Assessment Overview

This unit on Ancient Greece includes a variety of in-class projects and

presentations as well as a final essay. Since the structure of the assignments are so varied,
the selected form of assessment for the unit will be, for the most part, participation based,
however the final essay will include a rubric and be worth 15% of the students semester
grade.
Each class period will begin with a form of pre-assessment. Students will be
asked a bell-ringer question relating to the topic of the day and then be given one to
three minutes to formulate an answer either individually or at their table group. The
teacher will then pull a random students name out of a hat and he or she will answer the
question. The next two minutes should be spent discussing the answer to the question,
thus gearing students up for the days lesson. This pre-assessment is beneficial for two
reasonsfirst, it helps the teacher understand how much previous knowledge students
have about the central topic of the days lesson and, second, it is a great way to get
students thinking in order to set the stage for the day.
As for formative assessment, during the unit students will complete a group
presentation on Ancient Greek city-states on day one, fill out a Google forms worksheet
during the video on Alexander the Great the second day, complete a mapping activity on
day two with partners, read, rehearse, and perform a Greek myth in front of peers on the
fourth day, and then for a final form of summative assessment, they will write an essay,
assigned on day five, that will be due a week from the assigned date.
The first four formative activities, as I stated, will be graded off of participation.
As a result the teacher must be conscious of how much each student is contributing to

each activity. All four activities will be worth ten points. Though these activities are
graded off of participation, they do a great job of keeping students responsible for
learning the material in a variety of different ways. For example, while the online
worksheet about the John Green video on Alexander the Great is straight forward with
very pointed questions, the performance of Greek myths allow students to interpret the
material and present it in whatever form they feel the most comfortable with. The idea is
that the tasks are varied so that all kinds of learners have the ability to thrive and succeed.
However, the final essay will be very structured and worth a significant portion of
the semester grade. It will include a detailed, 20-point rubric that is attached as well as a
handout with specific instructions for the assignment. This assignment will truly assess
how much each individual student has retained and understood from the five-day unit.
The main idea is that students should be able to take what theyve learned and, through
research, understand how ancient Greek society relates to modern Western society. This
will help them connect the unit to their own lives.
The rubric for the essay, adapted by Mr. Sirois at East Grand Rapids High School,
has five sections: focus, development/support, audience, cohesion, and language. The
expectations for the paper are very clear on the handout for the assignment and students
will be expected to follow the rubric as they write their essay. This same rubric is used
for all other writing assignments in the class; therefore students are already somewhat
familiar with it.