This summative assessment was created for a year-long Modern Global Studies honors course. At this point of the year students were learning about the Cold War specifically in China under the regime of Mao.  Before assigning this assessment, students analyzed and compared the contrasts the differences between the policies of the Great Leap Forward and the cultural revolution. Students also watched the film titled, “To Live”- a Chinese drama film directed by Zhang Yimou in 1994 to grasp a more visual representation of living conditions in China at the time.

For this summative assessment, students were asked to create a piece of propaganda in favor of or against Mao. This was to answer the compelling question “To what extent did Mao achieve his goals of Communism?”. Attached are examples of student work, the rubric, and the comments for students thesis paragraphs. Enjoy!

Highlight- Please view picture two with the dragon on the canvas. This student asked permission to use a canvas instead of a piece of paper because they thought they could do a better job with using a canvas to paint on. Of course, it was acceptable to do so. This student highlighted a specific scene in the movie “To Live”, where the protagonist while performing his shadow puppet show, the sheet they were performing the shadows from was cut in half by a nationalist solider. The student adds in their canvas a 3D element of a nationalist eye peering through the slit generated by the cut. The student incorporated the burning of the shadow puppets and other Chinese cultural references to demonstrate the policies of destroying the four olds with Mao’s policy of the Cultural Revolution. They incorporated their own slogan, “Don’t Let the Communists Blind You! Support the Nationalists!” which achieved the objective of the assessment.

Attached is the Rubric and some student examples.

Mao Thesis:

Here are student examples of the Mao Thesis paragraphs.