Assessment plan
US History I is a required class for 8th grade students that is taught every other day. The average class size is 30 students. Most classes have an equal number of male and female students. More than half the students in this school are mainstreamed ELLs. In this school the honors and special education students both attend the regular US History I. In each class up to half the students may be honors students, except in the ESL classes, the ESL classes have no honors students. The number of special education students varies. Periods 5A and 5B are for ESL students that are not ready to be mainstreamed. In summation, the majority the students are ELLs, and classes contain both honors and special education students.
Because of the varying levels of language ability and learning ability assessment can be complicated. For formative assessments, each class will begin with knowledge checks. Students will review older vocab and content from the previous day. About every other week, exit tickets will be used. The exit tickets will require the mainstreamed students to write a paragraph, using a writing prompt. ELLs will complete sentences using a prompt. Once a month students will have notebook checks to make sure they are keeping up with their notes, vocab, and in class assignments. Students will also complete concept maps, but more on that below.
For Summative assessments students will be given a choice between a traditional test or a concept map. Tests and large concept maps will be completed at the end of each unit. Tests will take the form of multiple choice, matching, and short paragraph free responses. All students will be allowed to complete assessments orally, but they must make arrangements in advance. The Two ESL classes will be allowed to use their Chromebooks to complete assessments.
Concept maps will play a large part of the curriculum. Throughout lectures, students will collect ID terms. Every two weeks, the ID terms for the last two weeks will be used to make a small concept map, like the one below. Students must explain the connections they are making between the ID terms.
Because of the varying levels of language ability and learning ability assessment can be complicated. For formative assessments, each class will begin with knowledge checks. Students will review older vocab and content from the previous day. About every other week, exit tickets will be used. The exit tickets will require the mainstreamed students to write a paragraph, using a writing prompt. ELLs will complete sentences using a prompt. Once a month students will have notebook checks to make sure they are keeping up with their notes, vocab, and in class assignments. Students will also complete concept maps, but more on that below.
For Summative assessments students will be given a choice between a traditional test or a concept map. Tests and large concept maps will be completed at the end of each unit. Tests will take the form of multiple choice, matching, and short paragraph free responses. All students will be allowed to complete assessments orally, but they must make arrangements in advance. The Two ESL classes will be allowed to use their Chromebooks to complete assessments.
Concept maps will play a large part of the curriculum. Throughout lectures, students will collect ID terms. Every two weeks, the ID terms for the last two weeks will be used to make a small concept map, like the one below. Students must explain the connections they are making between the ID terms.
At the end of the unit, instead of taking a test, students may choose to make a large concept map. This large concept map will use all the ID terms from the entire unit. For this large concept map, students may work with a single partner. They may use a poster board or a computer. Students will be asked to explain some of the connections they have made. These connections will be chosen at random by me. An example of a large concept can be found below. I made this as a project for one of my own history classes.
Data will be collected throughout the formative assessment process in order to determine if content needs to be retaught. Summative data will be used to assess my overall teaching practices. The data collected will be compared with other teachers in my school in order to compare my teaching practices. This is important because I will be teaching students with such a wide range of abilities. If I found that my teaching or assessments were not working I would meet with other teachers and the ESL specialist in order to discuss best practices.