US History Fall Semester
Final Assessment
Purpose: To show evidence of your content knowledge
To show evidence of your skills
In order to assess how much you have learned and grown this semester, we need a meaningful and valid tool for evaluation. But there is no powerful reason why that has to be the same tool for everyone. So, what method would best show evidence of the knowledge and skills you learned this semester?
Step 1: Decide what is the best (valid, meaningful, reasonable) assessment for you. Consider the following:
A. What, specifically, did you/should you have learned this semester from each unit (WWII, Cold War and US in the 50’s, Civil Rights, Vietnam, 70’s to Today)?
- Specific content knowledge (check the vocab lists)
- Broad understandings that apply beyond that unit
(You can answer the unit questions well.)
B. What skills have you learned and how can you demonstrate them?
C. Your academic/creative strengths
D. Your learning style(s)
E. The time and energy it would take me to understand how much you learned
Step 2: Do the assessment.
Possible assessments:
Exam (different types of exams are also possibilities)
Essay
Annotated Visual
Portfolio of assignments throughout the semester
Final word: Think of this as one large argument. Your thesis is the grade you deserve. Your evidence is the stuff in the assessment. The explanation is all of your reflections (hopefully you don’t need much). Your job is to convince me.
Spring Content and Skills
What should our government be allowed to do in times of crisis?
What is America? Who are Americans?
To what extent can one person make a difference? What does it take to change society for the better?
When should you question authority?
70’s and Beyond Questions based on your own work / Skills
Research
Evidence gathering and analysis
Formal Writing
Discussion
Examples of Skill Reflections
Reflections should state the skill category, the specific skill you learned, how to do the skill, why it is a useful skill, and an example of the skill in use.
Skills: Research
I learned a lot about how to find and analyze information this semester through the Research Paper.
· I now know that primary sources are generally better than secondary sources because a person who heard about something and then wrote about it is less likely to have gotten it right (unless they’re a historian (secondary source) and they looked at lots of evidence before writing their opinion). I’m including my Research Paper to prove I understand this. Please look at page 3, paragraph 2 where I highlighted.
· I know how to find sources better because I know that I can look at the bibliography of a source to find more and possibly better sources. I can compare bibliographies to find common books that are more likely to be reliable. I don’t have something to point to here, but I used it in the Research Paper.
· I’ve started to think about whether or not I can trust a source. There are a lot of ways to think about this, but I generally consider whether or not a website is from an .edu or .gov which probably means it’s reliable. I look at the credentials of authors when I look at their books and see if they are specialists in what the book is about. Please look at the Annotated Bibliography to see this. Caution: one of the sources is Wikipedia. I know that’s not good because anyone could have written it, but I didn’t know that was a problem at the time.