Review for the H.S.A
Missy LaCroix
Annie Caldwell
 Name
 School
 How
long have you been teaching?
 If you attended the last session – what did
you get out of it?
 What do you hope to get out of the
session today?
 TWBAT
determine best
practices for reviewing the
topics in order to best
prepare their students for
the H.S.A..

Welcome and Introductions

Overview of the H.S.A.

Government MAY MADNESS Vocabulary Tournament

Graffiti Vocabulary – Supreme Court Cases Activity

ABC Review – Terms and Vocabulary

Student Review Packet and Readings

E-Pat Launcher – Computer Practice Test Days

Session Debrief

Questions/Reflections and Evaluation



The items on the Public Release Forms of the Government High School
Assessment represent a fair measure of the Social Studies Core Learning
Goals for Government — Political Systems, Peoples of the Nation and World,
Geography, and Economics. Users of these items should take into
consideration the following information:
All items have been taken from previously field tested forms, have produced
good psychometric data, and are statistically reliable.
Each form is approximately 30 minutes shorter than the version students will
take during a formal test administration because the forms do not include
field test items.

There are items of all difficulty levels (easy, medium, and hard) on the public
release forms.

Each item represents only one way to measure an indicator.


The items measure students' skills and knowledge of content as directed by
the Core Learning Goal indicators as designated for the Government High
School Assessment.
All item formats — selected response, and brief constructed response items.
 Estimated
Percentage of items on the test:
• Goal 1: Political Science- 60%
 Principles, forms, historical development, structures, applications
of roles, etc…
• Goal 2: People of the Nation and the World-13%
 Foreign policy goals, International organizations…
• Goal 3: Geography- 13%
 Map skills, regional issues, smart growth…
• Goal 4: Economics-15%
 Business cycle, fiscal and monetary policy, opportunity costs,
trade-offs, scarcity, types of economies…
 Focus
on the Assessment Limits!
 Test
can be very heavy in Goal 1! This is an
area where you might want to focus for your
review. (60% of the test!)
 Have
your students practice taking the test
on the computer if they will be taking the
actual test on the computer. Also might be
helpful to have students practice typing
their BCR’s if they are going to take the test
on the computer.
Purpose:
To study the vocabulary that will be on the
Government H.S.A.









Sit facing your partner
Make sure that you have different color flash cards than your
partner.
One partner should lay their cards out with the term side up
(underlined side). The other partner should lay their cards out
with the definition side up.
The partners will flip a coin to decide who goes first.
Your job is to pick up terms and definitions that match. If you
do pick a correct match you read the term and the definition
out loud, put the cards in your “WIN” pile and take another turn.
If you do not pick a correct match you place the cards back
down in their places you found them.
Continue these steps until no cards are left.
When the game is finished total up the number of matches you
have.
The player that has the most matches wins and moves onto the
next level.
Let Ms. Caldwell know who won your game! 
 Assign
Unit.
 For
each student a
each letter
students must come
up with as many
terms as they can for
the unit.
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
Unit
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Purposes and Types of Government
Authoritarian
B
C
Presidential
Democracy
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
Monarchy
National security
O
Providing public services,
Q
R
S
Traditional
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
 Readings
provided for each of the pages
in the review guide.
 Helpful to give to students as they
complete the packet.
 E-Pat
Launcher is a program that is on
most school computers that allows
students to take a practice H.S.A. test on
the computers and use the tools that they
will have on test day.
 http://tinyurl.com/caldwellHSA

Interactive Games:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Jeopardy
Review relay
I Have / Who Has Games
That’s Not Fair / Trashketball Review Games
$25,000 Pyramid, Taboo, Cranium…Have students make up their own games…
Puzzles (http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/info/faqs.html)
Bingo (http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/materials/bingo/ )
Reorganize information:
• Cut and paste activities
• Foldables
(http://hcpstraining.org/instruction/ss/resources_files/ss_foldables_read_first.
htm)
• Vocabulary development and organization

Use and make visuals:
• Political cartoons
• Fine art
• Thematic timelines

Classroom simulations
• Persuasive speeches on Public Issues
• World Café or informal debates
• Socratic Seminars or philosophical chairs




Students will be given a number that is theirs for
the entire game.
Ms. C will pull numbers randomly and if your
number is chosen you must give the correct
answer. If you can, then you get to come up and
place your name on the prize that you want.
You may cross out someone else’s name if you
want the prize that they have written their name
on.
When the game ends, whoever has their name on
the top of the prize wins the prize! 
 Answer
Garden http://answergarden.ch/
 Kahoot
- https://getkahoot.com/
 Quizlet
– www.quizlet.com
 What
are some strategies that you
learned about today that you can use with
your students to help them prepare for
the H.S.A.?
 Feel
free to email us with any questions.
• Annie Caldwell – acaldwell@bcps.org
• Missy LaCroix – mlacroix@bcps.org