defending their choices. This assignment asks them to think deeply about the process of visualizing history and personally involves them in the process of generating a better understanding of the past.

Sample Assignment: Tracking a Slave Ship with Voyages

Created by John Rosinbum as part of his Teaching with #DigHist series on AHA Today, asks students to investigate a specific slave vessel and contextualize its journeys within their broader knowledge of the trade and concurrent historical events/processes that might have affected it.

Teaching the Slave Trade with Voyages: The Transatlantic Slave Trade Database (AHA Today)

New perspectives on 19th-century america [assignment].

John Rosinbum uses American Panorama, a digital atlas created by the University of Richmond's Digital Scholarship Lab, to teach students about the economic, cultural, and territorial transformations that changed America during the 19th century. In this assignment, students must create their own visualization of changes in 19th-century America. Students must also develop a guide that defends their research choices in the creation of the visualization, explains how the visualization extends our current understanding of the period, and distinguishes their visualization from American Panorama.

Analyzing Visual Depictions of America's Expansion with American Panorama

John Rosinbum uses American Panorama, a digital atlas created by the University of Richmond's Digital Scholarship Lab, to teach students about the economic, cultural, and territorial transformations that changed America during the 19th century. In this sample assignment, he asks students to compare two maps from American Panorama dealing with the 19th century and explore how each map presents American expansion differently.

Creating Maps Using Carto [Assignment]

Lindsey Passenger Wieck (St. Mary's Univ.) explains how students in her history classroom use Carto to create maps. The exercise helps students become critical consumers of maps and media, while designing and implementing digital projects that communicate historical content. In this assignment, students explain the significance of maps they created using Carto.

Creating a Dataset [Assignment]

Lindsey Passenger Wieck (St. Mary's Univ.) explains how students in her history classroom use Carto to create maps. The exercise helps students become critical consumer of maps and media, while designing and implementing digital projects that communicate historical content. In this assignment, students develop and analyze a dataset and consider its potential for mapping.

Mapping the Early Modern World [Instructions)

Julia M Gossard (Utah State Univ.) uses the widely available Google Maps to assign a mapping project to her students. The assignment allows students to think carefully about the economic, political, religious, and ideological connections between Europe and the rest of the world in the early modern period.

The Historian's Toolbox: Source Evaluation [Worksheet]

Julia M Gossard (Utah State Univ.) uses the widely available Google Maps to assign a mapping project to her students. The assignment allows students to think carefully about the economic, political, religious, and ideological connections between Europe and the rest of the world in the early modern period. In this worksheet, Gossard asks her student to carefully evaluate the sources they use for their Google Map entries.

Visualizing the Past [Sample Assignment]

John Rosinbum looks at a spectrum of digital archives available on the web today and explores how teachers can use them in the classroom. In this sample assignment, students are asked to use data from a digital archive to visualize the past.

Operation War Diary Project [Sample Assignment]

In this assignment, Susan Corbesero (The Ellis School) discusses using the crowdsourcing project, Operation War Diary, to help students learn about the First World War. The project contains over one million digitized images of war diaries from British and Indian troops.

Teach Your Family

In this project, you will show your instructor—and your family or friends—what you’ve learned in class.

Teaching United States History

What we teach, how we teach it, and why, extra credit: to offer, or not to offer.

I am extremely ambivalent about extra credit.

On one hand, I am convinced that most extra credit is utterly worthless, if not downright counterproductive. It has the potential to provide students with an incentive to do shoddy work on their regular assignments, or shirk them altogether. It has become so ubiquitous that students simply expect it, leading students to assume that any poor performance on a test or a paper can be undone simply by turning in some extra credit. In previous semesters, I have made it a point to say I offer no extra credit, leading to moments of pleading by students, desperate to resurrect their grades, followed by everything from bewilderment to anger when I refuse.

On the other, many of my colleagues—whose teaching skills range from very good to extraordinary—offer extra credit, and have shared with me the types of extra credit assignments they provide. Much of the feedback I’ve gotten from colleagues about the extra credit they assign acknowledges part of the reason why they offer it is to give students more chances to succeed. (The reason why they need more chances is a worthy subject unto itself, one I’ve contemplated discussing further in a future blog post). They have convinced me it is possible for extra credit to add to the substance of a class, rather than merely provide students an opportunity to pad their grade. So for this semester, I decided to try extra credit. The question became, what extra credit assignment(s) should I offer?

I began by remembering a stipulation that a professor I TAed for in grad school included on his syllabi: a student MUST turn in every assignment, or that student automatically fails. It doesn’t matter if the student has a solid “A” going into the final paper or exam, if the student doesn’t turn in a final paper, or show up for the exam, the student fails the course. I thought it essential to include this stipulation in my class, as well, specifically because I don’t want students making calculations about whether they can afford to ignore one of my assigned primary source analyses if they turn in their extra credit. Extra credit is extra , meaning in addition to , not instead of .

I also thought it appropriate to make the extra credit count for a substantial amount. If I’m going to offer it to students, I should make it worth their while, right? The extra credit I offer in my class this semester is worth a total of 25 points (the entire class is 100 points), meaning a student has the potential to make up a lot of ground if they don’t do well on their earlier assignments.

Lastly, I wanted to offer students some options with their extra credit—but I wanted to make sure the assignments worked with my class, building upon what we’re already doing in class. So I offered students two different extra credit possibilities: one is a single assignment; the other are much shorter assignments they can do multiple times throughout the semester.

The longer assignment is a paper (2-3 pages) analyzing a biography and the Wikipedia page dedicated to a particular historical figure who lived during the time period covered in this class (this is a U.S. History I class, so any historical figure who lived prior to or during the U.S. Civil War). Yes, I force students to go to Wikipedia—but not to copy from it. Instead, students must treat the Wikipedia page as a source that can tell us something about how their historic figure is understood today. Their paper needs to analyze the Wikipedia page and the biography together, comparing them and contrasting them, and eventually reaching a conclusion about what these sources say about how we currently view this figure’s importance to our history. This is the only assignment I offer that requires students to do outside research. Students have to locate the biography (and obviously look up the Wikipedia site) themselves, though I make myself available to consult with them throughout the process. This assignment is a modified version of an assignment the professor I TAed for in grad school offered to his students—although his assignment wasn’t extra credit. Students have the entire semester to write it, and it’s worth a potential 15 points.

The other assignment is to turn in two open-ended discussion questions pertaining to a primary source or set of primary sources we’ll be discussing in class on a given day. These questions, I explain to students, allow students to set the agenda for our discussion while also further deepening their understanding of the material. Just writing questions about a source forces one to contemplate what it’s about and why its subject matter is important. Students must turn the questions in on the day the source(s) is/are due to be discussed in class (they can’t turn them in late), and they can submit questions a maximum of five times throughout the semester. Each submission of two questions is worth a possible 2 extra credit points, for a possible total of 10.

It is my hope that these assignments work with my regular assignments, rather than undermine them. It’s also my hope that students won’t devote less effort to my regular assignments and rely on the extra credit to make up the difference. Though I’ll be honest, that’s my fear.

How many of you offer extra credit in your classroom? What kind of extra credit do you offer, and how has it worked out for you so far? Post your feedback in the comments, or e-mail me at [email protected].

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Assignments.

The assignments provided here were developed for Lumen Learning by faculty at other institutions. If you import this course into your learning management system (Blackboard, Canvas, etc.), the assignments will automatically be loaded into the assignment tool. They can be used as is, modified, or removed. You can preview them below:

• Assignments. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Pencil Cup. Authored by : IconfactoryTeam. Provided by : Noun Project. Located at : https://thenounproject.com/term/pencil-cup/628840/ . License : CC BY: Attribution

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90 Extra Credit Assignments

Extra credit primary source assignment.

Pick one of the online primary sources assigned from the past two modules (Growing Pains: The New Republic, 1790-1820 and Industrial Transformation in the North: 1800-1850). Remember, primary sources are sources from the time we are studying — not stuff written about it later.

Answer the question about it, following the procedure provided, and using quoted evidence from the source. You may supplement your answer with evidence from other primary sources, or with information from our textbook.

Write a long paragraph/short page about your source (250 words):

Question: What does your chosen source demonstrate about the time period when it was produced?

In order to answer this question, you will probably want to do the following:

• Explain and analyze what you can determine about the author, the author’s point of view.
• Explain and analyze what you can determine about document’s likely audience, and their point of view.
• Summarize and explain the author’s message.  What do they want to convince their audience to do or think?  How do they go about this?
• Explain and analyze what you can determine about the context in which the document was produced.

If you wish to do this assignment more than once, you may.  (Email me for details.)

Points from this assignment will be added to your final grade.

Extra Credit Movie Assignment

Pick one of the following films relevant to the past few weeks’ material:

• One or more episodes of the John Adams TV series from HBO (2008)
• Amistad (1997)
• Twelve Years a Slave (2013)

You’ll need to obtain them yourself (Netflix or a library, or something).

Watch the film. In a long paragraph/short page (250 words) consider how the film-maker depicted the past and what decisions he or she made.

• Explain and analyze what you can determine about the film’s creator and the film-maker’s point of view.
• Explain and analyze what you can determine about film’s likely audience, and their point of view.
• Summarize and explain the film-maker’s message.  What do they want to convince their audience to do or think?  How do they go about this?
• Explain and analyze what you can determine about the context in which the objects were produced.

You may do this assignment more than once.  Email me for further details.

United States History I Copyright © by Lumen Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Extra Credit

Extra Credit Opportunities

The best way to earn a good grade in this course is to complete all assignments well and do well on all tests.  If a student wants to earn extra credit, he/she may complete one (1) – and only one (1) – extra credit assignment per trimester.  The amount of extra credit will be based on the difficulty of the assignment and the quality of the student’s work.  Students extra credit options include:

·         Read a historically-based non-fiction article or book. 

·         Attend an historical exhibit (i.e.: at a museum, Civil War reenactment, etc.). 

·         Attend or watch a special historical presentation (in person or on television).

·         Read a current event news article related to history. 

To earn credit, students must turn in a ticket stub and/or program or turn in a parent note to verify that the student completed the activity.  Students must also write a (minimum) two-page, quality report that presents a brief overview of the article / book / exhibit / presentation and provides an in-depth analysis of the historical significance of the main idea(s) of the article / book / exhibit / presentation.  The report must be typed on a computer using double-spacing, size 12 Times New Roman or Arial font, and one-inch margins, and include a proper heading.

Foundations of Education and Instructional Assessment/Grading/Extra Credit

• 1 Learning Targets
• 2 Introduction
• 3 What is extra Credit and how is it used?
• 4 Optimistic view of Extra Credit
• 5 Pessimistic view of extra credit
• 6 Closing the gap
• 7 Review Questions
• 8 References

Learning Targets [ edit | edit source ]

-The reader should be able to understand reasons why teachers allow extra credit -The reader should be able to understand different types of extra credit

Introduction [ edit | edit source ]

What is extra credit and how is it used [ edit | edit source ], optimistic view of extra credit [ edit | edit source ], pessimistic view of extra credit [ edit | edit source ], closing the gap [ edit | edit source ], review questions [ edit | edit source ].

Answers 1.b 2.c 3.d 4.b

References [ edit | edit source ]

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6413/is_1_30/ai_n28912014

• Book:Foundations of Education and Instructional Assessment

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Nine Ways to Assign Extra Credit with the Gilder Lehrman Institute

Posted by gilder lehrman staff on friday, 09/25/2020.

We know that teachers are facing extraordinary challenges this school year and the Gilder Lehrman Institute would like to help carry the load by being an aid to teachers who are trying to keep their most committed students engaged. Our Teacher Advisory Group and staff present a list of nine ways that you can use GLI resources with students for extra credit or independent study assignments that are easy to incorporate into instruction and require NO extra work by the teacher.

Book Breaks is a weekly interview program on Sundays featuring prominent historians talking about their recently published books.

Have your students watch one episode from our program archive and write a paragraph about the featured book.

Bonus: Students can submit a question for an upcoming live Book Breaks program. One exemplary question each week will be selected to win a prize and be read aloud by the historian to kick-off the Q&A!

2. Inside the Vault

Have your students watch one episode of  Inside the Vault , live or archived, and write a paragraph about one of the featured documents.

3. History School

GLI’s Online History School will launch in early October with a range of courses for K–12 students. Students can sign up for courses to participate in live online sessions that can support and supplement what they are learning in school. They will receive certificates for attending sessions and individual classes will be available on-demand on our website.

Have your students sign up for one of these courses and write a short essay about what they learned throughout the course.

Have your students watch a single class session on the GLI website and take a short participation quiz. They can turn in their certificate of attendance to show you that they participated.

GLI’s Hamilton Education Program is now available online to all students in grades 6–12. Students can use primary sources to create a performance piece (e.g., a rap, poem, or dramatic piece), following the model used by Lin-Manuel Miranda to create the musical Hamilton .

Have your students use the program on their own and submit a student performance piece for extra credit (and the chance to win a national competition!).

5. Transcribe!

The Gilder Lehrman Collection team has created a way for middle and high school students to have the opportunity to transcribe documents from our Collection of more than 75,000 documents. These typed transcripts will help make primary sources more accessible for students, teachers, and researchers.

Have your students join our Digital Volunteers and transcribe documents from the Gilder Lehrman Collection. Each student will get a record of their contributions that they can submit for extra credit.

Give your students a primary source document from the Gilder Lehrman Collection to use as a starting point for a digital field trip, such as the WWII propaganda poster of women in the war . Students could then build on this with other primary sources, such as

• finding other museums that have posters about women supporting the war effort
• locating oral histories of WWII female factory workers, or
• researching factories in America that hired female workers during WWII

Students could summarize what they find in a slide deck and share it with their peers.

7. Comparing Across Documents

Provide students with one primary source from the Gilder Lehrman Collection and have them do research in the Collection to find other documents that are connected to that person, event, or era, or contrast the provided primary source. Students can include these documents in a slide presentation or a graphic organizer. 

Tip: Try looking at Spotlight on Primary Sources for ideas.

The Hamilton Cast Read Along program features Hamilton cast members reading award-winning children’s books followed by a discussion of the history behind the story led by a GLI Master Teacher.

Have students watch an episode of the Hamilton Cast Read Alongs (the fall season launches on October 9) and find a primary source document that goes along with the story being read. They can write a paragraph about why they chose the document they did.

History Now , the online journal of the Gilder Lehrman Institute, features essays by the nation’s top historians and provides the latest in American history scholarship for teachers, students, and general readers.

Choose an issue that is relevant to what you are teaching in class and assign or have students choose an article to summarize and share with their peers. 

Stay up to date, and subscribe to our quarterly newsletter.

Learn how the Institute impacts history education through our work guiding teachers, energizing students, and supporting research.

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15.14: Extra Credit Assignment: Dr. Strangelove

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One of the most famous American films that deals with the Cold War is Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove .  Exploring the dangers of Cold War tension, nuclear policy, and military strategy, Kubrick’s film depicts “what might happen” in a Cold War worst case scenario.

Watch Dr. Strangelove * and complete the attached film guide .  Submit it for up to 10 extra credit points me through Blackboard. The answers to the analytical questions need to be about a paragraph in length.  The other questions can be just a sentence or two.

The film is rather dense in terms of concepts, while at the same time it’s a dark comedy.  In the past students have said they had to watch it twice; once to simply get the idea of plot, characters, etc., then a second time to actually start looking for answers to the questions.

*You will need Microsoft Silverlight installed to be able to watch the film.  If your computer doesn’t have it you will be prompted to download it when you try to watch the film.

NOTE: The analytical questions will require knowledge and comprehension of historical themes and information that lies outside the film. In other words: you will need to use what we’ve covered in class about the Cold War in order to correctly answer some of them.

• Authored by : Chris Thomas. Provided by : Reynolds Community College. License : CC BY: Attribution

Britain's increased defence spending commitment: how will it work?

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By the numbers, john healey, opposition labour party's shadow defence policy chief.

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Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, William James and Andy Bruce; Editing by Ros Russell

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