4th Grade Gold Mining
Social Studies Unit
Assessment Plan
TWS Task 3
Jennifer Osborn
Western Governors University
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The purpose of this paper is to outline my assessment plan for a two week 4th grade social
studies instructional unit on gold mining in the state of Colorado. This unit of study addresses many
Colorado state standards for the social studies content area. This paper will provide an overview of my
assessment plan including generic copies of the pre and post assessment instruments that will be
utilized. I will discuss how the assessment plan will use multiple assessment approaches and adaptations
to meet diverse student learning. I will explain how my assessments are both authentic and appropriate
measurement tools and how I aligned these assessments to my learning goals and state standards. I will
explain how I will analyze the assessments and the criteria that I will use to determine if the students are
meeting the learning goals. Lastly, I will discuss the formative assessments that will assist me in
determining student progress throughout the two week unit and the importance of gathering
supportive data.
I chose to teach a two week unit on Gold mining in the state of Colorado to meet Colorado
history state standards. I developed three learning goals to drive this unit of study. The assessments I
created are aligned with these goals and will provide me with a formative overview of how well my
students understand the content of the unit. I have created a pre-assessment, several formative
assessments and a post-assessment to measure student achievement and progress.
I began my unit by administering a pre-assessment that is comprised of ten multiple choice
questions. The students are required to read the question and then choose the appropriate answer
choice by circling a letter a-d that matches the question. The first three questions are based on the first
learning goal that states the students will be able to identify technology developments and tools used
during the 1859 Colorado gold rush. The next three questions are based on the second learning goal that
states students will be able to analyze primary sources to understand the cause and effect relationships
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in Colorado history. The last four questions are based on the third learning goal that states students will
be able to explain the social, economic, and physical characteristics that brought settlers to Colorado
during the Pike’s Peak gold rush. The students have not studied the concepts presented on the preassessment prior to taking it, therefore, I expect to see limited schema from the results of the
assessment.
I will end the unit with the post-assessment after all of the content in the unit has been taught.
The post-assessment will be the same as the pre-assessment to give me a precise measurement of
student growth throughout the unit and owing to the fact that it aligns nicely with my three learning
goals and state standards.
The first learning goal states that students will be able to identify technology developments and
tools used during the 1859 Colorado gold rush. This will be assessed on the pre-assessment as well as
assessed at the beginning of the unit and then again on the post-assessment. Vocabulary terms are
important when studying any type of content. I chose this as learning goal one to provide the students
with a solid foundation and understanding of the mining tools and equipment that were used during
that time of history. I conducted informal assessments through whole class discussions following
readings and short videos and through verbal vocabulary reviews. I also gave the students a vocabulary
match worksheet to complete that served as a formative assessment. The second learning goal that
states the students will be able to analyze primary sources to understand the cause and effect
relationships in Colorado history will be assessed on the pre-assessment as well as in the middle of the
unit and then again in the post-assessment. The students will be assessed during whole class discussions
following choral readings and through a cause and effect T-chart that will be graded as a formative
assessment. The third learning goal states that the students will be able to explain the social, economic,
and physical characteristics that brought settlers to Colorado during the Pike’s Peak gold rush and will
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be assessed on the pre-assessment, throughout the unit in a series of formal assessments and again
through the post-assessment. I will be monitoring students during whole group discussions following
choral readings, and through a hands-on mining activity. I will also be grading a “Read All About It”
newspaper article that the students will be writing about the gold rush to serve as a formative
assessment.
The assessments that I have created serve to authentically and appropriately measure student
learning by utilizing a variety of diverse instructional and learning strategies. I used the theory of
multiple intelligences to provide my students with learning experiences that are enriching, meaningful,
and serve the individual learner through a variety of approaches. My students will be informally
assessed throughout the unit as they engage in several different types of learning activities and they will
be formally assessed twice through the pre and post assessments. Throughout the informal
assessments, I will be monitoring the students and taking notes to help me identify students who are
struggling with concepts. The informal assessments, projects, and student monitoring will also ensure
that the students are both understanding and mastering the lesson goals and objectives.
There are a few students in my class that have slower processing skills and read below grade
level. As a result of this contextual factor, I created adaptations to include a choral reading strategy
when reading informational texts. I used privacy folders while taking assessments to block out
distractions and allow the students a sense of security free from pacing anxieties. During group
discussions, I will allow the students additional think time to ask and answer questions and help them to
expand or clarify their answers through verbal ques. I will provide ELL students with visuals and
demonstrations to clarify vocabulary terms. I will also allow students the option to work in partners and
use the text book to help them complete the vocabulary match worksheet that serves as a formative
assessment. I will read questions aloud to students who needed it and give the students options of
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choice when completing the hands-on mining activity. For example, they will be free to choose whether
they want to mine alone, in a partnership, or form a company.
While designing my assessment plan, I first considered my state standards. I used my standards
to guide my learning goals and objectives. Once I had established my learning goals and objectives, I
created assessments that would effectively measure student mastery of the content and formative
assessments that would help me identify students that were struggling with concepts or indicate that
the students were gaining a better understanding of the content. I determined an 80% accuracy rate to
be considered proficient on all graded assessments and choose to use assessments that could be graded
on a percentage base. I carefully analyzed my lessons to ensure that I differentiated my instruction to
meet the adaptations that I created in my assessment plan.
I developed my pre and post assessments to cover my three learning goals. I will analyze the
pre-assessment in sections to gain a better understanding of the student’s prior knowledge of the
content and help me to develop my lessons accordingly. I will use my formative assessments and the
80% proficiency rate that I set as a guideline to help me identify students that are struggling,
information or concepts that need to be re-taught or clarified, and to make sure that my unit remains on
track with my learning goals. The criteria that will help me determine if the students are meeting my
defined learning goals will be based on the 80% proficiency expectations for all graded assessments and
projects and I will also be informally assessing the students through several open whole class discussions
and by asking them higher level thinking questions to ensure that they are developing the skills they
need to master this unit.
I will utilize several formative assessments throughout my unit of study. One of the formative
assessments will be a cause and effect T-chart that the students will complete after reading excerpts
from primary sources about gold mining in Colorado. The T chart will ask the students to identify three
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causes of the Pike’s Peak gold rush and three effects with 80% accuracy. The primary source excerpts
will be read aloud using a choral reading strategy and then discussed verbally through a whole class
discussion. The students will work independently on the T-charts so that I can evaluate and assess
individual work. Another formative assessment that I will utilize to measure student progress is a
vocabulary match worksheet. The objective is that the students will be able to identify tools and
technology used during the Colorado gold rush of 1859 getting 10 out of 12 matches correct or 83%
proficiency rate. I will use the vocabulary formative assessment to help guide the rest of my unit since
vocabulary terms are of high importance and it is difficult to understand how the miners did what they
did without an understanding of what these tools are and how they were used. If I see that certain
terms continue to be difficult for the students to grasp then I will make sure to continue to use those
terms, show pictures, videos, and demonstrations so that the students can continue to build upon their
schema and make connections to help them understand the vocabulary words.
Collecting data for each individual student is imperative to their learning success and to the
success of the unit. Failure to keep appropriate and accurate records could result in misconceptions of
information, not catching if some students are struggling or need interventions, and lack of proof for
accountability. It is especially important to collect data for students that may require an IEP or that
already have one established. Through record keeping you can prove that you are an effective educator
and that you provide differentiated instruction to individual learners. During homeroom time at the end
of the day, students work independently and in small groups, I am able to pull students at this time that
need additional support. Without accurate record keeping and assessments it would be difficult to
determine which students are in need of the extra support.
According to my records, all students scored below the proficiency rate of 80% on the preassessment which was expected since the content had not been previously taught. The highest score on
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the pre-assessment was 60% scored by 2 of the 15 students. There were two students who scored
below 80% on the vocabulary match learning goal 1 assessment with scores of 67% and 58%. Only one
student scored below the proficiency level on the cause and effect learning goal 2 assessment with a
score of 67%. All students scored an 80% or higher on the final assessment. In order to document
student progress for accomplishing state and district achievement standards in the future, I plan to track
student progress using similar methods to those used during my two week social studies unit. I will
create my lesson objectives and goals based on state standard requirements, create comprehensive
assessments to track student progress and monitor individual learners, and I will document the results
using a computerized grade book.