Evidence Based Writing in History/ Social Studies from Above and Beyond Names and Dates. June 2014

1. EVIDENCE BASED
WRITING IN
HISTORY/SOCIAL
STUDIES
Writing and the Common Core

2. Smarter Balanced Assessments
(SBAC)
 Item Prompt:
 A student is writing a report about the debates
that took place during the Constitutional
Convention, the meeting where the Constitution
was written, and has found these two sources.
Explain how each source may contribute to the
body of research needed to address the question
on the Constitutional Convention debates and
which of the texts is most relevant. Support your
answer with details from the texts.

3. What skills do students need to
complete this task?

4. But I’m a History Teacher!
 It’s not my job to teach reading– that’s the
English teacher’s responsibility!
 When I start reading my students’ writing, I
have to give up because I’m using the red pen
so much to correct conventions.
 I have so much content to cover– how can I
find the time to teach reading and writing?
 I never learned to teach reading and writing.
I’m a history teacher!

5. Our Greatest Fear

6. Looking Ahead
 Have you ever taught any of the following:
 Use evidence to support a point (5.RI.8)
 Conduct research on a topic, using several
sources, while generating additional questions
(8.W.7)
 Explain the connection between various historical
events in a text (2.RI.3)
 Write informative/explanatory texts, including the
narration of historical events (6-12.WHST.2)
 Write arguments focused on discipline-specific
content. (6-12.WHST.1)

7. You are already teaching to the
Common Core!

8. Productive Partners
 What does writing look like in history/social
studies?

9. How do we move our students
from this:

10. To this:
A New Constitution and a History of “Democracy”
A glance at the late 18th century U.S. political system reveals that the new Constitution was the law of a highly
undemocratic land. The early United States was a society in which entire sections of the population were denied
basic human rights, where the institutions of the new government were not derived from egalitarian principles,
and where millions of people did not receive adequate political representation. As the overarching political
instrument of the era, the Constitution bears responsibility for a society in which the many toiled without
representation for the benefit of a powerful few.
Perhaps the most egregious example of the Constitution’s anti-democratic features was its sanction of the widespread
practice of slavery. Rather than ending slavery, the Constitution allowed planters and others to hold their fellow
human beings as chattel. Not only did the Constitution permit the existing system of slavery to continue, it
permitted the Atlantic slave trade to keep “importing” slaves for 20 more years. It counted a slave as three-fifths of
a human being; moreover, this provision was inserted not to protect the rights of the enslaved but to boost the
electoral power of the slave states. Such a provision was not the only institutional failure of the Constitution.
The arrangement of the new federal government in the Constitution was highly unrepresentative. The president was
elected indirectly through the Electoral College, while the Supreme Court was completely appointed. In the
remaining branch of government, the upper house, the Senate, provided for each state to have equal
representation without regard for how many people lived in the state. By diluting the power of the franchise, the
Constitution made a system that was destined to be unrepresentative even more undemocratic. Only the House
of Representatives nominally derived its power from the people, and its character was deeply affected by who
could and could not vote.
The Constitution allowed states to set norms for who could vote in elections and who could not. In the early United
States, that meant that people who did not own sufficient property, enslaved people, and women were denied the
vote. A government allegedly founded on the idea of “no taxation without representation” violated this rallying cry
of the American Revolution. As a result of the Constitution, a majority of people in the early United States could
not vote for their representatives.
Rather than promoting a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” the Constitution sanctioned
practices and structured institutions that were unrepresentative. Ordinary people, whether because they were
enslaved, because they were women, or because they were working-class people, lived and worked without any
real power. Instead, a small minority of wealthy and powerful men ruled over the majority of the population; the
source of their power was the undemocratic Constitution of the United States.

11. Teaching effective writing in history/social
studies
Evidence Based Writing

12. Writing Topic:
 If we took this photo 25 years from now, what
would it look like? Cite at least three pieces of
historical evidence to support this conclusion.

13. Describe everything you see in the
picture:

14.  Who are these people?
 What evidence is there in the photo to justify
your hypothesis?

15. Compare these two photos:

16.  Which photo is older? What evidence is there
to support your hypothesis?
 What assumptions have informed your
answers?

17. Writing Topic:
 If we took this photo 25 years from now, what
would it look like? Cite at least three pieces of
historical evidence to support this conclusion.

18. Everybody Writes
 What events have changed our society since
the 1920s?
 Think of as many as you can
 For example:
 Moon landing
 Roe v. Wade
 Cold War

19. Ranking
 Look at your list
 Rank them from the most important (had the
biggest impact on society) to the least
important (had the least impact on society)
 Be prepared to defend your responses!

20. Come to Consensus
 In your groups, come to consensus with your
rankings.

21. Everybody Writes
 Select one event. How would it have impacted
the makeup of the Supreme Court?

22. Round Robin Share
 At your tables, share out.
 Try to TAG your peers:
 Tell something you liked
 Ask a question
 Give a suggestion

23. Writing Topic
 If we took this photo 25 years from now, what
would it look like? Cite at least three pieces of
historical evidence to support this conclusion.

24. What is the important outcome
from this assignment:
 Students are able to:
 Demonstrate content knowledge by describing
three historical events
 State an opinion
 Support it with evidence from history
 Describe the impact of events
 Connect events to an outcome
 Demonstrate the relationship and roles historical
events play in our contemporary lives

25. Does it have to be an essay?
 Could it be:
 A podcast?
 A video journal?
 A journal page from the year 2039?
 A sample textbook chapter from the future?
 A Supreme Court decision?
 A debate?

26. But how will I know they’ve
effectively learned the content?

27. Collaboratively Build a Rubric
 Ask:
 What am I going to grade?
 How will you know you’ve completed the
assignment in a proficient manner?

28. Once you’ve identified key
elements, define proficiency
 What does proficient look like?

29. Give them a Mentor Text
 Write your own response
 Walk students through assessing your
exemplar

30. Let them get to work!

31. Questions?