Delaware First in Education. State of Delaware Social Studies Curriculum Framework: Classroom Performance Models
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 431 668 SO 030 699 TITLE New Directions: Delaware First in Education. State of Delaware Social Studies Curriculum Framework: Classroom Performance Models. Volume Two. INSTITUTION Delaware State Dept. of Public Instruction, Dover. PUB DATE 1995-08-00 NOTE 279p.; For Volume One, see SO 030 698. AVAILABLE FROM Delaware Department of Public Instruction, P.O. Box 1402, Dover, DE 19903; Tel: 302-739-4604. PUB TYPE Guides Classroom Teacher (052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC12 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Academic Standards; Elementary Secondary Education; *Performance Based Assessment; *Public Schools; *Social Studies; State Curriculum Guides; *State Standards; Student Educational Objectives; *Student Evaluation IDENTIFIERS *Delaware ABSTRACT A sample of five performance tasks developed to assess student progress toward meeting the content standards are given in this continuation of the social studies framework for the state of Delaware. The sample tasks provide teachers with insight into the types of performances and applications of knowledge that should be expected of students at various levels of schooling. Optional lessons and activities are used to prepare students for the assessment. A "Resources for Teachers" section contains geography sources, Delaware State Museums, and information about Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship (CEEE) .The guide's assessment supplement is constructed on the idea that teachers understand that no single type of assessment serves all purposes, and all assessments have strengths and weaknesses. (BT) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** ks--* New Directions Delaware First In Education State of Delaware Social Studies Curriculum Framework Volume Two: Classroom Performance Models U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDU ATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS CENTER (ERIC) BEEN GRANTED BY This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Alj_310_,..1.rr_vz" August, 1995 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Points of view or opinions stated in this INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. 1 BEST COPY AVAILABLE Table of Contents for Supplement Introduction to Performance Assessment K-3 TASKS Introductory Essay "Primary Teachers Working Together" iv-v Progressville Task A-1 - A-20 Scoring Commentary and Student Work A-21 - A-23 Clues You Can Use B-1 - B-29 Student Work and Scoring Comtnentary B-30 - B-32 Clues You Can Use Transparencies BT-1 - BT-8 4-5 TASK Sharing Our Heritage: Students Explore Historical Evidence vi Relative to Rodney Task C-1 - C-37 Student Work and Scoring Commentary C-15 - C-18 6-8 TASK Students Encounter the Past vii - viii Underground Railroad D-1 D-87 Student Work and Rubric DSW-1 - DSW-20 9-10 TASK Hurricane Task E-1 E-39 Resources for Teachers Geography Sources ix Delaware State Museums x Center for Economic Education & Entrepreneurship xi This section of the Social Studies Framework includes a sampler of five performance tasks. The tasks included here are only examples of a wide range of tasks developed by the commission and other Delaware teachers to assess student progress toward meeting the content standards. The commission believes that these tasks will provide teachers with some insight into the types of performances and applications of knowledge which should be expected of students at various levels of schooling. Several of these tasks appear with a series of optional lessons or activities which might be used to prepare students for the assessment. Each of these includes a scoring tool called a rubric which can be used for grading the student work. To help teachers use the rubrics more effectively, examples of student work have been provided at each performance level. To give teachers more insight into the process of developing performance tasks, we have included sections which recount the experiences of the teachers who created, developed, and piloted them. These tasks should be seen as examples of the types of assessments teachers can use in their classrooms to help students achieve at higher levels, and also to prepare them for success on the Comprehensive Assessment System which is being developed around the content standards. There are many more tasks in various stages of completion, which will be made available to teachers through various means during the coming months. During the year following publication of this framework, district teams and committees will be working to evaluate their programs and to identify or develop units and assessments which will lead to student success. We encourage these efforts, and hope that such material will be shared freely around the state. In this manner performance assessment will be able to take its place among the tools available to all Delaware teachers. 4 Primary Teachers Working Together Teaching can sometimes be a solitary job. Planning lessons, locating resources, grading student work, coordinating the many activities of the busy classroom are all activities the primary teacher usually does alone or with very little opportunity to collaborate with others. Yet when teachers have time to talk about their expectations, about effective teaching methods, and about innovative ways to involve students in learning, teachers benefit and so do their students. The development of these tasks provided the opportunity for a meaningful collaboration among teachers. Willie Gotch and Charlotte Hughes, both elementary teachers on the Social Studies Commission, began the development of a task to gauge student achievement in social studies. They were assisted by Bonnie Meszaros from the Center for Economic Education. The group was interested in building a task which would address economics standards. However, elementary teachers know that it is vital to make the best use of valuable student learning time. For this reason, it seemed important to integrate instruction and assessment of several of the social studies standards in one unit.The developers also hoped to include activities in the task that would support reading and language arts learning. They did not want the task to rely solely on reading and writing, however, since some young people are very visual learners or learn easiest by listening. The developers chose to build their task around The Little House, a picture book by Virginia Lee Burton. A careful reading of this book revealed that comprehension relied on basic understandings in history, economics, and geography. The students would need to understand story sequence and change over time (History standard one), how economic changes affect the daily choices families must make (Economics standard one), and the different natures of rural, suburban and urban areas (Geography standard three).Additional materials included photo sets of two Delaware towns from the Historical Society of Delaware. and a unit from the Center for Economic Education entitled Economics and You. A task would have little meaning to students or teachers without describing the instruction that would prepare students for the task. The developers outlined a series of lessons to address the needed skills and knowledge. The list of possible activities was long and varied. If all of them had been collected the result would have been a complete unit of study. For the purpose of the framework document, however, the teachers were asked to choose only a few activities which would review or refresh knowledge acquired earlier.They designed the task activities to include a variety of ways that students could "show what they know". Directions for student and teacher and a scoring guide were written for the use of the busy dassroom teacher. Then the task was sent out for pilot in Delaware dassrooms. The teachers who piloted this task took careful notes, made suggestions for revision and improvement, and reviewed student work to develop a shared idea of what level of student performance they should expect. Four rounds of pilot and revision involved twenty-four classroom 5 iv An Introduction to Performance Assessment One of the most exciting ideas resulting from the development of a curriculum framework for the Social Studies revolves around assessment. How will teachers and others determine whether or not students have met the new standards? A key term which appears repeatedly throughout the New Directions initiative is performance assessment. In order to understand the full potential impact of the new content standards, it is important to understand what assessment is, and how performance assessment differs from other methods for evaluating student progress. Teachers already assess student progress in Delaware classrooms every day. Sometimes they do so informally, scanning the room for the student who looks anxious or confused, or who is obviously on the wrong track. At other times the assessment is more formal: quizzes, tests, assigned projects, reports, or papers. The list of possibilities is almost endless.Effective assessment gives teachers a good picture of what should come next. Do the students need to review some or all of the material, perhaps from another angle or using a different approach?