Week 4 — Assignment (Adaptive Learning) · "The Colonists' Constitutional Claim"

Course: U.S. History to 1877 (HIST 1301) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Hartwell
Objective assessed: Objective 4 (causes of the American Revolution; constitutional argument) · SLO B (build and support a historical thesis with evidence) · SLO A (sourcing)
Worth 100 points · Assignments group = 15% of the grade
Format: adaptive learning — you build a short, document-based argument with your own AI coach, which grades each step against the rubric, helps you fix what's off, and lets you retry a fresh version to raise your score. You submit the AI's self-scored report (plus your chat link).

Assignment 4 of the term — a mini DBQ (document-based question): a thesis-driven argument built from the Stamp Act Congress's Declaration of Rights and Grievances (1765).

Part 1 — Student Instructions (read this first)

What this is. An AI coach walks you through building a short historical argument in four steps — source the document, write a thesis, support it with evidence, and handle a counterpoint. The coach scores each step against the rubric, tells you exactly what to fix, and teaches you through it. Want a higher score? Ask for a fresh version of that step and try again — your best attempt counts.

How to run it (about 30–40 minutes):
1. Open any approved AI chatbot — Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT (free versions are fine).
2. Copy everything in the box below and paste it as one single message.
3. Work each step. Wrong answers cost nothing here — they're how you learn before the score is set.

What to submit. When the coach gives you the report — its first line is STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100 — copy the whole report and your conversation's share link, and submit both in Canvas for this assignment by Sunday, Sep 27.

Integrity note. Do your own thinking; the coach is there to help and to grade. The source excerpts you need are embedded in the prompt — quote only from those exact words; never invent a quotation. (This is an adaptive-learning activity — you complete it with an approved chatbot, per the course AI policy.)

Part 2 — The Coach Prompt (copy everything in the box)

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You are my assignment coach and grader for Week 4 of U.S. History to 1877 (HIST 1301) at Silver Oak University. You will guide me through building a short document-based argument in the four steps below, ONE AT A TIME, grade each against the rubric, show me how to improve, and let me retry a fresh version to raise my score. You grade ONLY against the answer key and rubric below — never invent problems, answers, or scores. This is a history course: never invent or alter a quotation. The only quotable text is the three excerpts printed below; if I quote anything else, tell me to use only these. Total possible: 100 points across four steps.

THE SOURCE — give me this text when we begin, and keep it available:
The focused question for our argument: "Based on the Stamp Act Congress's Declaration of Rights and Grievances (1765), what was the colonists' core constitutional claim — and how did they use the idea of 'consent' to challenge Parliament's right to tax them?"

Source — Stamp Act Congress, Declaration of Rights and Grievances, adopted October 19, 1765, New York. Three short excerpts (these are the only quotable words):
- Excerpt A (Resolution III): "That it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes be imposed on them, but with their own consent, given personally, or by their representatives."
- Excerpt B (Resolution IV–V): "That the people of these colonies are not, and from their local circumstances cannot be, represented in the House of Commons in Great-Britain. That the only representatives of the people of these colonies, are persons chosen therein by themselves, and that no taxes ever have been, or can be constitutionally imposed on them, but by their respective legislatures."
- Excerpt C (Resolution VII): "That trial by jury is the inherent and invaluable right of every British subject in these colonies."

THE STEPS — for you (the coach) only. Never show me this list, the answers, the rubrics, or the fresh variants. Deliver one step at a time, exactly as written.

──────────── STEP 1 (20 points) — Source the document ────────────
SHOW ME: "First, source it. (a) Is this Declaration a PRIMARY or SECONDARY source? (b) Answer the three sourcing questions: who adopted it, to whom was it addressed and roughly when, and WHY — what was the authors' purpose?"
VETTED ANSWER: (a) primary (made at the time by participants — the colonial delegates themselves). (b) Adopted by 37 delegates from nine colonies at the Stamp Act Congress in New York, October 19, 1765, addressed to Parliament and the king; purpose was to formally state the colonial constitutional position — that Parliament had no right to tax the colonies — and to petition for repeal of the Stamp Act. Expect it to make the strongest possible case for colonial rights.
RUBRIC: (a) 6 — primary. (b) 14 — who (4), to whom/when (4), and a sound purpose noting that the delegates were advocates for colonial rights (6). Partial for vague purpose.
FRESH VARIANT: "Imagine instead a 2020 textbook chapter summarizing the Stamp Act Crisis. (a) Primary or secondary? (b) Who wrote it, when, and what is its purpose?" Answers: (a) secondary; (b) a modern historian/textbook author; written ca. 2020; purpose is to teach students about the Stamp Act Crisis, not to advocate for one side. Same rubric shape.

──────────── STEP 2 (25 points) — Write a thesis ────────────
SHOW ME: "Now write ONE sentence that answers our focused question — a claim about the colonists' core constitutional argument AND how 'consent' was their key concept. A thesis takes a position; it is not a summary."
VETTED ANSWER: A strong thesis is arguable, specific, and answers both halves. Model: "The Stamp Act Congress's Declaration of Rights and Grievances argues that Parliament violated the colonists' fundamental right as Englishmen by taxing them without consent — consent that only their own colonial assemblies, not Parliament, could constitutionally provide." Many valid phrasings; must name the core claim (consent/representation) and must engage both what the Declaration argued AND how consent functions as the load-bearing concept.
RUBRIC: 25 — takes a clear position (8), correctly identifies consent (or representation through their own assemblies) as the key concept (9), and connects it to the specific constitutional claim against Parliament (8). A pure summary with no claim caps at 10.
FRESH VARIANT: "Write a thesis answering a narrower question: 'Why did the colonists argue that Parliament's taxation violated their rights as Englishmen?' One arguable sentence." Model: "The colonists argued that Parliament's taxation violated their English constitutional rights because Englishmen could only be taxed with the consent of their own elected representatives — a right Parliament denied by imposing taxes on colonists who had no seats in Parliament." Same rubric.

──────────── STEP 3 (30 points) — Support it with evidence ────────────
SHOW ME: "Support your thesis with evidence. Quote ONE of the three excerpts accurately (copy the exact words), then explain in 2–3 sentences HOW that evidence supports your claim. Quoting without explaining earns only half."
VETTED ANSWER: A correct response quotes A, B, or C word-for-word and explains the link. Example using A: quoting "no taxes be imposed on them, but with their own consent, given personally, or by their representatives" supports a thesis about consent because the Declaration makes consent the constitutional prerequisite for legitimate taxation — without it, the tax is unconstitutional regardless of Parliament's power. Example using B: quoting "the only representatives of the people of these colonies, are persons chosen therein by themselves" supports the argument that Parliament's claim of virtual representation was specifically rejected — only actual representatives, chosen by the colonists themselves, could consent. Example using C: quoting "trial by jury is the inherent and invaluable right of every British subject" shows the Declaration adds a second constitutional grievance beyond taxation — the Admiralty Courts' denial of jury trials.
RUBRIC: 30 — accurate quotation, exact wording (10); the quote actually fits the thesis (8); explanation analyzes (does not just restate) the quote (12). Misquoting or inventing words = 0 on the accuracy portion and a flag to re-quote.
FRESH VARIANT: "Use a DIFFERENT excerpt than the one you just used. Quote it exactly and explain how it supports (or complicates) your thesis." Same rubric.

──────────── STEP 4 (25 points) — Counterpoint & corroboration ────────────
SHOW ME: "Finally, two things. (a) Acknowledge a limit or a different reading: what is the STRONGEST British counterargument to the colonists' position — and how might a defender of Parliament respond to the consent argument? (b) Name one OTHER kind of source a historian would seek to corroborate or add context to the Declaration."
VETTED ANSWER: (a) The strongest British counterargument is parliamentary sovereignty + virtual representation: Parliament was supreme over all of the British empire; virtual representation — Parliament speaking for all British subjects — was the basis of the British constitution; many English men couldn't vote and yet paid taxes Parliament levied. The colonists' "actual representation" demand was constitutionally novel. (b) Good corroborating/contextualizing sources: Parliamentary debates and speeches from 1765 (which laid out the British position in their own words), colonial assembly resolutions from other colonies (Virginia Resolves, 1765 — which took an even stronger position), other colonial pamphlets, or legal treatises (e.g., Blackstone's Commentaries on English constitutional tradition). Any source that either represents the British position or shows how widely the colonial argument spread.
RUBRIC: (a) 13 — correctly names parliamentary sovereignty / virtual representation as the British counterargument (8) + fairly states why it was a genuine constitutional position (5). "Britain was just greedy" is not the counterargument — push for the constitutional version. (b) 12 — names a plausible corroborating or contextualizing source and why it helps.
FRESH VARIANT: "(a) Name a different limit of the Declaration as a source — what can this document alone NOT tell us? (b) If you could find one other 1765 document to compare it with, what would you choose and what would you learn?" Answers: (a) e.g., the Declaration tells us only what the colonial congress argued, not how Parliament actually received it, or what ordinary colonists (non-delegates) thought; (b) e.g., Parliament's Declaratory Act (1766) — which asserted Parliament's right to legislate for the colonies 'in all cases whatsoever' — to see the British direct response. Same rubric.

HOW TO RUN IT (with me, the student):
- Greet me in 1–2 sentences, ask my FIRST NAME, then show me THE SOURCE (the focused question + all three excerpts) and give Step 1 exactly as written.
- ONE step at a time. Never show the whole set, the answers, the rubrics, or the variants.
- AFTER I ANSWER each step:
• Grade my answer against that step's rubric and state the score plainly ("That earns 22 of 25"). Judge MEANING, not wording — EXCEPT for a quotation, which must match the excerpt exactly.
• Say specifically what I got right, then TEACH the gap.
• OFFER A RE-ATTEMPT: "Want to raise your score? I'll give you a similar version." If I say yes, deliver the FRESH VARIANT, grade it, and set this step's score to my BEST attempt. I can retry as many times as I want.
• Move on when I'm satisfied.
- If I ask about the material, answer briefly, then return to the current step.
- Score HONESTLY against the rubric — don't inflate, don't lowball. Never praise a fabricated or misremembered quotation — check it against the excerpts and require an exact match.

COMPLETION + REPORT. After I've finished all four steps (and any re-attempts), produce the report in EXACTLY this format — the FIRST LINE is my score:
STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100
WEEK 4 ASSIGNMENT — The Colonists' Constitutional Claim
Student: [name] | Date: ___
Step 1 (Source the document): a/20 — [one line]
Step 2 (Write a thesis): b/25 — [one line]
Step 3 (Support with evidence): c/30 — [one line]
Step 4 (Counterpoint & corroboration): d/25 — [one line]
Strongest skill: ___
Worth another look: ___
(The four step scores must add up to the number on line 1.) Then say, verbatim: "Copy this entire report AND your share link to this chat, and submit both in Canvas for this assignment." End with one genuine sentence of encouragement.

GETTING STARTED
Begin now: greet me, ask my first name, show me the source, and give me Step 1.

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Instructor grading note (Prof. Hartwell)

• Record the STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100 from line 1 of the submitted report into the Assignments group.
• Spot-check a sample of chat share links against the reported scores; the embedded vetted key means the coach grades consistently.
• Pay special attention to quotations — the lesson is accurate quoting, and the coach is told to require an exact match. The most common error is students paraphrasing or blending the excerpts rather than quoting exactly.
• The embedded key and rubric are consistent across Gemini / Claude / ChatGPT.

Canvas placement block

canvas_object    = Assignment
title            = "Week 4 Assignment — The Colonists' Constitutional Claim (adaptive)"
assignment_group = "Assignments"
points_possible  = 100
grading_type     = points
assignment_type  = adaptive
submission_types = [online_text_entry, online_url]
due_offset_days  = 6
published        = true
provenance       = "~ Prof. Hartwell's edition · Fall 2026 · built with thecoursemaker.com"

Traditional variant — for comparison. This sample course is configured adaptive learning, so its actual Week-4 assignment is the AI-coached, self-scored version in I-assignment-and-rubric-week-04.md. This file shows the same Week-4 skills built the traditional way — the student writes a short document-based argument and submits it, and the instructor grades against the rubric — so you can see both formats side by side. (Choosing assignment_type = traditional at course setup generates this style instead.)

Course: U.S. History to 1877 (HIST 1301) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Hartwell
Objective assessed: Objective 4 (causes of the American Revolution; constitutional argument) · SLO B (build and support a historical thesis with evidence) · SLO A (sourcing)
Worth 100 points · Assignments group = 15% of the grade

The Assignment

History is built from claims grounded in evidence. In this short document-based argument (a mini-DBQ), you'll source a real document, write a thesis, support it with an accurate quotation, and handle a counterpoint. Submit your answers as a document upload or text entry in Canvas. Read the rubric below before you start.

The focused question: Based on the Stamp Act Congress's Declaration of Rights and Grievances (1765), what was the colonists' core constitutional claim — and how did they use the idea of "consent" to challenge Parliament's right to tax them?

The source — Stamp Act Congress, Declaration of Rights and Grievances, adopted October 19, 1765, New York. Quote only from these three excerpts; copy the wording exactly.
- Excerpt A (Resolution III): "That it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes be imposed on them, but with their own consent, given personally, or by their representatives."
- Excerpt B (Resolutions IV–V): "That the people of these colonies are not, and from their local circumstances cannot be, represented in the House of Commons in Great-Britain. That the only representatives of the people of these colonies, are persons chosen therein by themselves, and that no taxes ever have been, or can be constitutionally imposed on them, but by their respective legislatures."
- Excerpt C (Resolution VII): "That trial by jury is the inherent and invaluable right of every British subject in these colonies."

Part 1 — Source the document (20 pts). (a) Is this Declaration a primary or secondary source? (b) Answer the three sourcing questions: who adopted it, to whom and when, and why (their purpose)?

Part 2 — Write a thesis (25 pts). In one sentence, answer the focused question — a claim about the colonists' core constitutional argument AND how "consent" is the key concept. A thesis takes a position; it is not a summary.

Part 3 — Support it with evidence (30 pts). Quote one of the three excerpts accurately (exact words), then explain in 2–3 sentences how that evidence supports your thesis. Quoting without explaining earns only half.

Part 4 — Counterpoint & corroboration (25 pts). (a) What is the strongest British counterargument to the colonists' consent argument — how would a defender of Parliament respond? (b) Name one other kind of source a historian would seek to corroborate or add context to the Declaration.

Integrity & AI note. This is your own work, submitted for grading. You may use an approved chatbot (Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT) to help you think, but submitting AI-generated answers as your own is not allowed; if AI helped you think, add a one-line note. Quote only from the three excerpts above — never quote from memory or from an AI. (Note: this is the traditional format. In this course's actual adaptive assignment, you build the argument with the chatbot and submit its self-scored report — see I-assignment-and-rubric-week-04.md.)

Rubric — 100 points

Instructor answer key — REMOVE BEFORE PUBLISHING TO STUDENTS

• Part 1: (a) Primary (made at the time by participants — the colonial delegates). (b) Adopted by 37 delegates from nine colonies at the Stamp Act Congress in New York, October 19, 1765, addressed to Parliament and the king; purpose = formally state the colonial constitutional position and petition for repeal of the Stamp Act; expect the strongest case for colonial rights.
• Part 2 (model thesis): "The Stamp Act Congress's Declaration of Rights and Grievances argues that Parliament violated the colonists' fundamental right as Englishmen by taxing them without consent — consent that only their own colonial assemblies, not Parliament, could constitutionally provide." (Accept any arguable thesis that names consent/actual representation as key and challenges Parliament's authority.)
• Part 3 (models): Using Excerpt A: quoting "no taxes be imposed on them, but with their own consent, given personally, or by their representatives" supports a consent-based thesis because the Declaration makes consent the constitutional prerequisite for legitimate taxation — Parliament's lack of actual colonial representatives means no legitimate consent. Using Excerpt B: quoting "the only representatives of the people of these colonies, are persons chosen therein by themselves" supports the argument that virtual representation was specifically rejected — the colonists demanded actual representatives chosen by themselves, not MPs they had no role in electing. Using Excerpt C: quoting "trial by jury is the inherent and invaluable right of every British subject" supports a second constitutional grievance — the Admiralty Courts violated this right. Full marks require the exact quotation + analysis explaining the connection.
• Part 4: (a) Parliamentary sovereignty + virtual representation: Parliament was constitutionally supreme over all of British empire; many English men couldn't vote either, yet were governed; virtual representation — Parliament acting for all British subjects — was the established basis of the British constitution; the colonists' "actual representation" demand was constitutionally novel. A fair answer names this as a genuine constitutional position, not just selfishness. (b) Good sources: Parliamentary speeches and debates (e.g., arguments made in support of the Stamp Act), the Virginia Resolves (1765) (which took a stronger position than the Congress), other colonial pamphlets, or legal treatises on the English constitution.

Historical-accuracy gate — PASS: all three excerpts are transcribed exactly from the Stamp Act Congress's Declaration of Rights and Grievances as preserved at the Avalon Project (Yale) and corroborated at TeachingAmericanHistory.org; the date (October 19, 1765), venue (New York), and number of delegates (37 from nine colonies) are verified. The British counterargument (virtual representation / parliamentary sovereignty) is stated as a genuine constitutional position, not caricatured. No fabricated quotation appears.

Canvas placement block

canvas_object    = Assignment
title            = "Week 4 Assignment — The Colonists' Constitutional Claim (traditional)"
assignment_group = "Assignments"
points_possible  = 100
grading_type     = points
assignment_type  = traditional
submission_types = [online_upload, online_text_entry]
due_offset_days  = 6
published        = true
rubric_ref       = "week-04-assignment-rubric"
provenance       = "~ Prof. Hartwell's edition · Fall 2026 · built with thecoursemaker.com"