Ancient China Unit Assessment. Sarah E. George. College of William and Mary. CRIN 550/EDUC 340, Dr. Jennifer Hindman

Transcription

1 1 Ancient China Unit Assessment Sarah E. George College of William and Mary CRIN 550/EDUC 340, Dr. Jennifer Hindman

2 2 Overview and Description Through a course of a year students are given many opportunities to learn about cultures, places, landforms, important figures, inventions, and events through vast topics that are covered through different social studies units. Social studies is an important time for students in order for them to learn and develop an appreciation for the things, people and places around them. In second grade the students learn a wide variety of historical events, people, and places. It is during this time that the students are able to learn about their country, the United States, by studying the Lakota, Powhatan, and Pueblo, and also have the opportunity to discover other countries and their importance to the Western culture such as Egypt and China. The major goal for the course of a year is to have the students have a better understanding of how history has molded and shaped the world as it is today. The specific unit that is being assessed by the teacher for the subject of social studies is Ancient China. The assessment that the teacher has created for the unit on Ancient China is to help students have a better understanding for other ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and how they have influenced much of the western world as it is today. The students will learn about Ancient China and how its contributions have influenced the present world through inventions, architecture, written language and even our calendar. The students are shown through many different pictures, artifacts, documents, and videos just how important the history of Ancient China has been and the influences that it has had on America. Through the social studies curriculum framework, which is given by the Virginia Department of Education, there are certain intended learning outcomes (ILO) that are addressed and assessed for students in second grade on Ancient China. It is important to know what these

3 3 are in order to understand why and how the students will be tested on the information. The ILOs that are being assessed are: 2.1 The student will explain how the contributions of ancient China have influenced the present world in terms of architecture, inventions, the calendar, and written language. 2.4 The student will develop map skills by a) locating China, on world maps; b) understanding the relationship between the environment and the culture of ancient China. Gather, classify, and interpret information (Essential Skill 2.1 & 2.4), Locate and use information from print and non-print sources (Essential Skill 2.1 & 2.4), Collect, classify, and interpret information (Essential Skills 2.1 & 2.4). Locate regions on maps and globes (Essential Skill 2.4). The above listed ILOs that are going to be assessed during this unit are not all going to be assessed through the end of the unit test. Some of the essential skills that are intended for the students to learn throughout the course are unable to be assessed through strictly paper and pencil. So the students will be assessed through other means throughout the unit through formative assessment such as thumbs up, thumbs down, white boards, worksheets, and the teacher observing the students through guided practice. Through the formative and summative assessments (unit test) given throughout the unit on Ancient China the teacher will be able to get a complete idea on what the students have learned about the importance of Ancient China and its contributions to the present world. All of the assessments that occur during the unit are essential in providing the teacher with the whole picture of how the students are able to learn and what information they retain. The characteristics of the classroom and school that the assessment is going to be given played a huge role in how the information and assessment where created. The school is in James City County, Virginia, and was established about five years ago; because of this the school is relatively young and has a lot to offer in terms of technology, space, and resources. This effected how some of the lessons were created and presented to the class that were able to enhance the

4 4 learning and types of learning that there able to be accommodated throughout the unit process. The students in the classroom have a narrow range when it comes to diversity of economic status. Only a handle of students are on free or reduced lunch, the rest come from moderate middle class families. All of the students in the class are also at or above grade level for reading, which was helpful when creating the test and the kind of vocabulary that was able to be used. Also the students in the classroom all have personalities that demonstrate positive behavior towards different cultures. There are two students in the class that come from an Asian family; three that are African-American and the rest are Caucasian. One of the students is an ESL student, how the student does read on grade level. All of these characteristics of the school and students had an effect on how the assessment was created and presented to the group. The teacher made sure that the directions, pictures, vocabulary on the assessment were appropriate for all of the students in the class. The assessments purpose is to make sure that the students understand where China is in relation to the United States, how the inventions from Ancient China have influenced the present world they live in, and the importance of China as a culture and community. The test was designed to assess the students based on material that covers all of the above ILOs as well as give the students a chance to learn about a community of people who have developed and influenced the present world.

5 5 Design Elements Unpacking the Curriculum (ILOs) Intended Learning Outcome Grade: 2 nd Content Area: History SOL: 2.1 & 2.4 STANDARD 2.1 The student will explain how the contributions of ancient China have influenced the present world in terms of architecture, inventions, the calendar, and written language. STANDARD 2.4 The student will develop map skills by a) locating the United States, China, and Egypt on world maps; b) understanding the relationship between the environment and the culture of ancient China and Egypt Locate and use information from print and non-print sources. (Essential Skill 2.1 & 2.4) Content Explicit contributions of ancient China have influenced the present world in terms of architecture, inventions, the calendar, and written language Implied what is ancient China, how is architecture, inventions, calendar, and written language defined, what is the time frame of ancient China? Conditional None Explicit China on world maps and the relationship between the environment and the culture of ancient China. Implied map skills, knowing what China is, what an environment and culture is, how to create or understand a relationship between culture and environment, Conditional None Explicit information from print and non-print sources Implied How is the information found and used Cognitive Level on Blooms Taxonomy Comprehension Synthesis (Develop) Knowledge (Locate) Comprehension (Understand) Knowledge (Locate) Application (Use)

6 6 Gather, classify, and interpret information. (Essential Skill 2.1 & 2.4) Use resource materials. (Essential Skill 2.1 & 2.4) Collect, organize, and record information. (Essential Skill 2.1 & 2.4) connected to China? How do we find information, what is the definition of information, what are examples of print and nonprint sources Conditional None Explicit information from numerous sources Implied Students know what is meant by information and what information is deemed reliable, how do you gather information, what are ways to classify information, how does interpreting information effect the way you view the material Conditional None Explicit Resource materials Implied What is a resource, what are different types of resources, how do you find resources, what is the validity and the reliability of a resource. Conditional None Explicit information from different sources Implied how to collect, organize, and record information in a reliable and proper manner, what are different ways to collect, organize and record information Application (Gather and Classify) Analysis (Interpret) Application Knowledge (Collect and Organize) Application (Record and Comprehension)

7 7 Locate regions on maps and globes. (Essential Skill 2.4) Conditional None Explicit regions on maps and globes Implied what are a map and globe, how to locate a region, what is a region Conditional None Knowledge

8 8 Table of Specifications Content STANDARD 2.1 The student will explain how the contributions of ancient China have influenced the present world in terms of architecture, inventions, the calendar, and written language. Bloom s Taxonomy Knowledge Comprehension Application Analysis Synthesis Evaluation S 1, 10, 11, 12, 16 STANDARD 2.4 The student will develop map skills by a) locating the United States, China, and Egypt on world maps; M S M b) understanding the relationship between the environment and the culture of ancient China and Egypt Locate and use information from print and nonprint sources. (Essential Skill 2.1 & 2.4) 13,9 8, 7, 5 4,15 L L 3 17

9 9 Gather, classify, and interpret information. (Essential Skill 2.1 & 2.4) M 6,18 L 19 Locate regions on maps and globes. (Essential Skill 2.4) S Collect, organize, and record information. (Essential Skill 2.1 & 2.4) (Will not assess formally, will assess the students through a series of maps, data, and information collected by the teacher and students together during the unit). Use resource materials. (Essential Skill 2.1 & 2.4) (Will not assess formally, will assess the students through a series of maps, data, and information collected by the teacher and students together during the unit). 2, 14

10 10 Construct Validity When it comes to construct validity of the assessment that has been created on Ancient China the teacher thought about each and every questions and how it pretended to the ILOs that were chosen at the beginning of the unit. All of the questions that were developed for the creation of the assessment where chosen in order to test the student on knowledge acquired throughout the unit. The questions cover most of the essential skills listed from the ILOs. The essential skills that were not covered during the assessment portion of the unit where addressed throughout the course of the unit through formative assessment. Content Validity The assessment has a moderate content validity. The reason that the assessment is moderate instead of strong is because the ILOs that are being assessed were difficult to develop test questions for because so many of the essential skills were skills that could not be done through summative assessment. This cause the teacher to have to develop many questions that revolved around the actual SOL stated for 2.1 and 2.4 and not as much for the essential skills that were listed with each SOL. However, the questions that were asked and used during the assessment where used to cover a wide range of abilities and knowledge based ideas. For this reason the content that was chosen for the assessment has a strong validity. The questions are straight forward and leave little questioning or confusion to the reader. Rationale for Assessment The rationale that the teacher had for the selection of choices that were made when creating this assessment were based upon the personality and learning styles of the students. The

11 11 students in the class that the assignment was developed for are all excellent readers; because of this the teacher was able to create a test that had more words, definitions, and longer directions. The test has a wide variety of questions and the way they are presented. It consists of multiple choice, fill in the blank, true/false, short answer, matching, and listing. The rationale behind this was to create a test that assessed all different types of learning styles. Some students like multiple choice questions while others do better with supply response questions. Some of the questions were taken from a previous test given by the student teachers cooperating teacher. The questions that were selected from a previous assessment were questions 1-4 and 9-12, all of the other questions are original to the student teacher. Potential Threats of Reliability When it comes to the reliability of the assessment there are a lot of positives. One area of strength occurs within the eighteenth question. It is a strong question in the sense of its reliability because SOL 2.1 states that the students should explain the importance and influence that inventions from Ancient China have in terms of inventions. By having the students first list the five most important inventions from Ancient China the teacher will assess their knowledge on whether or not they remembered the important inventions from China. Then by asking them to choose one of the items from their list and explain why it is important and the influence that it had it allows the teacher to assess their comprehension of the knowledge. However there are some potential threats of reliability as well. The question about the major rivers found in China has potential for being unreliable because of the answers that are listed. It was hard for the teacher to come up with rivers that sounded like they could be correct. This question does have weakness in the reliability of the answers that they students have to choose from and could use some help. Also the assessment does have some potential threats of the reliability because

12 12 the material that is being covered on the unit test is very board and does not focus just on one main concept. It is about an entire culture and region. Potential for Cautions of Validity The teacher tried to make sure that the assessment did not have many potential threats of validity by giving the students the opportunity to study the material that was going to be covered on the test through a study guide. An example of a question that is moderate when it comes to validity it the eighteenth question. This is because there is a wide range of answers that the students could produce that would be a valid answer. For the rest of the test there are areas of potential cautions of validity because of the material that is being covered by the test. The students are not used to taking tests in this manner. Most of the tests that they have taken in the past are strictly matching or multiple choice. They have done little with writing a short answer question to a prompt. Also a caution for this assessment is the fact that there are only 19 questions on the test. The test is graded out of 31 points because each answer given in all of the sections is worth one point but the length of the test is shorter than most unit tests. This could cause the students to have an unfair advantage with the grading because they can only miss a few questions in order to receive an A. Scoring and Grading Procedures Rubric for Short Answer Part of the Question: Exceeds Expectations Meets Expectations Below Expectations Total Complete Sentences Invention Have more than two complete sentences (capital letter, correct punctuation mark) that are detailed and make sense. (3pts.) Picks a correct important invention from China not Have two complete sentences (capital letter, correct punctuation mark) that are detailed and make sense. (2pts.) Picks a correct important invention Has one complete sentence and/or has sentence construction errors. (max. 1pt.) Does not pick an important invention

13 13 Importance/ Influence discussed fully in class (i.e. paper or gunpowder) (1pt.) Describes the importance/influence of the invention from China in great detail. (2pts.) from China discussed in class (i.e., Kite, Fireworks, Silk, Compass, or Bronze). (1pt.) Describes the importance/influence of the invention from China in detail (1pt.) from China. (anything other than the five important inventions, excluding paper and gunpowder) (0pts.) Describes the importance/influence of the invention from China in little detail 0pts. *Note: Student s will not be graded on previous work, neatness, or handwriting capabilities, but solely on the criteria listed above. The teacher will apply the rubric (shown above) to reduce threats to inter-rater-reliability and intro-rater-reliability when grading the short answer part of the assessment. In doing so the teacher will stick to the guidelines set and outlined by the rubric. The teacher believes that the rubric is very straight forward to what she as the teacher will be looking for in the short answers. If two different scorers where to use this rubric and grade the same set of papers she believes that the scores would be very close if not the same. The rubric gives specific guidelines such as two complete sentences, which are sentences that make sense, have a capital letter and a correct punctuation at the end. Also the rubric indicates specific details that the student must have in order to receive exceeds or meets expectations such as a list of possible inventions and others that fit the requirement for the student to receive extra points. This way the scorer will know what they should be looking for and are able to indicate whether or not the student wrote details about the indicated invention appropriately. All of these are important in order to make sure that the scorer is able to be consistent with the grades given to the individuals. The teacher will apply the rubric to guard against bias by making sure that she looks for the specific things stated on the rubric when going through the tests. The teacher will place a check next to each item that she feel meets the expectations within the rubric as she reads the short answer statements. After she has read the short answer and made the marks necessary she

14 14 will then justify what she has marked and compare it to the rubric. By doing this will make sure that it fits the criteria in order to receive the check, which indicates a point should be received. The teacher will make sure that she checks each students work with an unbiased opinion by checking their short answer based solely on the criteria identified on the rubric. She will not base the student s grade on neatness of handwriting or the name written on the paper. She will be checking for complete sentences and details discussing the inventions and not the grammar or spelling provided by the student. The teacher believes that the rubric that has been chosen to use for this short answer will help her complete the task successfully. When grading the rest of the unit test (shown below), the teacher will use the answer key that is created ahead of time as a way to check the answers that the students provide. The test consists of multiple choice, fill in the blank, true and false, matching, and listing. In order to ensure that all of the students are at an equal advantage the teacher will read the directions with the class as a whole and go through each section to make sure that the class understands what they are being asked to do. The teacher will then allow the students to ask questions if they have any before they begin the assessment. This way all of the students have an equal advantage of hearing what the other students ask and the answers that the teacher provides. The assessment will be scored out of 31 total points, one point for each correct answer given on the test. The teacher will make sure to go through all of the tests carefully when making corrections and grading to ensure that she does not accidently mark the wrong answer. Hopefully by doing all of these steps the scores that the students receive will be reliable.

15 15 Test and Answer Key Name Date Multiple Choice Ancient China Test (SOL 2.1 and 2.4) Circle the letter of the BEST answer for each of the following questions 1. The word ancient means: a. Few years ago b. Billions of years ago c. A long, long time ago (thousands of years) d. A few weeks ago 2. China is located on the continent of? a. Africa b. Asia c. Europe d. North America 3. People of Ancient China adapted to living in their environment by ALL of the following things, except a. Digging ditches to bring water to their crops b. Cutting terraces in the land to help with farming c. Fishing in the rivers d. Cutting down the mountain tops 4. All of the following are examples of landforms found in China except one. Choose the one that is NOT found in China. a. Tropical land with palm trees b. Mountains c. Deserts d. Forests 5. China boarders what ocean? a. Atlantic b. Artic c. Indian d. Pacific

16 16 6. Which monument was built to keep invaders out of China? a. Pyramids b. Sphinx c. Great Wall of China d. Eiffel Tower Fill in the Blank Multiple Choice Directions: Fill in the blanks using the word(s) that BEST complete the sentence by using the multiple choice answers given under to sentence. Circle the letter to your answer. 7. The and are two important and major rivers in China. A.) Red River and Ying-Yang River B.) Nile River and Jordan River C.) Yellow River and Yangtze River D.) Amazon River and Pearl River 8. The largest desert in China is called the. a. Gobi Desert b. Yellow Desert c. Sahara Desert d. Mojave Desert 9. China is similar to Virginia because it. a. is hot and dry all year long b. has four seasons c. is cold and snowy all year long d. is mostly desert 10. The design of buildings of a place is called. a. contributions b. irrigation c. hieroglyphics d. architecture

17 The sloping roof tops of Chinese buildings are called. a. Lakota b. Pagodas c. Shingles d. Pyramids 12. The rulers of Ancient China were called. a. Kings b. Pharaohs c. Emperors d. Lords Matching 13. Directions: Match the word to the definition that fits best with each and write the letter that corresponds next to the word. NOT all definitions will be used. 1. Climate A.) The solid surface of the Earth 2. Land B.) Places that have common (the same) characteristics 3. Environment C.) The beliefs, customs, and way of life of a group of people 4. Culture D.) The design of a building 5. Region E.) Surroundings Answers: 1. F 2. A 3. E 4. C 5. B (D is not used) F.) The kind of weather an area has over a long period of time

18 18 Map Skills 14. Directions: Using the map below, color the area that is the country of China. Then with a black marker label it China. 15. Directions: Using the map with The Great Wall of China shown answer the following question: The Great Wall of China is located of the capital city of Beijing. a. North b. South c. East d. West

19 19 Directions: Circle T for True if you think the statement is correct and F for False if you think the statement is incorrect 16. T/F Contributions are the act of giving or doing something that is helpful in the world. Directions: Fill in the blanks with the BEST word that completes the sentence. 17. The written language of Ancient China was made up of and that allowed them to communicate with one another. Listing Answer: characters and symbols Directions: For the section below write on the lines provided 18. List the five most important inventions that came from Ancient China (1 pt. each) Answers: Compass, Fireworks, Kites, Bronze, Silk Cloth Short Answer 19. Directions: Pick one of the important inventions that came from Ancient China (1 pt.) from your list and explain in your own words its influence to the modern world (1 pt.) in at least two complete sentences (2 pts.). An Acceptable Answer: The compass was an important invention that came from China. It was important because it influenced how people traveled and navigated.