Redkudu

Whew! Finally all moved in and with shiny internet too! I was beginning to have withdrawal pains.

The opportunity of having the APUSH class aligned with your English III class is a rare one. I always wish we could somehow align better in our History and English classes.

I see you're using the UbD questions. I happened across them at Huffenglish the other day. Very interesting. They certainly add a depth of purpose and intent to a lesson.

Question/observation about your performance tasks: I know it's a time-honored tradition to have students create original compositions in the style of what they're currently reading. (Somebody always trots it out with Shakespeare.) But I'm wondering (as I've taken an increased interest in my own assessments and activities for the next year), what is your purpose and intent for these two assignments? Is the purpose and intent for students to gain some greater understanding of the literature itself? If so, how is writing a version of their own going to do that, and what results/insight will you expect to see modeled, and how? (In other words, how are you assessing these, and toward what end?) For example, you say "Group telling of a past/present/future cultural myth—either real or created by the group—based on a list of criteria created by class." From this I assume your purpose is to have the students recognize elements of Native American folklore/myth. I'm doing this myself: teaching specific examples of Above and Below/Diver creation stories from several tribes. (Comparing how creation is attributed based on location: which tribes had tales of crawfish or turtle diving to find mud, which had tales of a woman falling from the sky and animals making land for her to live on, etc.)

So then, I suppose my suggestion/thoughts on this would be to question how this activity is going to make them more aware of the characteristics of this type of literature, and, conversely, how comparing the beliefs of the Native Americans' folklore/myth allows for greater comparison/contrast to the beliefs of the colonists. I see you're using a chart on the beliefs of the Native Americans vs. the colonists for comparison as well. Will the students be attempting to point out how those beliefs are illustrated in the literature they are reading? Those are the questions that come to mind when I look at your performance tasks - not completely clear on what the intent is.

The "Question for the Teacher" sheet sounds interesting. How do you conduct that activity? I do something similar with my students, after assigning an exam or project. I let them write any and all questions on the board, then make their peers answer all they can from the directions I've given. But yours sounds connected to the textbook somehow. I'd be interested to learn more.