American Hero Hall of Fame

Performance Task

Background information: During the 18th and 19th Centuries, the United States grew from 13 small English colonies on the eastern coast to an independent world power populated with diverse culture groups, intense thinkers, innovative creators, writers, artists, and maybe most importantly reformers.

Objective: We will create an American Hall of Fame depicting the individual and group contributions to the American national identity using sensory figures with Q Codes to be displayed in a museum setting which will then be used for a gallery tour review for STAAR.

Your task is to:

  • Choose on individual or group you find interesting or you want to research, and submit your choice for teacher approval. Each student must choose a different individual or group.
  • Create a life-size sensory figure that describes this person’s or group’s contribution to the American national identity. What do they see, touch, hear, speak, smell as they impacted American history? Using their VOICE, you should create cutouts expressing these senses from your person or group's perspective. You should also include where they walk to symbolize the contribution they made to the American national identity. You are welcome to use appropriate quotes made by that person to demonstrate their feelings.
  • Additionally, your sensory figure should display a combination of the following:
  • Displays a POEM you’ve written to honor this person or group.
  • Displays a timeline of key events that occurred during this person’s life.
  • 1-2 QR codes that links your sensory figure to a FOTOBABBLE, VIDEO, OR PODCAST you’ve created to connect a primary source document, piece of art or literature, or an artifact that is relevant to your person or group’s contribution to the American National Identity.
  • A “Works Cited” list or bibliography preferably in MLA format.

Advice: Be creative and thoughtful in your presentation. What is it about this person or group that we need to respect and know for the STAAR test? Include relevant details, concepts, and the issues that were important to your person or group. Don’t just give us birth and death dates – that’s not going to be tested. Rather fit this person’s contribution and life within the great spectrum of Early American history and how this person made a difference in our lives. You tell your viewer what’s so important about this person or group that we have to remember.

Grading: This is your six-weeks project and counts as a major TEST GRADE! It will NOT be accepted late. It is due Monday, April 14; however if you turn it in on Friday,April 11, you will receive 10 extra credit points.

CHOICES

The RevolutionPresidentsGroups

Abigail AdamsGeorge Washington*Quakers

John Adams*John Adams*Mormons

Wentworth CheswellThomas Jefferson*Puritans

Samuel AdamsJames Madison*Chinese Americans

Mercy Otis WarrenJames MonroeCherokee & SE Tribes

James ArmisteadJohn Quincy Adams*49ers

Benjamin FranklinAndrew Jackson*Irish Americans

Bernardo de GalvezJames PolkMexican Americans

Crispus AttucksAbraham Lincoln*Lowell Factory Girls

Haym Salomon

George Washington*Early Republic Civil War & Reconstruction

Patrick HenryAlexander HamiltonJefferson Davis

Thomas Jefferson*John MarshallUlysses S Grant

The Marquis de LafayetteGeorge MasonRobert E. Lee

Thomas PaineWilliam Carney

George Washington*Phillips Bazaar

John Paul JonesClara Barton

Hiram Rhodes Revels

Reformers19th Century PoliticiansStonewall Jackson

Horace MannStephen Douglas

John BrownHenry ClayInnovators

Frederick Douglass**John C. CalhounCyrus McCormick

Elizabeth Cady StantonDaniel WebsterHenry Bessemer

Dorothea DixEli Whitney

Henry David Thoreau*John Deere

William Lloyd GarrisonWriters & ArtistsRobert Fulton

Horace GreelyHarriet Beecher Stowe*Samuel Colt

Susan B. AnthonyJohn James Audubon

Sojourner Truth**Hudson River School ArtistsPolitical Parties

The Grimke SistersHenry David Thoreau*Federalists

Harriet Beecher Stowe*TranscendentalistsDemocratic Republicans

Democrats

Spread of Democracy/Whigs

Early Political ThinkersRepublicans

Thomas Hooker

Charles de Montesquieu

John Locke

William Blackstone

*These individuals fit multi-categories. Be sure to cover their ENTIRE lives including contributions made at different times in Early American history.

**These individuals’ stories intertwine with the story of the African American contribution to our national identity. Be sure to include their struggle for freedom and what they meant to that struggle.

Name:______Teacher:______Period:____

Grading Rubric
SENSORY FIGURE: Cutouts display what the figure sees, touches, smells, hears, says, and where the person walks.
Total: 15pts / Missing one or two senses on the figure
10pts / Missing more than two senses
5pts / No senses
0pts
PERSON’S VIEWPOINT: Poster identifies the problem as the figure saw it, then describes what they wanted fixed, why it needed fixing, and how they fixed it.
Total: 15pts / Lacks one descriptive viewpoint or aspect
10pts / Lacks more than one descriptive viewpoint or aspect
5pts / No viewpoint
0pts
POEM: Creative poem that memorializes the figure.
Total: 15pts / Lacks significant details
10pts / Cursory BioPoem or Ode
5pts / No BioPoem or Ode
0pts
TIMELINE: key events that occurred during this person’s life. It should begin on their birthday and end on the day they died.
Total: 15pts / Some events missing
10pts / Basic timeline with little details
5pts / No timeline
0pts
QR CODE LINK: working link to relevant aspect of person’s life which is accurate, a primary source, artifact, or piece of art or literature with YOUR commentary in the form of a FOTOBABBLE, PODCAST, or VIDEO that explains its significance
Total: 20pts / Lacks accuracy or is missing major point in commentary
10pts / Lacks the commentary but has working link to applicable primary source, artifact, or piece of art/literature.
5pts / No QR Code or electronic component
0pts
WORKS CITED in MLA FORMAT:
Total: 10pts / Citations but NOT in MLA Format
5pts / No Citations
0pts / Turned in early? +10pts
TOTAL GRADE:
CREATIVITY, NEATNESS, ACCURACY:
Total: 10pts / Lacks some neatness but is factually accurate
5pts / Contains factual inaccuracies
0pts