Task A. 4 Lesson Log #4 (Formative Assessment) Length of Lesson: 90 Minutes Date: 03/29/07
Lesson Description
What content and skills did you expect students to learn from this lesson?
In this lesson, students were expected to evaluate two different Roman emperors using both
primary and secondary sources. My essential question for this lesson was: what roles do individual
leaders play in meeting or not meeting a society’s goals and values? The content was sources about two
different Roman emperors, Augustus and Marcus Aurelius. Students had to decide which of these leaders
was a better emperor. Here, students once more utilized content to understand concepts.
What were you and your students doing during the lesson to promote learning? What materials, activities
and resources did you select to promote learning, including the development and/or application of
essential social studies skills?
At the end of last class students were assigned a brief from the text about the rise of Julius Caesar,
with him being eventually crowded emperor and then subsequently killed. Students then discussed the
reading with a focus on why the Senate might have sought to kill Caesar. We then brainstormed
characteristics of good and bad leaders on the board as a class. We went over a brief reading on Nero.
Students discussed what qualities made him a poor leader. I then introduced the Formative Assessment,
an activity where students would examine four short sources, two about Augustus and two about Marcus
Aurelius, and then decide which of the two men made a better emperor. Students worked in groups to
prepare a graphical organizer about the two leaders. I assigned students into groups based upon perceived
ability once more. I again wanted students to have experience working with others in class, so I
purposefully did not assign students into the same groups as the day before. Students had to then take this
information and use it to write the first paragraph of a CAPT-styled essay. I did this to promote further
exercise in some of the essential social studies skills that we worked on during our inquiry activity and to
highlight the connection of those same skills to the CAPT-persuasive writing prompts. For the exemplar,
I used the first paragraph of a CAPT essay about a prompt that the students had used as a practice CAPT
in the week before my portfolio unit. The essential social studies skills that students utilized to complete
this activity included developing a hypothesis (thesis) with supporting evidence using content-based
evidence, analyzing primary sources, critical reading and determine strengths and weaknesses in political
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arguments (the primary sources were authored by the emperors themselves). Upon completing the
activity, students participated in a class discussion where they discussed the emperors, the evidence and
the process they undertook in formulating their thesis and supporting it.
Reflection
What did the students learn in this lesson and what evidence do you have to support your conclusions?
Cite specific examples. For discussion and inquiry lessons you may cite evidence from the videotape.
Students gained an understanding of more than just Augustus and Marcus Aurelius, rather they
formed their own understanding of how leaders work to meet the goals and values of a society. Students
utilized evidence from the sources to develop a thesis with strong supporting evidence and reasons. This
was readily apparent through observation of groupwork. In one group, students had difficulty assigning
whether or not the evidence they were selecting to include was positive or negative. One student asked,
“How is expanding the population positive?” To which another student replied, “Well that must mean
that they are conquering more lands.” This demonstrated to me that students were analyzing the evidence
appropriately and were making thoughtful deductions about the meaning of evidence.
Students reflected upon the inquiry activity to determine whether or not the emperors were
successful in meeting Rome’s goals and values. To quote one student, “Well, we know that trade was
very important to the Romans. The sources say that trade expanded during his [Augustus’] reign.” I
thought that having students work together to evaluate the source materials again was a successful
strategy. For evidence, completed source organizers that student groups completed can be found in Part
C; a blank copy is included with this lesson log. From the class discussion, it seemed clear that there was
a direct connection between the evidence that students used to defend their position in the discussion and
the evidence they used to support their written thesis.
In viewing the student work, it was clear that some students had difficulty in structuring their
writing skills. This subset, about four students, is represented in the accompanying student work in this
lesson log. While the student did not have difficulty in using the organizer to collect evidence, and was
actually quite effective in weighing and examining this evidence, she totally lacked the ability to properly
structure the introduction to a CAPT-styled essay. Work for Students A and B in Part C represent
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students that may have had some minor difficulties in either selecting the best evidence or properly citing
it, but both had the fundamental structure correct. This tells me as a teacher that I need to spend more
class time on CAPT-styled writing. Having examined all of the student work, it seems clear that most
students seemed to understand the assignment and to have use the appropriate essential social studies
skills needed to complete the activity. However, it is clear that some students still need help and support
in this area and that additional practice will only prove to be beneficial for all students.
What instructional adjustments did you make during the lesson and why?
I reinforced classroom norms and expectations of behavior for groupwork, due to a fear that all
students were not participating fully in the group portion of the activity. For struggling students, I once
more paired them with stronger readers. I noticed that a few students were still struggling, so I changed
their groups and worked with them one-on-one to help them complete the activity.
What, if anything, will you do differently for the next lesson in this unit based on your analysis of student
learning in this lesson?
After observing the student work, it is clear that some students are having difficulty when it
comes to both citing evidence and to structuring their essays (see accompanying student work and Part C
for evidence). As a result, as part of their summative assessment I am going to assign the completion of a
CAPT-styled persuasive essay. This will ask them to again weigh evidence and information from the
unit’s activities and apply it through the medium of persuasive writing. This is a major change from the
assessment I originally had in mind. In order to improve these skills, I will also review an exemplar of a
well-written CAPT essay (one that scored a 6) with the class. This will be an exemplar about a prompt
that students completed during the course of a practice CAPT writing activity during the week before my
unit. The exemplar will be from the same essay as the example from today’s assignment. For one subset
of students, the students that completed had difficulty in structuring that paragraph, like the student in the
accompanying work for this lesson, I will give them copies of the exemplar and an outline to use when
completing their essay.
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