Social Studies Assessment: Self-Assessment/Reflection

Alaska Department of Education & Early Development

Social Studies Assessment: Self-Assessment/Reflection

SELF-ASSESSMENT/REFLECTION

The Breaking Up-Is-Hard-To-Do lesson outlined on page 44 of the previous chapter contains a critical self-assessment component at the end of the unit, after students have progressed through using an electronic atlas, mapping, researching for specific information and preparing a written structured interview, and videotaping the structured interview with the class as an audience. This self-assessment asks for a variety of responses from the student, from checkoffs to a more extended essay response.

B-R-E-A-K-I-N-G U-P I-S H-A-R-D T-O D-O

SELF-ASSESSMENT

ELECTRONIC ATLAS NAVIGATION

Navigating through the electronic atlas, given the step-by-step directions, was:

easy.

okay, but involved some difficulty.

difficult.

Did navigating through the electronic atlas using a step-by-step process first help when you later needed to use it for research on your own without any steps to follow? Explain in a short paragraph on the back of this form.

MAPPING

Our map (check only one):

was a professional product incorporating the TODALSIGss.

took some effort and seemed effective.

was thrown together at the last minute.

The best part of our map is that it:

STRUCTURED INTERVIEW PREPARATION

My nation was .
My research was (check only one):

accurate.

somewhat accurate.

not accurate.

My partner and I worked cooperatively to answer all of the given questions and to generate some of our own questions. (Circle one.) YES NO

VIDEOTAPING

When we presented our interview during the videotaping, I (circle yes or no for each item)

YES NO read in a strong voice.

YES NO maintained eye contact with the audience

YES NO engaged the audience in my topic.

If we videotape another project, three improvements I would make in my effort are:
1.______________________________________________________________________
2.______________________________________________________________________
3.______________________________________________________________________
If we videotape another project, three improvements I would make in our partnership's effort are:
1.______________________________________________________________________
2.______________________________________________________________________
3.______________________________________________________________________
When we watched the other groups taping and I was a member of the audience, I (check only one):

was quiet and attentive.

was taking notes as instructed.

was working on something else.

was writing notes to a friend.

was not attentive.

On the back of this form, answer at least three of the following questions in succinct, well-written paragraphs.
1. What is it like to speak out loud in front of the class?
2. Does videotaping make presenting harder or easier? Why?
3. Is it easier to present by yourself or with a friend? Why?
4. Based on this experience, do you think you would want to be a journalist or reporter someday? Why or why not?
5. Imagine yourself as a famous reporter. What would your life be like? What would be the most exciting story about which you could report?

OVERALL EFFORT

For this project, I would rate my effort as (check only one):

the best I could do.

better than I usually do.

usual.

less than usual.

poor.

For this project, I would rate the effort of our partnership as (check only one):

____highly cooperative and productive.

____productive and cooperative for the most part.

____ less than productive and cooperative.

____not at all productive and cooperative.

VENN DIAGRAMS, COMPARE/CONTRAST STRUCTURES, MATRICES

BASIC QUESTION	EXPANDED QUESTION	TRAIL OF TEARS	JAPANESE INTERNMENT
Who?	What are/were the names of the individuals or groups of people involved?	Cherokee (one of the Five Civilized Tribes to be moved: Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws, Seminoles)	110,000 Nisei and Issei (Japanese immigrants and their children) and Kibei (native U.S. citizens of Japanese immigrant parents but educated largely in Japan)
Where?	From where and to where did they migrate? What were their hearth and goal areas?	From Southeastern US (primarily NW Georgia, NE Alabama, SE Tennessee, and SW North Carolina) to Indian Territory (Oklahoma)	From the West Coast (WA, OR, CA, and a strip of AZ) to ten internment camps in the Western U.S.
Why?	What were their motivations?	Western Expansion; Indian Removal Act of 1830; forced out by people on the frontier	Racism and reaction to World War II; Executive Order #9066 signed by Roosevelt on 2/19/42
When?	What was the time? Year? Era?	1831-1837	By the summer of 1942
How?	What modes of transportation did they use?	Force-marched	Trains
Obstacles?	What problems were faced?	Disease, exhaustion, heartbreak (1/4 died)	Helplessness and isolation; Lost identity, dignity, privacy
Opportunities?	What opportunities were gained?		Some worked outside and others volunteered for military service
Tools?	What were their aides to navigation?
Routes?	What way did they go? What places were visited in between the departure and destination points?	Through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri
Distance?	What was the actual linear distance covered? What was the psychic distance (amount of cultural change)?	Approximately 800 miles	Varied; some 600-800 miles
Baggage?	What things did they take with them? What things did they leave behind?	Lost their land (it was sold to the U.S. Government)	Allowed few personal possessions; Lost jobs, law and medical licenses, assets, homes, businesses
Knowledge?	What knowledge did they have of places along their route and of their destination before they set out?		Probably none
Feedback?	What feedback did they bring or send back to the people at their point of departure?		Letters, diaries
Records?	How did they or others record their journey?		Letters, photographs
Travelers?	Were they travelers? Explorers? Migrants? Pilgrims? Internees?	Forced migrants	Forced internees
Restitution?	Did they receive any restitution?		$20,000 paid in 1988 to each of 60,000 surviving internees

Source for Question Framework: Salter, Kit. Geography and the Migration of Hope. Lecture given at the 1989 National Geographic Society Summer Geography Institute, Washington, DC.

Source for majority of historical information: Berkin, Carol, et al Making America: A History of the United States. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995.

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