Step 7: Refining the Thesis and Finalizing Evidence Logs

• Now that students have completed all of the lessons for this course, ask them to complete a Rapid Writing entry in response to the course assessment prompt:

Throughout this course, you have examined the atrocities committed by the Ottoman government during the Armenian Genocide, the rise of Nazi Party in Germany following World War I, and the pursuit of racial purity in Nazi Germany that resulted in the murder of 6 million Jewish individuals and millions of other civilians during the Holocaust. 

You have also looked closely at the choices made by individuals, groups, and nations that led to these events. For the culminating assessment, you will construct a written argument that you support with examples from these historical cases in response to the following question:

How can learning about the choices people made during past episodes of injustice, mass violence, or genocide help guide our choices today? 

• Have students debrief their rapid writing with a partner, in a small group, or together as a class.

• Students should add any information from Lessons 23 to 25 to their evidence logs that helps them answer the assessment prompt. As in previous lessons where you gathered evidence, start the process together as a class by making a list of readings, handouts, and videos from these lessons that help students answer the prompt.
• Now that students have gathered their evidence and written numerous journal entries, use the Fishbowl strategy to discuss the following questions, and encourage students to pose their own unanswered questions about the course and the prompt:
  • Which choices made by individuals, groups, and nations in the history that you have learned about in this course seemed most significant? How do those choices seem similar to or different from the important choices facing people in the world today?
  • What have you learned throughout this course about how the choices people made in the past can help inform the ways we respond to injustices in the world today? Which text (reading, video, image), lesson, or activity was most significant in helping you understand this relationship?
  • (Choosing to Participate Toolbox Only) Ask students to revisit their reflection notes from the beginning of the course in Assessment Step 1 about the different “tools” that they felt they needed in order to participate in their communities and address the issues that concern them. How has their thinking changed about this question after all that they have learned throughout the course? If any of their ideas stayed the same, what evidence throughout the course most strongly supports those ideas?

• Depending on what sort of instruction and practice your students have had with thesis statements, you may want to give them an opportunity to practice evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of sample thesis statements before refining their own. You can learn more through Strategy 17: Thesis Sorting in the Argumentative Writing Prompts and Strategies supplement.

• Define the Focus of the Toolbox: Pass out (or adapt) the Handout: Building a Toolbox. At this point, you can either define the type of toolbox students will be constructing (e.g., Toolbox for Upstanders or Toolbox for Participation), or you can provide options for students to choose from. Read the instructions for the project as a whole group and answer any clarifying questions. Then give students the rest of the class to work individually or in small groups on their projects. 
  • Provide additional class time and/or consider assigning the project for homework so that students have sufficient time to complete it as thoughtfully as possible.
  • For examples of CTP projects and accompanying planning materials completed by Facing History Partner Schools, see the Sample Assessments.
• Identify Tools: Depending on your students’ experience with project-based learning, you may need to create additional scaffolding to help them brainstorm their final list of tools, think about how to represent the tools in their toolboxes, and manage their time. Consider using the Alphabet Brainstorm strategy as a potential scaffold. It is always helpful when the teacher provides a model for part of the project to help students visualize abstract concepts. For example, you might create an artifact that represents one of the tools in your toolbox and do a Think Aloud to help students understand your process in coming up with it. 
• Share: Students can learn a great deal from seeing each other’s initial toolbox designs, as well as their final projects. Consider different ways that students could showcase their toolboxes to the whole class or school community, as a gallery walk, student exhibition, or oral presentation. If time is limited, you might ask each student to share one tool from their toolbox with the class. Consider having students take notes as their classmates share in order to help them remember the variety of tools the class has created.

• On Exit Cards, ask students to respond to the assessment prompt in a statement that takes a clear stance. For students writing the essay, ask them to include references to the historical moments that they will address in their essay that can be defended with evidence from the course. For students creating the CTP Toolbox, ask them to include how their answer to the assessment prompt has helped shape their decisions for their final toolboxes.
• You can give students written or oral feedback on their working thesis statements and/or project designs and use the information from the exit cards to determine what skills you may need to (re)teach so that students are equipped to write strong thesis statements and/or create meaningful Choosing to Participate Toolboxes.