1 Formative Assessment in the Social Studies Department of Social Studies December 3, 2015

Session Outcomes Explore the meaning(s) of formative and summative assessments in the social studies Examine assessments of historical skills and social studies content Consider resources Plan for formative assessment

Ice Breaker

What is an assessment? In triads, create a definition of an assessment Discuss Share

Looking At Assessments

Mapping Social Studies Learning Experiences ElementaryMiddleHigh Sample Learning Experience (e.g., The Boston “Massacre”) Investigation into an event using abridged, original accounts Investigation with more accounts and more complex ones Sample Performance Task(s) Brief writing with two to three short contrasting accounts Single-account short essay (to see if students can draw evidence from an account DBQ with three to five conflicting accounts to build an evidence-based interpretation Weighted Multiple Choice Questions Presentation to communicate interpretation Complex DBQ Weighted multiple choice questions Presentation of interpretation Website creator to display research process

Assessment Models Analyze four different types of assessment Place onto the Spectrum of Assessment Chart Respond to the following question: What are we assessing and for what purpose?

The Research

Intro Van Sledright, Frame the Article Read Assessing Learning in Secondary Social Studies Classrooms? Use the 4 A’s Protocol to capture your thoughts

FORMATIVESUMMATIVE Assessment Defined

The Assessment Triangle Interpretation Observation Cognition Pellegrino, Chudowsky, and Glaser, 2001, p. 44)

Assessment Pillars Applied to Social Studies Design Sequence… Cognition: Working from a Learning Model of the Practice of Historical Thinking (HT) Observation: Building tasks and performances in order to observe HT in action among students Interpretation: Using rubrics to understand the evidence of HT we see in tasks

Procedural Concepts Resources for Thinking and Investigating Thinking Strategies Historical Questions Evidence-Based Claims Communicating Understanding Assessing Understandings Learning Model for History Education

The Social Studies Classroom Procedural Concepts Sources Thinking Strategies The animating historical QUESTION plus these three (3) components ENABLE historical thinking and therefore gives students the ability to make claims to understand the past

Procedural Concepts Accounts/Sources >(Identity? Attribution? Author? Perspective?) Evidence >(How does an account become evidence?) Reliability >(What evidence is reliable?) Context >(What is the historical context in which evidence is situated?) Historical Significance >(Is the evidence significant?) Causation

Thinking Strategies Reading—closely and carefully Re-Reading AnalyzingInterrogating Text Synthesizing Corroborating—evidence Contextualizing Judging reliability of evidence Making Evidence-supported claims Communicating understandings (e.g., in speaking and writing)

Resources Diaries Pottery shards Newspaper accounts and editorials Paintings Engravings Video-recordings Books Photographs Oral histories Maps Census figures Cartoons Lyrics Pictures

Revisit Your Definition How might you modify your definition to reflect your current thinking?

Assessing Historical Skills and Social Studies Content

In triads, examine a social studies lesson and identify evidence of assessment What might this tell us about social studies content and historical skils? How might this information be used to inform next steps?

Application to Your Work

How might you incorporate formative assessment plans into your professional learning plan?

Assessment Tools

Resources Beyond the Bubble…rationale