Title: Marco Polo Forum
Course: Social Studies 08 - 1.0.0.0 > Section: Unit 4: Cultural Exchanges and Exploration

In this forum, you will state your belief about whether the stories that Marco Polo told in The Travels of Marco Polo are trustworthy or not. You will find evidence using reliable online primary and secondary sources, including The Travels of Marco Polo itself. Then, you will state your opinion in a short paragraph, using evidence that you have found to support your opinion.

There are two ways you can answer this question:

1. You can try to find evidence that Marco Polo did or did not go to China.
2. You can try to find evidence that The Travels of Marco Polo is reliable or not. You may find that The Travels of Marco Polo is one of these things:
  - Entirely true and reliable
  - Mostly true
  - Mostly false
  - Entirely false and unreliable

Your paragraph should be between 150 and 200 words. You should use proper paragraph format, clearly stating your position in a topic sentence. You should then support your position using evidence and write a concluding sentence to wrap your paragraph up.

Only choose reliable and credible sources as evidence. Use a bibliography-making website like mybib.com or bibme.org to list your source or sources.

Once you have written your own paragraph, respond to two classmates with a brief 50- to 100-word response. If you agree with a classmate’s original post, express the reason why and try to add an additional reason why their position is correct. If you disagree with the original post, respectfully and kindly explain why you disagree.

Rubric

 | Insufficient Evidence | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Extending
 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Use of evidence to support conclusions | There is too little content to adequately assess my proficiency. I need to resubmit this assignment. | I show an initial ability to find and report evidence that supports a conclusion. The sources I have chosen for evidence may not be credible. | I show a satisfactory ability to find and report evidence that supports a conclusion. The sources I have chosen for evidence are somewhat credible. | I show an effective ability to find and report evidence that supports a conclusion. The sources I have chosen for evidence are credible. | I show a sophisticated ability to find and clearly report evidence that supports a conclusion. The sources I have chosen for evidence are credible.