Matt DeKryger

Ed 302/303
Prof. Keeley
11/10/14
Assessments
Authentically assessing Civics class is harder than I first expected for a variety of
reasons. Every student will have a different opinion and no opinion, as long as it is informed, is
less credible or significant than any other. My goal in assessing this information is more about
fostering growth than anything else. I want my students to leave my classroom as informed and
opinionated citizens ready to make socially conscious decisions that best help their own interests
and those of our country. My assessments need to help get my students to that point.
There are two types of information that is being taught. The first is textbook knowledge
about how the American government functions or the legislation process works. This can be
assessed through a summative test at the end of the unit and various other short assessments
scattered systematically throughout the unit. The second is how students apply this knowledge to
their own personal views of public issues. This is more difficult to assess because there is no
right answer. The real challenge is making assessments that combine both types of information.
On lessons 2 and 10, students will do a punch out writing. This is a short, informal,
summative assessment where they write for 2-3 minutes on a question that reflects on the lesson
they just completed. This question asks them to ponder and make connections to the lesson based
on their personal beliefs. This serves to make sure that students learned from the lesson, but can
also be revisited various times during the lesson for students to see if and how their views have
changed.
My lesson will include many different formative assessments as well. This Civics unit is
heavily discussion oriented. There will be times when class discussion will be used as a

formative assessment. I will be able to evaluate what the students know based on their responses
and that will help me better address any specific areas that need to be covered in more depth.
This formative assessment will be challenging, however, because I will need to be intentional
about making sure to keep track of every student. Not every student will want to speak up, but I
need to make sure every student is assessed.
Small group work will provide students opportunity to self-assess as they listen to other
groups address the class, as well as bounce their own ideas off of classmates in their group. A
small group should be less intimidating to address than the entire class. I need to monitor groups
to make sure that certain students to not dominate discussions or put down other students for
their answers. This may be challenging, but I believe floating group to group can help overtake
these challenges.
The World's Smallest Political Quiz is the biggest pre-assessment used in this lesson. It is
an informal quiz that students take to see where they fall politically. It serves as an introduction
to our discussion on the political spectrum and political parties. Most lessons I will pre-assess
where students are at based on the end of the previous lesson because the lessons in this unit
build on each other. In Lesson 4, students begin by writing down 1 fact and 1 question they have
about the Legislation Process. Then they will collaborate with their table and ask me for the
whole class to benefit. I will write down and save questions I receive as material to address later
in the lesson or unit. This should also help keep students interested because it addresses a
question one of them specifically asked. I will do the same thing with their facts. There is a
reasonable chance that their facts could be incorrect. This allows me to address these
misconceptions as I go along as well.
There will be a formal test over the whole unit to assess student learning. This is a long

unit that covered a variety of topics. Before the test, our political media project will allow
students a more creative assessment. Though not a test, it will require students to connect and
apply many different concepts we covered. The test will consist of multiple choice questions,
many of which are taken from standardized tests. Though challenging, this section of the
assessment is meant to prepare students for the ACT or SAT. However, because not everyone is
good at multiple choice questions, there will also be a section of essay questions that will let
students expand on their views and how they relate to what we covered throughout the unit.