Kathleen Swift
Assessment Creation Project
Part 1
This unit is part of the Social Studies course, and will therefore incorporate topics
such as history, political science/civics, geography, economics, and diversity. These
themes are used in the curriculum throughout the whole year. By reviewing so many
famous Americans, the unit will be able to incorporate all of these topics. It will also help
review the other social studies SOLs on geography/map skills and diversity.
The unit I will be assessing is on famous Americans, specifically the individuals
listed in the third grade, second grade, first grade, and kindergarten SOLs, since the third
grade social studies assessment tests the students on all content covered from
kindergarten through third grade. The assessment also covers a select number of the
vocabulary covered in the unit. Review topics and the other vocabulary terms will be on
formative assessments through worksheets, notes, and passages. The majority of this unit
will be integrated into the Language Arts period, so biographies, autobiographies, and
passages will make up a significant portion of the instruction and formative assessments.
The ILOs listed for the summative assessment will most likely be assessed during these
formative assessments as well, in order to make sure the students are retaining
information.
The majority of the ILOs for this unit talk about specific famous Americans that
the students need to know. This includes SOLs from third grade, second grade, first
grade, and kindergarten. The other two ILOs, on inalienable rights and vocabulary, have
less importance. Some of the vocabulary terms will not be included on this summative
assessment, but will instead be assessed through formative assessments. This will include
mostly worksheets that are given with biographies, autobiographies, or passages. Since
the unit will be integrated into Language Arts, this will make up the majority of the
formative assessments. The other ILOs listed will also be assessed through class
discussions throughout the unit, to make sure the students understand the material and to
see how much the students remember from previous grades. All of these formative
assessments will be used to prepare the students for the summative assessment at the end
of the unit.
The assessment was created for a third grade classroom at D. J. Montague
Elementary School with 20 students, plus one student who joins us for part of the day,
including social studies. There are eleven girls and ten boys. Twelve of the students are
Caucasian, seven are African American, one is Japanese, and one is Japanese and African
American. The classroom is very economically diverse, with some students living in the
high-income, gated communities near the school and others receiving free and reduced
lunches. Some of the students are reading at a first grade level and other towards the end
of fourth grade. We have many students that receive accommodations. Usually some are
pulled out by the Special Education teacher, or receive help within the classroom, but that
does not happen often during social studies. A number of students, usually around six or
seven, have assessments read aloud to them. There is also one ELL student, who speaks
Japanese as her first language.
This test is intended to serve as a summative assessment for the famous
Americans social studies unit. The test is meant to prepare the students for the end of year
assessment created by the district. The test results will be analyzed to ensure that the
students were able to correctly answer the questions for all of the ILOs. If not, the results
will be used to determine if any review and/or retesting is necessary to ensure all students
understand the content.
Part 2
Intended Learning Outcome
Underline the content and circle the word(s) that provides an indication of the
cognitive level(s)
SS 3.11a) Describe the individual rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness; and equality under the law.
SS 3.11b) Identify the contributions of George Washington; Thomas
Jefferson; Abraham Lincoln; Rosa Parks; Thurgood Marshall; Martin Luther
King Jr.; and Cesar Chavez.
SS 3.11d) Describe how people can serve the community, state, and nation.
SS 2.11 Identify George Washington; Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony,
Helen Keller, Jackie Robinson, and Martin Luther King Jr., as Americans
whose contributions improved the lives of other Americans.
SS 1.2 Describe the stories of American leaders and their contributions to our
country, with emphasis on George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham
Lincoln, George Washington Carver, and Eleanor Roosevelt.
SS K.1a) Identify examples of past events in legends, stories, and historical
accounts of Powhatan, Pocahontas, George Washington, Betsy Ross, and
Abraham Lincoln.
Reading 3.4f) Use vocabulary from other content areas.
Content
List the explicit, implied, and conditional
content
(p. 58-59)
Explicit – individual rights to life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness and equality
Implied – Understand the meaning of these
terms and the context/documents they come
from
Conditional – under the law (as opposed to
equality in other contexts)
Explicit – contributions of listed individuals
Implied – know the time periods/movements
that these individuals were associated
with/contributed to
Conditional –
Explicit – how people can serve
Implied – understand what it means to serve in
the three contexts listed
Conditional – community, state, and nation
Explicit – contributions of listed individuals
Implied – know the time periods/movements
that these individuals were associated
with/contributed to
Conditional –
Explicit – contributions of listed individuals
Implied – know the time periods/movements
that these individuals were associated
with/contributed to
Conditional –
Explicit – contributions of listed individuals
Implied – know the time periods/movements
that these individuals were associated
with/contributed to
Conditional –
Explicit – use vocabulary words in context
Implied – know definition of words
Conditional –
Cognitive Level on
Blooms’ Taxonomy
Provide the cognitive
level(s) in terms of Bloom’s
Taxonomy (p. 61)
Comprehension
Knowledge and
Comprehension
Comprehension
Knowledge and
Comprehension
Knowledge and
Comprehension
Knowledge and
Comprehension
Knowledge and
Comprehension
Table of Specifications:
Content
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Knowledge
SS 3.11a) Describe the individual rights to life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness; and equality under the law. (L)
Comprehension
Application
Analysis
X
19
SS 3.11b) Identify the contributions of George
Washington; Thomas Jefferson; Abraham Lincoln; Rosa
Parks; Thurgood Marshall; Martin Luther King Jr.; and
Cesar Chavez. (H)
X
15, 16, 18,
21, 23
X
9
13
24
SS 2.11 Identify George Washington; Abraham Lincoln,
Susan B. Anthony, Helen Keller, Jackie Robinson, and
Martin Luther King Jr., as Americans whose contributions
improved the lives of other Americans. (H)
X
16, 18, 20,
22, 23
x
14
24
SS 1.2 Describe the stories of American leaders and their
contributions to our country, with emphasis on George
Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln,
George Washington Carver, and Eleanor Roosevelt. (H)
X
16, 18, 23
X
8, 10, 17
24
SS K.1a) Identify examples of past events in legends,
stories, and historical accounts of Powhatan, Pocahontas,
George Washington, Betsy Ross, and Abraham Lincoln.
(H)
X
6, 16, 18, 23
X
7, 11
24
Reading 3.4f) Use vocabulary from other content areas.
(M)
X
1-5, 12
X
19
Synthesis
Evaluation
Note on table of specifications: Many questions are listed for more than one ILO, since they are
on individuals that are listed in multiple SOLs. Also, I listed 20-23 as knowledge, but I believe it
is on the border with comprehension, and could be listed in either.
The table of specifications shows that the four ILOs listed with high importance, all have
about the same number of questions. Every individual listed in these ILOs are tested with at least
one question, with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln represented in more than one
question, since they were listed in all four ILOs. The questions are based off of the curriculum
framework for each of the SOLs, which also helps ensure the face value of the test.
The test will be given at the students’ desks with “offices,” which keep the students’ from
seeing others’ papers. A few students will be taken outside the classroom to a table in the hall,
with their offices, to have the test read aloud to them. This ensures that the assessment will be
testing the students’ knowledge of the topic, and not their reading ability.
I believe the content validity is high for this assessment. Looking at the table of
specifications, the test questions line up closely with the ILOs. Each of the individuals listed in
the SOLs is included at least once, and the individuals listed multiple times, like George
Washington and Abraham Lincoln, have more than one question. Many questions are listed on
the table of specifications more than once, since these questions fit into more than one category
(since the many individuals were included in more than one SOL). In addition, almost all of the
questions line up with the intended cognitive level for the ILOs. Since the third grade social
studies assessment mostly assesses the students at the knowledge and comprehension level for
these ILOs, that is where they were mapped on the table of specifications. However, a few
questions at higher cognitive levels were included to ensure the students had an understanding
above the surface level of the content.
For questions 1-5, I chose matching, since the students only needed to be able to recall
the definition for the words. This was a quick way to assess this content at the correct cognitive
level, and leave more time for the other test questions that would take up more of the student’s
time. Question 6 is a supply and response question that asks the students to identify the
individual in the picture, which is taken from the study guide. The students discuss the varying
images of Pocahontas in class. While this question was an original creation, it was included at
the suggestion of my cooperating teacher.
Questions 7 through 19 are multiple choice. Since the students are not being tested at the
highest cognitive levels for this content, multiple choice was an excellent format for testing the
students on a wide variety of individuals quickly. This is also the format used for most of the
testing the students take, so I included it to help with test preparation. The inclusion of pictures
in 11 and 14 was also meant to help prepare the students for these types of questions on
standardized tests, while also incorporating questions that required slightly higher cognitive
levels and thinking strategies. Questions 10 and 17 ask the students to circle more than one
correct answer, and are meant to help prepare the students for the technology enhanced items on
the standardized tests, which often ask the students to follow similar instructions. The grey bars
at the top of these questions are similar to the instructions used on the standardized tests, and are
included to help alert the students to the change in instructions. They are included within the
other multiple-choice questions, instead of separated into their own category, since they will be
dispersed randomly in the questions on the standardized tests.
The fill in the blank questions are meant to ensure that the students can match the famous
Americans to their descriptions/accomplishments without the aide of selected choices. They are
not meant to test at a higher cognitive level, but are instead assessing the students’ ability to
recall the facts about these famous individuals. The final question does ask the students to
analyze the information they know about George Washington, and determine why he was called
the father of our country. While the students will have learned all of the information needed for
this question in class, they will not have been asked to answer this specific question. While many
answers will be accepted, it does ask the students to think about the information at a higher
cognitive level. Since George Washington is discussed in all four grade levels, I thought it was
appropriate to include a question on Washington at a higher cognitive level, even if it was not
one of the cognitive levels marked on the table of specifications.
Original test questions: 1-10, 12, 13, 15, 17, 19-24
Test questions taken from a test provided by the cooperating teacher: 11, 14, 16, 18 (while these
questions were not created by me, I did change some of the response items in order to improve
their reliability and validity)
I tried to construct the test following the same format that the students have seen before.
This will ensure that the students are not confused by the directions, or encounter a test question
that they are unfamiliar with and do not understand. I am concerned about the reliability of the
questions that ask the students to circle more than one answer. Even though the students have
been doing these questions since the beginning of the year, there are always one or two students
on each test that do not follow the directions correctly. However, I feel that it is important to
keep these questions in the test to help prepare the students for the standardized tests at the end
of the year. I am also concerned that the directions for questions 6 an 7 may be confusing, and
the students may not understand that the woman in question 7 refers to the answer of question 6.
I attempted to reduce my own bias by using a lot of the phrasing from the SOL
framework. This ensured that I was testing the students on what they would be tested on later,
and reduced any bias that would come from my phrasing. I also used similar language on the
study guide sent home with the students to make sure they were familiar with the language used
in the test. I also had two colleagues and my cooperating teacher review the test to improve the
reliability and validity.
Having the test read aloud to certain students and giving the students a quiet environment
that they are familiar with will help reduce the reliability issues associated with the assessment
administration. The test will also be graded based on the key/rubric below, which will help
reduce the reliability issues with item analysis.
Since the assessment is based off of the information from the SOL curriculum
framework, I am hoping that it has a high predictive validity for the third grade district test at the
end of the year. The test also uses similar directions as the test at the end of the year will, which
will hopefully help with the predictive reliability. The largest caution about the predictive
validity of the test is that there are still about two months between the test and the end of the year
assessment, so the students could forget a lot of what they had learned by then.
Since most of the ILOs had about the same weight in importance, each of the questions
on the test is worth one point, except the last. The last question is worth two points since it asks
the students to list two facts about George Washington. There are only five questions, worth five
points all-together, on the vocabulary, since that ILO has the lowest importance. The test will be
graded based on the answer key/rubric listed below. The rubric for each of the supply-response
items are listed in the answer key.
The assessment will be used as a test grade for the unit. This means that it will be
weighted the same as all of the other end of unit tests in all other subjects. The test will be
weighted higher than all of the other grades for the unit, since it is a summative assessment for
all of the content in the unit. In the event that I decide the students need to be retaught some or
all of the content, they will have the opportunity to make back some of the points through test
corrections or by retaking the test.
Part 3:
The test is attached separately as a pdf to ensure the formatting is correct.
Answer key:
1. A – Civil rights
2. D – Freedom
3. F – Resolve
4. B – Contribution
5. C – Equality
6. Pocahontas (other spellings accepted, as long as the teacher can tell what the intended
answer was)
7. A – Powhatan
8. D – Volunteering for many organizations
9. D – Thomas Jefferson
10. B, C, and D
11. C
12. A – True
13. C – They both fought for equal rights for minority groups
14. D – Susan B. Anthony
15. D – Thurgood Marshall
16. C – George Washington
17. B, C, and D
18. A – Abraham Lincoln
19. B – False
20. Jackie Robinson (also accept Robinson, ½ point for Jackie), other spellings accepted, as
long as the teacher can tell what the intended answer was
21. Rosa Parks (also accept Parks, ½ point for Rosa), other spellings accepted, as long as the
teacher can tell what the intended answer was
22. Hellen Keller (also accept Keller, ½ point for Hellen), other spellings accepted, as long as
the teacher can tell what the intended answer was
23. Abraham Lincoln (also accept Lincoln, ½ point for Abraham), other spellings accepted,
as long as the teacher can tell what the intended answer was
24. Accepted answers: He was the 1st president of the new nation; worked under the new
republican form of government; he helped put the basic principles into practice for the
new nation; he was a brave leader of soldiers; he led the fight for freedom from England
(1 point for each answer is given, max of 2 points)