26 November 2012 Eddie Walsh EPSY 485: De La Rue

Assessment during Instruction Assignment

1) School Context (school Ive taught in) a. The class I am instructing in is a normal-level World History class for freshmen. I have two students in the class who have IEP plans for mild behavioral disorders. The academic achievement level of the students is on par with the average of the schools community. b. The schools demographics break down roughly to 60% white/Caucasian, 30% black/Africa American, and 10% a combination of students of Hispanic descent, Asian descent, and others. The school is located near a major college campus and has been around for over one hundred years. While the building is old, it does an effective job at organizing the classrooms into halls based on departments. 2) Unit of Study (for World History) a. The unit, taken from the list of curricula on the Unit 4 website, is World History. More specifically this week long unit is concerned with the Crusades. The class is designed for freshmen and sophomores and is available during the second semester. b. Some of the essential questions and enduring understandings for this unit are as follows: i. What conditions in society made it possible for change to occur? ii. To what extent is a person truly important in instituting change or is that person just in the right place at the iii. right time? iv. Students will understand that: 1. a confluence of people and existing prevailing factors can work together to affect religious, economic, political, and institutional change. 2. societies exist because of a combination of religious, economic, political, and social factors. 3. societies change because of economic, political, social, and religious activities. c. Learning Objectives:

i. Students will be able to distinguish different events, dates, locations, and significant groups of people/individuals amongst the first three crusades. This addresses the remembering level of Blooms revised taxonomy (factual knowledge). ii. After two days of in class research students will be able to create a comparison chart between Islam and Christianity citing at least five similarities and 10 differences. This addresses the analyze level of Blooms revised taxonomy (conceptual knowledge). iii. Students will demonstrate a thorough understanding of the early lesson plans by writing three paragraphs explaining the rationales we discussed in class and we found in our text that were behind the reasoning believed by the European Christians for starting the Crusades for Jerusalem. Students will produce a fourth paragraph explaining why crusaders often rationalized the use of terrible violence during their campaigns. This addresses the create level of Blooms revised taxonomy (meta-cognitive knowledge). 3) Assessment during Instruction Activity a. The following in-class assessment will be given as a pop quiz on the Wednesday during the middle of the unit. In order to check for gaps in understanding, students will complete the following activities: i. Students will be asked to find the following cities and geographic areas on a map: Jerusalem, Rome, France, England, the Holy Roman Empire, Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire, Egypt, the Mediterranean Sea, and Acre. (First learning objective) ii. Students will be given five historical events to match with what year they occurred. (First learning objective) iii. Students will place six short descriptive sentences in the following three categories: Islam, Christianity, and both. (Second learning objective). iv. Students will write a short answer (1 to 2 sentences) in response to a question asking for two of the reasons the Europeans used to justify their invasion of Middle Eastern lands. (Third learning objective) v. Students will read a brief excerpt from a primary source detailing the massacre of a Muslim village by crusaders and write 2 to 3 sentences explaining what happened and the justifications explained by the crusaders. (Third primary source) b. Three Items for Assessment: i. Students will be given a three paragraph excerpts from Capture of the Christian Navel of the World (source from 1101 CE, author unknown). After reading the excerpts students will be asked to write one paragraph

explaining how the crusaders perceived the Muslims they fought and why they held these beliefs. 1. Addresses second and third student learning objectives and addresses the analysis level of Blooms original taxonomy. 2. Students will receive full points if they explain the perceived savage, non-believer, evil images held by crusaders of the Muslims and if they explain the Church propaganda they grew up believing in regards to Muslims. 3. I can determine if this is valid by observing how many students answer with the responses I am searching for. I will determine if this is reliable by comparing the results from semester to semester or by comparing results with a future assessment. ii. Students will be given a blank map containing Europe, the Middle East, and regions of North Africa that border the Mediterranean Sea. Students will be given markers and asked to shade the following regions with a certain color that will be distinguished on a key: The Holy Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the kingdom of France, the kingdom of England, the kingdom of Castile, Egypt, and the Seljuq Empire. 1. Addresses the first learning objective and addresses the knowledge level of Blooms original taxonomy. 2. I will be able to show the students the same map with the properly shaded areas on the overhead/board after the assessment. 3. I will be able to ensure this is a valid assessment by making sure the students are instructed on what regions belonged to which faction prior to the assessment (I will make sure the map on the quiz is accurate to this as well). I will determine if this is reliable by comparing it to the previous semesters answers or to the answers given to the map question in the next unit. iii. Students will be instructed to fill in a Venn diagram comparing two bubbles (Islam and Christianity). Students will be asked to write three descriptions in each individual bubble and in the cross-over section representing similarities in the middle. 1. Address the second learning objective and addresses the analysis level in Blooms original taxonomy. 2. On the answer key used for grading I will be able to include an already filled out version of the Venn diagram containing multiple answers that are acceptable on this portion of the assessment. 3. I could try to prove validity in the assessment by ensuring student answers are accurate to the desired outcomes. I can test validity by

comparing results with the use of Venn diagrams in the next unit or next semester. Follow Up Questions: a) Since I am using this formative assessment during the middle of my unit plan I will not grade it. I am only using it to get an idea of what areas I need to work on more thoroughly with my students so that we can achieve all of the learning objectives by the last day. b) This pop quiz would be announced the day before and the students will have thirty minutes (the last half of class) to complete the quiz independently. I will analyze the results the night after we take the assessment in class and announce the general results in the class for the first ten minutes the following day. The students with behavioral disorders will be allowed to take the assessment home as an accommodation. I chose to do this activity they way I did because I believe it will be an effective way to find out where the students in my class stand on understanding the content of this unit. c) Students will adequately pass my criteria by getting 75% of the map shading activity correct, by accurately evaluating the at least one behind the actions described in the primary source , and by getting 6 of the 9 answers right on the Venn diagram. d) If 90% of my class meets the performance criteria I have outlined for the activity I will be confident with moving the class forward. e) If I can get my goal on the performance criteria for the class I will consider the class to get it. From here we will moved onto our next unit on the shift from the Middle Ages towards the Renaissance. If we dont meet my goals on the activity we will spend a day reviewing the assessment as a class, paying extra attention to the areas that were missed by most students before moving to the next unit.