The setup for our funeral.  We realize that the American flag shouldn’t be that one, but the kids know why it is there.  Also, one student suggested flowers.  All I had was a sparkly Christmas tree- so we made do.

Why give a test when you can assess your students in a much more creative way?  For the Articles of Confederation, rather than quizzing my kids, I ask them to write eulogies or obituaries to the document.  It may seem a little unorthodox, but the assignment fits.  The Articles of Confederation were the first Constitution of the United States, and they no longer exist.  Personify the Articles, and you have a dead person.

The eulogies DO have requirements.  Students need to identify who “Arty” was and when he was born (the definition and dates).  Following that, students are required to speak to Arty’s successes in life: what was his purpose?  What did he do really well?  In what ways did he save the day?  Much like in a real eulogy, students sing the praises of their beloved Articles of Confederation.  Following his successes, students address the failures of Arty not as “failures” (who talks about what someone did wrong in a eulogy?!), but as causes of death.

Our celebration of the life of the Articles of Confederation continues when we share our eulogies.  We have a mock funeral and read our eulogies aloud.   Students who are comfortable sharing do, and others simply listen.  See the picture below.  I even play bagpipe music and have a moment of silence.

Students do have difficulty with this assignment.  It is, in a sense, asking them to mix in some creative writing while also giving the facts, and to some this is a challenge.  When I conference with students as they write, some of their issues are typically not making it sound like a funeral speech, but like notes from their notebooks.  We work on the creativity part by reading sample eulogies so that they understand exactly what is expected.

Some students go above and beyond.  This student wrote hers as a poem (which is excellent), but she also used ink and quill to write the final version.

As always, I continue to advocate for creativity in the way we assess our kids.  Challenging our kids to be creative in the way they express their knowledge gets them to care about the content, not the just the score on the test!

This student really got into the point Daniel Shays was trying to make with his armed rebellion.  Please excuse the misspelling of his name.  They’re 8th graders, after all!