Summary
Participants will actively engage in formative assessments that are in lessons on Learn and reflect on how those assessment strategies can be used in their specific content area and with their students.
Essential Question
What is formative assessment and what does it look like in the social studies classroom?
Learning Goals
Explore a variety of strategies that support formative assessment for the social studies classroom
Examine metacognitive strategies for supporting students in their efforts to be self-directed learners
Materials List
Presentation Slides (attached)
Social Studies Practices handout (attached; one per participant)
Note Catcher handout (attached; one per participant)
Tip of the Iceberg handout (attached; one per participant)
CER Template (attached; one per participant)
Formative Assessment Collaborative Slides (attached)
Engage
15 Minute(s)
Using the attached Presentation Slides, display slide 4. Introduce yourself and welcome participants to the content-specific day of the Institute-Formative Assessment in the Social Studies Classroom.
Display slide 5. Share the day’s essential question: What is formative assessment and what does it look like in a social studies classroom?
Display slide 6. Share the learning objectives for the day:
Explore a variety of strategies that support formative assessment for the social studies classroom
Examine metacognitive strategies for supporting students in their efforts to become self-directed learners
Display slide 7. Review the collaborative purposes of formative assessment that participants previously developed on day one of the Institute.
Display slide 8. Review the Social Studies Practices Overview with participants.
Display slide 9. Inform participants that all of the formative assessment strategies covered today are available for free on the K20 Center’s LEARN website. Give each participant a copy of the attached Note Catcher handout and attached Tip of the Iceberg handout.
Display slide 10. Ask participants to write on the Tip of the Iceberg handout what they think special considerations are for using formative assessment in the social studies classroom. Provide time for participants to write their responses. Have participants share their responses with another participant next to them. Ask for volunteers to share their responses.
Tell participants they will have the opportunity to practice using several types of formative assessments applied to social studies content. Direct participants to keep the Tip of the Iceberg handout to use again at the end of the day.
Explore
60 Minute(s)
Display slide 11. Explain the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) assessment strategy to participants.
Move to slide 12 and show the video.
Let participants know that the video is available on YouTube on the K20 Center’s video playlist. Encourage them to share the video with their students when introducing the CER strategy.
Display slide 13. Read the CER prompts used in specific K20 social studies 5E lessons. Pass out the attached CER Template handout to participants. Ask participants to choose one of the statements and practice writing a CER. Participants can use their devices to find evidence for their CER if needed. After providing time for the CER to be written, place participants in groups according to the question they chose. Ask participants to discuss their CER’s with one another and compare their responses.
Bring the group back together and display slide 14. Ask participants to consider how they might use CER in their classes and how this strategy can inform student instruction.
Display slide 15. Share with participants two lessons available on LEARN that use Claim, Evidence, Reasoning. Share the LEARN links with participants and encourage participants to view the lessons on LEARN. Ask participants to discuss the way in which CER was used in the two highlighted lessons. Ask for volunteers to share their thoughts about the use of CER in the lessons.
Display slide 16. Explain the T.A.C.O.S. assessment strategy to participants.
Move to slide 17. Ask participants to use the T.A.C.O.S. strategy to find the meaning of the pictured political cartoon, a cartoon which is used in a K20 5E lesson about Marbury v. Madison. Participants can use the back of their Note Catcher handout to write notes about the cartoon. After participants have analyzed the cartoon, ask them to share their notes with an Elbow Partner. Ask for volunteers to share their summaries of the cartoon.
Display slide 18. Ask participants to discuss how this cartoon in particular formatively assesses students.
Display slide 19. Ask participants to consider how T.A.C.O.S. provides a means for formatively assessing students. Ask participants to share when they might use this strategy. Ask them to explain how it can be used to assess students.
Move to slide 20. Share two lessons on LEARN that use the T.A.C.O.S. strategy. Share the LEARN links and allow time to view the lessons on LEARN. Ask participants to discuss the way T.A.C.O.S. was used in the lesson. Ask for volunteers to share their thoughts about the use of T.A.C.O.S. in the lessons.
Display slide 21. Announce a ten-minute break.
Move to slide 22. Ask participants to think about the formative assessment strategies that have been covered so far. Have them write notes on their Note Catcher handout that details how the strategies were used and how they might use the strategies in their own classrooms.
Display slide 23. Explain the Always, Sometimes, or Never True assessment strategy to participants. Move to slide 24. Have participants read the five listed statements from a K20 5E lesson over the Spiro Mound Builders. Provide time for participants to decide if each statement is always true, sometimes true, or never true. Invite participants to share their thoughts with an Elbow Partner; then ask for a couple of volunteers to share their reasoning on each of the five statements.
Display slide 25. Ask participants to share how this assessment strategy might be used in the classroom. Invite them to explain how it might help understand students’ understanding of content learned.
Move to slide 26. Share two LEARN lessons that use the Always, Sometimes, or Never True strategy. Share the LEARN links with participants and allow time to view the lessons on LEARN. Ask participants to discuss the ways that Always, Sometimes, or Never True is used in the lessons. Ask volunteers to share their thoughts.
Display slide 27. Explain the POMS: Point of Most Significance assessment strategy to participants.
Move to slide 28. Ask participants to consider a POMS as they watch the video, which is from a K20 5E lesson about Ralph Ellison. Click the video link and play the video for participants. Provide time after the video for participants to write down their POMS on the back of their Note Catcher handout handout. Ask participants to share their POMS with an Elbow Partner. Ask volunteers to share their POMS.
Move to slide 29. Ask participants to talk to an Elbow Partner about how POMS can be used in the classroom. Have a group discussion about the ways in which teachers can assess student learning through POMS.
Display slide 30. Share two LEARN lessons that use the POMS strategy. Share the LEARN links with participants and provide time for participants to examine the ways the POMS strategy is used in the lessons. Ask participants to share their thoughts with an Elbow Partner; then ask for volunteers to share their thoughts about using POMS as a formative assessment strategy.
Display slide 31. Recommend that participants add notes to their Note Catcher handout that detail how the two strategies were used and how they can adapt the strategies for use in their own classrooms.
Explain
10 Minute(s)
Display slide 32. Explain the process for selecting a formative assessment strategy for use in the classroom.
Display slide 33. Ask participants to read the quote and discuss with an Elbow Partner. Ask them to consider how the quote can guide participants to choose a formative assessment that will create authentic teaching and learning in the classroom.
Provide time for participant discussion. Ask for volunteers to share their thoughts.
Extend
60 Minute(s)
Display slide 34. Ask participants to select a formative assessment strategy that has been covered today and create an assessment in their content area. Have them add their assessment to the Formative Assessment Collaborative Slides, a template designed for participants to use.
Be sure to explain that after the session, the Collaborative Slides will be available to all participants. Consider grouping participants into subject areas and provide time for them to create their assessments.
Evaluate
10 Minute(s)
Display slide 35. Ask participants to return to the Tip of the Iceberg handout and add everything they have learned about using formative assessment in social studies. Explain that the Tip of the Iceberg strategy was used at the beginning of the session in order to elicit prior knowledge from participants and again at the end of the session to assess learning that has occurred.
This pre- and post-assessment strategy can be adapted for use in the social studies classroom.
Remind participants that all of the formative assessments reviewed today and many lessons in social studies subjects are available on the K20 Center’s LEARN repository.
Research Rationale
Analyzing the current skill level of students in a classroom at any given time and determining the best course of action for ensuring they all meet the target learning goals can be a challenge even for seasoned teachers. The idea of using formative assessment to meet the individual needs of students is not a new topic. In fact, researchers as far back as Benjamin Bloom have shown that, because of a tutor’s ability to pinpoint misconceptions and provide immediate feedback and correctives, one-to-one tutoring is the most effective form of instruction (William, 2011). Despite continued research backing up the claims that formative assessment can enhance student success, teachers continue to struggle in their efforts to use the full array of formative assessment practices available. The question then becomes “What can teachers do to effectively improve and enhance their use of formative assessment in the classroom environment?”
Resources
K20 Center. (2021, September 27). Claim, Evidence, Reasoning [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGOxVIgmGWE
K20 Center. (n.d.). Always, Sometimes, or Never True. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/145
K20 Center. (n.d.). Claim, Evidence, Reasoning (CER). https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/156
K20 Center. (n.d.). Elbow Partners. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/116
K20 Center. (n.d.). Point of Most Significance. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/101
K20 Center. (n.d.). T.A.C.O.S. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/1196
K20 Center. (n.d.). Tip of the Iceberg. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/67
Public Broadcasting Service. (2014, June 5). The Oklahoma News Report. PBS. Retrieved September 27, 2021. https://www.pbs.org/video/onr-ralph-ellison/
Wiliam, D. (2011). What is assessment for learning? Studies in Educational Evaluation, 37(1), 3-14. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2011.03.001
