Subject: World History, 9th Grade

Era: 2-The First Global Age

Unit: 1-Russia

Russia Performance Assessment

Statement of Purpose: This is a formative assessment designed to evaluate student learning and understanding
of the origins and history of Russia up to the first global age (1500) in the form of a performance assessment.
The results produced from this assessment will be used to monitor student progress and assist in guiding further
instruction as students progress toward a summative assessment. This assessment will also allow students to
self-assess how comfortable they are with each learning target and address those areas that they struggle with
understanding.
Standards: Michigan High School Content Expectations for World History
WHG 5.3.4: Russia through the 18th Century Analyze the major political, religious, economic, and cultural
transformations in Russia including:
Russian imperial expansion and top-down westernization/modernization
the impact of its unique location relative to Europe and Asia
the political and cultural influence (e.g., written language) of Byzantine Empire, Mongol Empire, and Orthodox
Christianity
Target Chart:
Learning Targets
I can
examine how political, religious, economic, and cultural changes have affected Russia.
Accommodations:
Student IEPs will guide accommodations. Accommodations for this assessment may include: extended time, a
scribe or audio recorder, or an alternate format of the assessment (large print, braille) and/or recording option
(type, audio record). Students may also be permitted to record answers in lists instead of complete sentences.
Accommodations are not limited to these listed.

World History
Era 2: The First Global Age
Unit 1: Russia

Name: _____________________________ Hour: ______

Informing the Tsar

With all of the chaos and poor leadership following Ivan IVs death (Ivan the Terrible), Michael I of the new
Romanov dynasty has decided to look at Ivans rule closely and decide if he should follow any of Ivans ideals in
ruling the Russian Empire. You were Ivan IVs closest advisor and were with him from the beginning of his rule.
As such, you know every aspect of his rule. Michael I has asked you to develop a presentation in which you
will report the positives and negatives of Ivans rule to Michael. You have decided to first create a report card
for Ivan, evaluating him in the areas of Leadership Skills, Organization & Planning, Community Relations /
People Skills, Treatment of Others / Protecting the People, Economics, Public Works, and Contribution to
History. Michael has made it clear that you must be completely honest and able to support any statements or
grades that you make concerning Ivan. Failure to do so could easily result in your imprisonment, exile or
execution.
This will be a formative assessment designed to prepare you for the test over this unit. After you complete this
assessment, you will have the opportunity to self-assess your understanding and decide where you believe your
understanding fits in the below scoring guides. You will have 3 days to complete both parts of this assessment.
If you have any questions, please ask me. Do not wait until the last minute to say that you did not understand
something. ! (tebye oodachi)good luck to you!
Task 1 Directions:

Please review the below rubric BEFORE completing Task 1. Use this rubric to guide your responses to the task.
You will also use this rubric to self-assess your responses.
Task 1 Rubric
Learning Target
I can...
examine how
political, religious,
economic, and
cultural changes
have affected
Russia.

I have accurately I have described I have described I have not

described
examples of
examples of
described
examples of
Ivans rule for
Ivans rule for
examples of
Ivans rule for
all of the subject
most of the
Ivans rule for
all of the subject
areas indicated,
subject areas
most of the
areas indicated.
some examples
indicated, some
subject areas
I have
are not clear.
were incomplete
indicated.
or
unclear.
thoroughly
I have
I have not
summarized how
summarized how I have partially
summarized
these examples
these examples
summarized how
how these
have affected the
have affected the
these examples
examples have
grade that I have
grade that I have
have affected the
affected the
given to Ivan in
given to Ivan in
grade that I have
grade that I have
the subject area.
the subject area.
given to Ivan in
given to Ivan in
the subject area.
the subject area.

Target: I can examine how political, religious, economic, and cultural changes have affected Russia.
Task 1:
Create a report card for Ivan the Terrible. To do this, you must locate information about Ivan for each of the
subject areas listed in the Subjects column of the following Historical Leader Report Card and record your
data in the Details column of the document. Once you have found all of the information that you can about
each subject, review the information and write a paragraph summary of your findings in the Summary column
of the document. Finally, evaluate (grade) Ivan on each of the subjects and write a grade (A, B, C or D) in the
Grade column. You may work with a partner to research information but you must complete your own report
card and summary and you must grade Ivan based upon your own understanding of what you have recorded.
You may use your textbook or reliable website to locate your information. Once you have completed this
document, proceed to Task 2.

After completing Task 1, I would give myself a score of ______ based on the above rubric because

Your Name _________________________________

Historical Leaders Name _________________________________

Historical Leader Report Card

Subject

Leadership Skills

Organization &
Planning

Community
Relations &
People Skills

Grade

Details

Summary

Treatment of
Others &
Protecting the
People

Economics

Public Works

Contributions to
History

Task 2 Directions:

Please review the below rubric BEFORE completing Task 1. Use this rubric to guide your responses to the task.
You will also use this rubric to self-assess your responses.
Task 2 Rubric
Learning Target
I can
examine how
political, religious,
economic, and
cultural changes
have affected
Russia.

I have accurately I have listed all

listed and
of the required
explained all of
positive (2) and
the required
negative (2)
positive (2) and
examples of
negative (2)
Ivans reign but
examples of
have not clearly
Ivans reign.
explained why I
selected all of
I have
these examples.
thoroughly
I have explained
explained my
view of Ivans
my view of
reign.
Ivans reign
though some
aspects of my
view are unclear
or off-track.

I have listed at
I have not listed
least one of the
at least one of
required positive
the required
and one of the
positive and one
required
of the required
negative
negative
examples of
examples of
Ivans reign.
Ivans reign.
Some examples
Most examples
were not listed
were not listed
or it was not
or it was not
clearly explained
clearly
why I selected
explained why I
some of these
selected most of
examples.
these examples.
I have partially
I have not
explained my
clearly
view of Ivans
explained my
reign though
view of Ivans
most aspects of
reign. Most
my view are
aspects of my
unclear or offview are unclear
track.
or off-track.

Target: I can examine how political, religious, economic, and cultural changes have affected Russia.
Task 2:
Now you need to inform Michael about what areas of Ivans rule he should focus on and what areas he should
avoid. You may choose to present your information to Michael as an oral presentation or as a letter sent to him.
This presentation or letter must include the following:
Two positive examples from Ivans rule that Michael should consider
Two negative examples from Ivans rule that Michael should avoid
Explanation of why you selected each of your examples
What your overall view of Ivans rule is
Presentation must be 3 to 5 minutes with a clear introduction and conclusion
Letter must be 4 or more body paragraphs with a clear introduction and conclusion

After completing Task 2, I would give myself a score of ______ based on the above rubric because

World History
Era 2: The First Global Age
Unit 1: Russia

Name: _____________________________ Hour: ______

Informing the Tsar Self-Assessment

Directions:
The purpose of this self-assessment is to decide what areas you should focus on in the future.
Review your self-scoring responses and my comments. Use this information to answer the below questions.
Part 1
Task 1
Target: I can examine how political, religious, economic, and cultural changes have affected Russia.
Compare your self-score to the score that I gave you. If there are any differences, please explain why
you believe that is?

Task 2
Target: I can examine how political, religious, economic, and cultural changes have affected Russia.
Compare your self-score to the score that I gave you. If there are any differences, please explain why
you believe that is?

Part 2
What part of this assessment did you find most difficult?

What can you do to improve your understanding of these learning targets? Please provide at least two
suggestions for yourself.

Key/Trait
1: Clear Purpose
2: Clear Targets
3: Sound Assessment
4: Good Communication
5: Student Involvement

Rating (1 to 5)

Reasoning

You
include
d this
x
x
x
x

Standards of Quality for Performance Task Assessments

Clear Purpose
It is clear who the intended users and uses are
It is clear that this is a formative or summative assessment.
Comments: The purpose is clearly explained.
Clear Targets
Targets are important worth the assessment time devoted to them.
Targets involve deep understanding, reasoning, skills, products
(Deep understanding and reasoning involve in-depth, complex thinking about what is known and
application of knowledge and skills in novel and more sophisticated ways. Skills include student
proficiency in reasoning, communication, and psychomotor tasks. Products are completed works, such
as term papers, projects, and other assessments were students use knowledge and skills)

x
x

x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

Targets are clearly related to the state and/or district standards

Targets connect to the items on the assessment
Comments: Standards and targets connect to this assessment that involves critical
thinking skills.
General Formatting
1. Use plenty of white space to set off directions, questions and answers, and
sections of the test. Dont crowd things together.
2. Keep wording simple and focused
3. Highlight critical words
4. Free of grammatical or typographical errors.
Comments: Formatting looks good.
The Tasks
1. Needs to be specified so that it meets the criteria for good performance assessment
and is clear to students.
2. Task description is a blueprint or listing of specifications to ensure that essential
criteria are met.
3. Clearly describe the specific targets to be assessed to make certain that the
activities and scoring are well matched
4. The task should be authentic (realistic, require judgment and innovation, asks the
student to do the subject)
5. Structure the task to assess multiple learning targets (knowledge: content and
language arts (for instance) with skills: comparison and communication (for instance)
6. Structure the task so that you can help the student succeed
7. Think through what students will do to be sure that the task is feasible (imagine
what you would do if given the task what resources would you need, how much
time would you need, what steps would you take?)
8. The task should allow for multiple solutions (encourage students to personalize,
but demand that they justify, explain their assumptions, planning, predictions and
other responses).
9. The task should be challenging and stimulating to students. You hope students will
be motivated to use their knowledge and skills to be involved and engaged, sometimes
for days or weeks.
10. Include constraints for completing the task.
Time how much time to plan, revise, finish?
Reference material what resources will they be able to consult?
Other people will they be able to ask for help from peers, teachers, experts?
Equipment will they have access to computers, calculators, spell checkers, or
other aids as they complete this?

x
x
x

Scoring criteria will they be informed of explicit standards that you will use to
evaluate?
Comments: The tasks are clearly described and students should understand what to do
therefore, it is designed as a blueprint for success. Interesting tasks it will be eye
opening to see what students produce. Good way to have students use critical and
creative thinking skills.
The rubrics
1. Be sure the criteria focus on important aspects of the performance
2. Match the type of rating with the purpose of the assessment (holistic overall
judgment OR analytic feedback on different aspects of the performance)
3. The descriptions of the criteria should be directly observable
4. The criteria should be written so that students, parents and others understand them
5. The characteristics and traits used in the scale should be clearly and specifically
defined.
Comments: Rubrics are mostly good. In the second rubric, you have a bullet point
that is too much about following the requirements and not enough about achieving the
targets. I would remove this bullet from each column.
Student Involvement
1. Assist students with self assessment, tracking learning, and communicating about
their learning.
Comments: Student involvement through self-assessment and reflection looks good.
Accommodations also look good.