Assessment Plan for U.S.

History at Granite Park Junior High School

Students
Assessment is extremely important at Granite Park Junior High School due to
the fact that all grades are based on assessments and not homework. This means
that there is a need for many different types and forms of assessment for students
to engage in, so that their knowledge and understanding can be documented.
I have three classes of U.S. History with at varying levels including one ESL
Level 2, mainstream and honors classes. While according to the categorizations the
level differ in terms of ability this is really based more on language and speed not
intelligence. Therefore there are some assessment tools that will the same for all
levels while there are others which will be differentiated by class and even by
student. I truly believe in developing not just reading and writing skills but also
historical thinking skills, with this I know I need to be sure that my assessments test
not only reading and writing but also historical understanding and the ability to
utilize historical thinking skills in their reading and writing. This will be done through
both writing and authentic forms of assessment and will be conducted through out
the quarter in the form of formative assessments and at the end of each unit with
summative assessments.
Formative
Formative assessments will be based on student's daily participation in class
discussion and activities along with their daily writing in their historical thinking
journals. These journals will be turned in at the end of every week for review. These
journals will include: daily starter question responses, questions about the topics
from the week or insights. They can also give suggestions on things they would like
to cover or are interested in learning more about. I feel that this form of assessment
not only gages their knowledge and retention but also allows them to help guide the
way that we approach the curriculum. There is so many different ways and
perspectives that can be utilize to present the past of a given period. While the
common core and district curriculum map helps to map out the information there is
still allows for a lot of personalization and in depth analysis of the past. Also feel
that formative assessment is essential with working with ELLs of differing levels to
see who is retaining and comprehending the information along with being able to
utilize it. History is the study of the human past, therefore there are many different
viewpoints and narratives of how the past happened. Allowing the students to have
a voice in the viewpoint of the historical narrative that is presented is an important
part of helping students understand how the historical narrative is created within
the integration and incorporation of many different voices from the dust. With these
voices and their presentations of the facts and their opinions of the times, students
will then synthesize historical facts to create their own voice within the historical
narrative.
There will be objective assessments such as geography, timeline and concept
quizzes that allow students to show how much of the information they understand

and where they need a little clarification. These quizzes will be based on maps and
graphic organizers that we have filled out as a class. Such as a map of the states of
the Union at the time of Andrew Jackson or a timeline of the presidency of George
Washington with the major events and issues that he had to deal with and the
development of political parties during this time. This is more fact based but this
foundation as to be solid so that students can then take these facts and run with it.

Summative
Summative assessment would be based on seeing how students are able to
use the historical information to explain and create their own historical
interpretations of the past. This assessment will be differentiated by language skills.
For example, even level 1 ELLs can synthesize information but may not be able to
present their personal perspective of the past through written English. All students
will be asked to create an explanation/interpretation of the events. This can be
accomplished through a visual representation or a simple paragraph of 2-3
sentences or for more linguistically advanced students a 4-5 paragraph essay that
utilizes historical facts and commentary to support their personal interpretation.
Writing is just one for of historical assessment. Another is to allow students to
present their understanding in a more oral form. This will be done through
discussions, debates, and projects. For example each student will choose a historical
novel to read during their free reading time of school, due to the fact that at Granite
Park they are required to always be reading whenever they finish their work.
Students will be given a list of historical fiction novels that are from a 3-8th grade
reading levels. Students will read their book and then present the historical
information in one of the following forms: visual, oral, dramatic or written report.
This is based on what form of presentation is most comfortable for the students.
There will be a rubric of what is expected in their presentation/report.
The summative assessments are for the purpose of seeing how well students
can synthesize and analysis the historical material of the era. This is one of the
higher order historical thinking skills and it can tell how well students comprehend
the information. For example, from 1800-1830 there is a lot of things going on that
we will cover including reforms: religious, social, correctional; political changes,
economic challenges along with western expansion. This interplay can be very
confusing to understand in a chronological order, however, it is essential for
students to be able to understand the interconnection between these events and
how they influence each other. The key to the written assessments is not the
quantity but the quality of the writing. For the oral presentation, the key for
students is to follow the rubric and present the information they have gathered in a
meaningful and thoughtful way. This will be laid out in the rubric that they are given.

Due to the nature of grading at Granite Park, it is essential that students are
assessed on a continual and diverse based both formative and summative. In the
history realm students need to be able to think about the facts and events in a
chronological order as well as analysis and synthesize the information.
Chronological thinking assessments are done through the formative assessments,
while the analysis and synthesizing assessments will be done through summative
assessments.