Dimitri Syros
Social Studies Teacher
FORMATIVE
While the diagnostic assessment for this unit helped to set the stage for the lesson to follow, it only provided a snapshot of where my students were prior to receiving instruction. It would be critical to provide multiple stops along the way to check for student understanding to be sure that we remain on track towards our goal of mastery. Formative assessments can vary from formal to informal and are conducted in the midst of the learning process in order to inform and modify teaching strategies and techniques to ensure future student mastery. Formative assessment is cyclical in that standards inform targeted instruction and teaching which in turn yields data that is accounted for and adjustments in practice are made accordingly. For this standard multiple forms of formative assessment were utilized to track student progress towards mastery including ones involving students discourse and collaborative learning as well as independent writing.
Turn & Talk: Responding to Multimedia Sources
Turn and Talks are an engaging way to promote student discourse and allow for collaborative discussions. After being given a question or stimulus, students are asked to discuss their thoughts with a nearby classmate. A short discussion between classmates can oftentimes clear up misconceptions in the content and causes students to analyze their opinions more closely. As the mantra "two heads are better than one" suggests, turn and talk enhances our whole-group conversation and allows me to briefly assess student understanding during a lesson. During the talk I am able to access how students interact with one another through observation. When answers are shared aloud I am able to inspect how student dialogue and thought processes led to certain answers and ensure that everyone is on the same page. Typically students are graded for Turn and Talks by participation with the opportunity to earn bonus points for highly effective commentary and contributions to whole group discussion. Similarly students are able to assess themselves by measuring their level of understanding with their classmates. For this specific activity students were prompted with a YouTube video before accessing a line of questioning. Following the video, students were presented with a Turn and Talk to summarize the events leading up to the Watergate Scandal and analyze what happened in response. Turn and Talk is an excellent way to promote student collaboration and student discourse. Following a short discussion period, groups then shared out their responses as a way to informally ensure that the class was engaged in the topic. After the video discussion, the lesson is taken further as students explore the aftermath of the Watergate Scandal and access whether or not Nixon may have violated the rule of law.
Student Role Play with Stop and Jot Method
Role play is an interactive way to to get students to participate in class and express themselves creatively. Depending on the content, a script may be provided in the style of reader's theater or students may be instructed to create their own scenarios around the topic and act it out. Role play increases student attachment to their work and makes them invested in creating a quality product. Since many middle schoolers tend to feed off of the feedback and attention of their peers, role play is an ideal way to bring out the best in my students. Sometimes a few students are reluctant to perform a skit in front of the class or read a script for a variety of reasons such as a language barrier, stage fright or a reading disability. When this occurs a student may be offered an alternative assignment around the same theme or might be asked to write a script for a skit although they will not be forced to perform it. For this particular adaptation of the activity students were provided with a transcript of the Nixon/Frost Interviews conducted in the wake of Watergate and students were selected to perform different roles (a snippet of the transcript has been provided below). Typically for role play activities, students are assessed based on their written transcript accurately demonstrating the concept at had through the inclusion of content-based vocabulary and themes. Student performance is assessed separately for less weight as a means for students to improve their self-confidence and public speaking abilities.
TRANSCRIPT:
Student A: "So basically Nixon wanted to make sure he was gonna win the election, so he cheated by having his guys break into that building and find dirt on the other guy"
Student B: "Yeah I mean, that's bad and all but I see why he did it. Kinda boss if you ask me"
Student A: "I mean i guess, let's see the question though, was this Rule of Law? Eh I don't think so."
Student B: "Yeah no way, especially how he thought he didn't have to get in trouble just cuz he's president. You ain't special bro"
Following role play activities students are asked to reflect on a culminating question via stop and jot. In this style students are posed a question and are given just a short amount of time to briefly jot down their thoughts on the topic. Stop and jot is an effective method to monitor student responses and gauge understanding on a topic in a quick snapshot. Following the role play activity, students were asked to stop and reflect on the following statement: "Do you believe that Nixon followed the Rule of Law?" Afterwards students were asked to jot down a short response to the question. As students tabulate their answers, I circle the room glancing at student answers that I feel will need the most assistance based on the progression of the lesson. I then strategically call on students to share out so that I can correct any misconceptions about Rule of Law before we proceed into more formal methods of assessments that will be assigned grades. The sample below demonstrates a brief, but proficient example. The goal of this assignment was for students to recognize that Nixon did not follow the Rule of Law which this student recognized in saying "to him [Nixon], the president is above the law."
History Lab
History Labs are a writing activity that challenges students to analyze multiple primary and secondary documents and synthesize their thoughts to answer an essential question. History Labs are a method that models itself after AP style writing. Students are presented with sources such as political cartoons, historical quotes, photography, graphs and more that give students additional practice for standardized writing assessments. As a guided approach for historical inquiry, history labs provoke students to ask questions and invest themselves in the topic being studied. At the conclusion of the Watergate activity, students were tasked with synthesizing different ideas regarding Rule of Law. In this History Lab, students respond to a thesis question by providing evidence from different DBQ sources. As a formative assessment, History Labs give students an opportunity to demonstrate their working knowledge of a topic and build upon their understanding. I like to analyze History Lab writing data in the middle of a unit so it gives us time as a class to review our work and make any necessary corrections and topic review before summative assessment. Before introducing this history lab to students, they must be familiar with the concept of rule of law. They must be aware that it is a principle where all subjects are equally accountable. The law is supreme over all and is inclusive but not limited to government officials, businesses, and private citizens. The rule of law is opposed to an arbitrary system of government and the abusive uses of power. Students will need to be able to identify/define lesson vocabulary prior to conducting the lab. The History Lab and all relevant sources are included to the right and below:
Describe your image.
Describe your image.
Describe your image.
A History Lab is an engaging and interactive way to get students involved with Rule of Law in a more formal manner. Students are able to hone their writing skills while working through Rule of Law in varied contexts. Students are then challenged to elaborate on their thesis statement and are assessed on the Florida Standards Assessment writing rubric for expository 7th grade writing which each student has taped to their desk. Ultimately student writing is tracked in a spreadsheet that is added to unit by unit to measure student growth in writing throughout the year. Through individual conferencing and peer-led writing workshops students reflect on their progress and re-draft their writing throughout the year. As students progress in writing history labs, they learn how to more efficiently integrate textual evidence into their writing, improve grammatical conventions and create well organized, and structured essays. In the sample below the student reflected on the main idea of each of the sources in the left column by listing simple observations. In the right column the student analyzed their observations and applied their knowledge to answer the essential question. This student was able to successfully identify characteristics of a society that operates under rule of law as evident through statements such as "even police can go to jail" and "law doesn't care who you are."
White Boards
White boards are a quick and effective way to gauge student knowledge on a topic while promoting collaborative learning. Based on the question being asked in a whole group setting, students are asked to share their answer by writing it down on a white board and holding it up. This activity can be completed individually or by grouping students to promote student discourse before sharing answers. This activity is effective because every student is forced to participate in a non-judgmental manner that allows me to scan the room and get an instant idea of where my students are as a check for understanding. Based on what I see, I am able to recognize whether or not I need to dig deeper on a topic or clear up any misunderstandings or gaps in knowledge. Occasionally this activity can be incentivized by providing rewards for students who answer correctly in the quickest span of time. For this activity students responded to graphic stimuli and expressed their reasoning for why or why not the designated image adhered to the rule of law. For the particular answers on the right, students were shown an image of the British King George pardoning British soldiers for crimes against the American colonists. I know that students were successful with this particular question on the assessment if they recognized that Rule of Law was not applied given the situation. Given this informal data, I know that these two students understand the content.
The data tracker below continued improvement amongst my students in their writing when assessed on an FSA writing rubric. Students are grouped into small writing conferences based on the data that focus on each of the three rubric categories, structure, evidence and conventions. The goal is that students improve in each of the designated areas every time we write a History Lab over the course of the year. Students who are successful in attaining their goal are invited to an end of the year pizza party.
Taking a closer look at the data-set on the left, scored recorded in red reflect a student working below proficiency in the given area. Numbers highlighted in yellow reflect students working near proficiency, and green shows proficiency and mastery of the content area. This particular data shows that students tended to fail to reach proficiency during their diagnostic assessment but improved in their first formative writing sample in most rubric categories. Students improved significantly in purpose,focus and organization of their writing samples as they got accustomed to the History Lab style. Evidence and elaboration also improved as History Labs gave students an opportunity to engage with multiple primary sources and incorporate their findings into their writing. A complete data set for all class periods and formative writing assessments can be found in the document below:
Diagnostic Summative