The ABC’s of Anne Frank performance based assessment is designed to help students develop informational writing skills with a specific audience and purpose in mind. Students must convey their knowledge of Anne Frank to younger students, specifically fifth graders, in a format that integrates writing, research, and design. The assessment promotes critical thinking by making students convey the tragic and often graphic nature of the Holocaust and life of Anne Frank in a way that is suitable for a young audience. The assessment gives each student depth of knowledge about World War II, the Holocaust, and the life of Anne Frank, promoting metacognition well beyond the reading of the play. It is the culminating activity in a unit on Anne Frank that includes readings in the genres of nonfiction and drama.** This performance assessment was developed by a collaborative team of teachers and division staff from Middlesex, Poquoson, and West Point school divisions.

Students will plan, write, and submit a formal MLA formatted research paper regarding Checks and Balances from the VA Civics Curriculum. Students will research a topic, create a thesis statement, and include in-text citations in their final product. ** This performance assessment was developed by a collaborative team of teachers and division staff from Middlesex, Poquoson, and West Point school divisions.

This lesson takes students through the examination of the poem Remember and its use of figurative language to set the stage for considering how the physical world around us has changed in the past 50 years. Students research a specific local plant, animal, or element of weather and how it has changed over time, and then use Twine to represent their research in a digital story. This lesson culminates with the discussion of whether or not we are doing a good job of listening to Virginia’s natural elements over the past 50 years. This lesson was created through a partnership between CodeVA and the Virginia Tribal Education Consortium (VTEC).