Assessment System                for 5th Grade Social Studies

Margie Adkins


Beginning Assessment List  (Stage 1)
Revised Assessment List
Social Studies Assessment List
Goals and Objectives
Assessment Tools

Stage 1:  I began this project by listing all the different types of assessments I use in my 5th grade class and revising the list to categorize the various assessments.

Stage 2:  I narrowed the list down to just the assessments I use for Social Studies.  Then I listed all the goals and objectives for the 5th grade Social Studies curriculum.  These goals and objectives are aligned with and include all of the Springfield School District's standards and benchmarks for 5th grade Social Studies.  I also created a list of assessment tools that I plan to use throughout this school year for each of the various units I will teach.  My plan is to modify or refine these assessment tools as needed to make sure that each one will validly and reliably assess the given objectives for each of my students, regardless of disabilities or limitations.

Stage 3:  I added modifications used for students with disabilities to the Social Studies Assessment list.
I also added to the Assessment Tool list which objectives were being assessed by each tool.  I then created new assessment tools, including a Map Project checklist, an Indian standards rubric, and a Colony Comparison chart.  I linked these assessments as well as assessments I had previously created to the Assessment Tool list.  I still plan to create one more assessment tool and to modify several of the tools I have already created.

Stage 4:  I made a great deal of changes to the assessment tools I had previously created, including completely reworking some of my rubrics and checklists after I had used them in order to make them more user friendly.  My original list of assessment tools didn't align well with the objectives I had listed with the tools.  In some cases, I realized that the objectives I listed didn't accurately reflect what I wanted to assess with those tools.  In those cases I reworked the objectives to more accurately reflect what I was assessing.  In many cases I had to rework the assessment tools to better assess the objectives I had listed for them.  In one instance I omitted an assessment tool altogether because I realized that it served no useful purpose in assessing the objectives.  As a result, I now have assessment tools that are aligned to the abjectives listed for each tool.
    Another major change I made was in the standards rubrics I had created for each of my major units.  When I originally created these rubrucs I was trying to make sure all the objectives I listed for the unit would be covered in some way.  Unfortunately the rubrics I created were simply repetitions of the other assessment tools I use in each unit.  They added nothing and provided no method of assessment.  I did not realize how unclear this all was until my peer evaluator asked what the standards rubric was for.  I then decided to make my standards rubrics an informal assessment tool that would cover all the objectives, including the ones not assessed with the other tools.  I feel that this has added a great deal to my entire assessment system.