Michael Vander Wal

Assessment Section

Having a good set of assessments for a unit plan is a very difficult task to do well. On the

one hand, ones assessments have to be used for accountability purposes. But, on the other hand,

assessments also have to be used to help a teacher (or a student) to properly gauge how well a

student knows the material, and where a teacher may need to do some introspection on whether

the methods he or she uses are sound and valuable. In the case of this World War I unit, I think

Ive found some pre-assessments, formative assessments, and a summative assessment that

works well.
My working theory for pre-assessments in this unit is basically just to ask them what they

know about a particular topic, but the question I ask them usually is not that simple. What I want

to know for the most part is what comes to mind when a particular topic is mentioned by a

teacher or peer. For example, in my lesson on Marx, I already know the topic generates a lot of

emotion for a lot of people. Because Marx is so controversial, I know at least a few things will

come to mind when the topic is brought up. And by doing this type of pre-assessment, I will be

able to gauge how accurate the students knowledge of Marx and communism are. At least that

is my hope. One major concern I have with this unit is the students idea of what imperialism is.

In the very brief time we broached the subject in class, I noticed that the kids seem to always

associate imperialism with the idea of a king. So, by doing the type of pre-assessment Ive

described, I will better be able to detect what the students actually know about imperialism, and

then adjust my lesson accordingly.

For the summative assessments, Ive adopted my mentors strategy of making students

write down what they think the thesis is for a particular piece of writing, or answering a question

that has to do with an overarching them in their reading assignment. I think this tactic is not only

a good way for me to see how well students are understanding the assignment (and also if theyre
doing it), but it also helps the student know whether or not he or she is getting the assignment.

There is usually a grade attached to these assessments, but that is more to get the learners to

actually read what is being assigned. I also like the idea of periodically checking in with the kids

about whether or not they understand what is going on in a lecture or a discussion. That is why

Ive implemented the head nod, and head shake (or thumbs up/thumbs down) method of

formative assessment. As an instructor, I need to know whether or not my students know what in

the world Im talking about, and whether or not I need to backtrack and explain things more

clearly. With one exception, this plan is pretty much what I do every day. Ive adopted this

general theme of assessment mostly because it is effective, but also because the kids are used to

this type of daily assessment.

My summative assessment for the entire unit is a paper that covers everything but Marx.

The paper will be three to four pages long, and will have the students relate nationalism and

imperialism to the causes of World War I. Ive chosen this as my topic because the unit doesnt

explicitly discuss nationalism and imperialism as causing World War I. Students will be forced

to use their higher order thinking skills to relate the actions of the European powers and

Serbia/Princip to the start of World War I. To be clear, the topics of Serbian nationalism and The

Black Hand will be talked about briefly in the Causes of World War I lecture, but these topics

will not be brought up at all during the lesson on nationalism. Germanys desire for an African

empire will also be discussed during the section on dreadnoughts, but the word imperialism

will not be brought up at all during that days discussion. This task may seem like a lot to ask,

but it doesnt seem that daunting when one considers that no outside research will be required.

The class readings should be more than sufficient to complete this kind of paper.