OAT Toolkit
for
Social Studies
Aligning
Assessments
Ohio Department of Education
OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007
Assessment
Purpose:
• To inform our teaching
• To provide information to help revise
instruction
Types of assessment:
• Pre-Assessment
• Formative assessment
• Post-Assessment
Ohio Department of Education
OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007
“If we are not going to try to
improve what we do, there is
little sense in assessing it.”
William Glasser
Ohio Department of Education
OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007
Pre-Assessment
•
Provides a chance to gather data on a
student’s prior knowledge, skills and
experiences.
•
This data can then be used to adjust
instruction to meet the student’s needs in
achieving the standards, benchmarks and
indicators.
Ohio Department of Education
OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007
Formative Assessment
• Serves as a checkpoint during the
learning process.
• Provides a teacher with information on
student learning that can be used to
adjust instruction as necessary.
Ohio Department of Education
OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007
Post-Assessment
Provides a teacher with information on what
learning actually occurred.
• Did the student meet the goals you expected?
• Is re-teaching necessary?
• Are we ready to move on to the next step?
Ohio Department of Education
OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007
Assessment
How do you assess your students?
1. Pre-Assessment
2. Formative assessment
3. Post-Assessment
Ohio Department of Education
OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007
Aligning Assessments
When creating classroom assessments, we need to be careful
that they align with both the knowledge and skill(s) in the
grade-level indicator and the benchmark.
Activity
1. Carefully review the benchmark and grade-level indicator on your handout.
• How does the grade-level indicator support understanding of the
concept in the benchmark?
• Does the grade-level indicator support understanding of the complete
benchmark or just a portion of it?
• How does this grade-level indicator relate content to and skills students
learned in the previous grade? How does it relate to the subsequent
grade?
2. Read the suggested assessments and discuss the questions that follow each.
3. For assessments not aligned with the grade-level indicator or benchmark,
discuss possible modifications that would lead to alignment.
Ohio Department of Education
OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007
Aligning Assessments
Discussion Questions
• Why is it important for assessments to
align to both the grade-level indicators
and the benchmarks?
• How can we use classroom assessment to
inform instructional planning?
Ohio Department of Education
OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007