History — literacy (Year 8)
Example short assessment
In the Australian Curriculum, literacy is one of the general capabilities embedded across all
learning areas.
Students become literate as they develop the knowledge and skills they need to access,
understand, analyse and evaluate information, make meaning, express thoughts and emotions,
present ideas and opinions, interact with others and participate in activities at school and in their
lives beyond school.
“Literacy involves students in listening to, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating oral,
print, visual and digital texts, and using and modifying language for different purposes in a range
of contexts.” 1
Assessment technique
Short response
Targeted indicators
Viewing and Reading
VR 8 iii
Use text-processing strategies when viewing and reading, including:
• drawing conclusions
• forming hypotheses
VR 8 iv
Independently view, read and demonstrate understanding of learning area texts by:
•
interpreting and evaluating information
•
identifying supporting evidence from interrelated parts of texts
•
analysing and evaluating the accuracy or reliability of information and sources
Context
This short response provides opportunity to monitor each student’s ability to read two different
texts providing information on the same topic to demonstrate the identified literacy indicators.
This assessment could be linked to Australian Curriculum content:
Historical Knowledge and Understanding — Expanding Contacts
Living conditions and religious beliefs in the 14th century, including life expectancy, medical
knowledge and beliefs about the power of God (ACDSEH015)
1
Australian Curriculum v3. Accessed 1 May 2012.
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities/Literacy/Introduction/Introduction
Historical Skills — Perspectives and interpretations
Identify and describe points of view, attitudes and values in primary and secondary sources
(ACHHS155)
Teacher information
This assessment is an example of one way that teachers may gather evidence of a student’s
ability to demonstrate the highlighted sections of the targeted indicators.
This assessment may be differentiated by:
• having further discussion to allow some students to clarify and question
• using print, online, written, visual or multimodal texts
• providing extra time for some students who are reluctant readers and need adjusted time.
Implementation
Modelling
Teachers should lead students in focused discussions of comprehension strategies listed in the
target indicators using two texts on the same topic.
Gathering evidence
Students:
• read the texts about the Black Death (see Texts for comprehension)
• answer the questions to:
-
draw conclusions
-
interpret information
-
identify supporting evidence
-
analyse and evaluate the accuracy or reliability of information and sources.
Evidence of student achievement of each indicator can be recorded in a Class monitoring record
(provided). Teachers analyse the evidence to inform decisions about ongoing literacy teaching
and learning.
An example student response (see Appendix: Sample student response) is provided.
2 | History — literacy (Year 8)
Example short assessment
Texts for comprehension
Source 1
I am overwhelmed, I can’t go on! Everywhere one turns there is death and bitterness to be described.
The hand of the Almighty strikes repeatedly, to greater and greater effect. The terrible judgment
gains in power as time goes by.
What shall we do? Kind Jesus, receive the souls of the dead, avert your gaze from our sins and blot
out all our iniquities. We know that whatever we suffer is the just reward of our sins.
Now therefore, when the Lord is enraged, embrace acts of penance, so that you do not stray from
the right path and perish.
Reference:
Quote from Gabriele de Mussis, a Piacenzan chronicler, Historia de Morbo, in Life During the Black
Death (Way People Live), John M. Dunn, 2000, Lucent Books, San Diego, USA.
Source 2
Plague is carried by rodents like rats and squirrels, but it is transmitted to humans by the fleas who
live on them. A flea, having ingested plague-infected blood from its host, can live for as much as a
month away from that host before he needs to find another warm body to live on. When a bloodengorged flea attempts to draw blood from another victim, it invariably injects into that victim some of
the blood already within it. If the injected blood contains the bacterium yersinia pestis, the result is
Bubonic Plague. Fleas were, alas, such a part of everyday life that no one noticed them much. In this
invisible manner the plague spread from rat to human and to cat and dog, as well.
Image source: Rat Vector Image, a Creative Commons: Attribution
2.0 Generic licensed photo from Vectorportal’s Flickr stream,
accessed 13 July 2011.
Reference:
Snell, Melissa, Death Defined, About.com. Medieval History,
<http://historymedren.about.com/od/theblackdeath/a/death_defined.htm> accessed 6 April 2011.
Queensland Studies Authority May 2012 | 3
Questions
1.
2.
3.
Read Source 1 and use the information to answer the questions. Provide evidence from
the text to justify your responses.
a.
What is the situation described by Gabriele de Mussis?
b.
What does he believe caused the Black Death?
Read Source 2 and use the information to answer the questions. Provide evidence from
the text to justify your responses.
a.
What is the situation described by Melissa Snell?
b.
What does she believe caused the Black Death?
c.
Read the following sentence from Source 2: Plague is carried by rodents like rats
and squirrels, but it is transmitted to humans by the fleas that live on them. Who
does “them” refer to? Rewrite this sentence to make the meaning clear.
Complete the table to compare the two texts.
Question
Source 1
Why do you think the
author wrote this text?
What can you infer
from the text about the
time when the author
lived?
Which source of
information is the most
accurate to describe
what was happening
during the time of the
Black Death?
4 | History — literacy (Year 8)
Example short assessment
Source 2
Class monitoring record
Indicators
Teacher:
Term:
Class:
VR 8 iii
• Use text-processing strategies when
viewing and reading, including:
• drawing conclusions
• forming hypotheses
VR 8 iv
Independently view, read and
demonstrate understanding of learning
area texts by:
• interpreting and evaluating
information identifying supporting
evidence from interrelated parts of
texts
• analysing and evaluating the
accuracy or reliability of information
and sources
Student 1
Student 2
Student 3
Student 4
Student 5
Student 6
Student 7
Student 8
Student 9
Student 10
Queensland Studies Authority May 2012 | 5
Appendix: Sample student response
1.
Read Source 1 and use the information to answer the questions. Provide
evidence from the text to justify your responses.
a.
What is the situation described by Gabriele de Mussis?
The author is describing his personal experiences of the Black Death.
He describes a situation where there is total devastation. He refers
to “death and bitterness” and the magnitude of the devastation by
saying “to greater and greater effect”. He mentions “the dead” when he
talks about their souls.
b.
What does he believe caused the Black Death?
He believes the Black Death is a punishment from God. He says, “We
know that whatever we suffer is the just reward for our sins.”
2.
Interpreting
information and
identifying
evidence from
interrelated parts
of the text
Interpreting
information and
identifying
evidence from the
text
Read Source 2 and use the information to answer the questions. Provide
evidence from the text to justify your responses.
a.
What is the situation described by Melissa Snell?
The author gives a scientific explanation about how the disease is
spread.
b.
What does she believe caused the Black Death?
Use a range of
text-processing
strategies when
viewing and
reading including
drawing
conclusions
She believes that fleas have spread the disease by transmitting blood
from rats and squirrels to humans.
c.
Read the following sentence from Source 2: Plague is carried by
rodents like rats and squirrels, but it is transmitted to humans by the
fleas that live on them. Who does “them” refer to? Rewrite this
sentence to make the meaning clear.
“Them” could be referring to rodents like rats and squirrels or to
humans, but it could be referring to both. The meaning would be
clearer if this were written as two sentences instead of one. “Plague is
carried by rodents like rats and squirrels. It is transmitted to humans by
fleas that live on both humans and rodents”.
6 | History — literacy (Year 8)
Example short assessment
Interpret word and
word groups that
represent ideas
3.
Complete the table to compare the two texts.
Question
Source 1
Source 2
Why do you think the
author wrote this text?
To describe the terrible
impact of the Black
Death and to remind
people not to stray from
the right path.
To describe the causes
of the Black Death.
What can you infer
from the text about the
time when the author
lived?
The text was written
when the plague was
as its worst. The author
reflects a religious
society where people
believed bad things
happened as a
punishment for sins.
This text is written after
scientific inventions and
discoveries allowed
society to study and
identify the causes of
diseases. The author
reflects a society where
knowledge and
understanding are
valued.
Which source of
information is the most
accurate to describe
what was happening
during the time of the
Black Death?
This author should be
accurate because it is
from a book about the
Black Death. The
reference says that the
information is a quote
from the author who
was a chronicler living
during that time. What
he says about why
people were catching
the disease may not be
right but it was the only
explanation he had at
the time.
This author might be
accurate about the
history and science of
the Black Death but it is
someone who writes on
a history website. We
need to know that this
is a reliable website.
This author would not
have lived during the
time of the Black
Death.
Use a range of textprocessing strategies
when viewing and
reading including
interpreting
information, drawing
conclusions,
analysing and
evaluating the
accuracy or reliability
of sources
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