History

Your Assignment

1. You are a young, politically active student in the 1780s. Your assignment is to create your own broadside in which you publicize your position regarding the new United States Constitution everyone is talking about. In your broadside, argue for or against ratification of the Constitution.
2. In order to support your position, examine a series of primary source documents written during the time. Examples would be the US Constitution (reprinted in your textbook) and broadsides from the time period (found on the Library of Congress website). While looking at these documents, try to identify the key issues facing the nation, what precipitated the call for a new government, and what were 4-5 problems that the nation was facing. With that analysis in mind, produce a broadside to publicize your position regarding ratification of the Constitution.

Note!

People in the 18th century used paper and woodcuts and sometimes silk to make their broadsides. But since you don't actually live in the those days, you are working online in the modern era - you are free to use PowerPoints for your broadside. Limit your "broadside" to 1 to 4 slides. (If you are not familiar with PowerPoints, feel free to create your "broadside" in a Word document.)

Guidelines for Evaluation

 Your Broadside will be evaluated as follows:

• Content (75%)
1. Position statement
2. Evidence in support of position
3. Demonstrate understanding of primary documents
• Format (20%)
1. Promotional: Does the material capture the fast-paced style of a broadside?
2. Layout (Short sentences or bullets, informal look, well-spaced)
• Mechanics (5%) - spelling, grammar, punctuation

Production: Please use customized wording