Assessing Historical Thinking
Methods teachers from our TIIP team have used to assess the success of their teaching strategies
FOUR SQUARE CHARTS
The assignment asked students to select the "most vivid picture" from the four sources looked at in class. Students could draw or write in bullet points. Note that this strategy can be on a piece of binder paper.
- MS used a combination of words and pictures. She focused on the working conditions' potential for pain and injury.
- In all four boxes, MS is decoding the sources rather than imagining, from the sources, a different picture.
- Because this is the beginning of the year, MS is on track with her peers; by the end of the year, MS should be questioning the pictures provided by the source or interpreting them.
- To see her work better, click here.
MARKING DIALOGUE JOURNALS OR READING LOGS
The assignment asked students to read text about the most radical phase of the French Revolution and take notes as they read. The letters on the reflection side of the chart are the levels of Bloom's taxonomy the teacher felt most closely matched the student's reading purpose.
The student here predicted outcomes as she went along ("I have a feeling this isnt going to workout well.") and questioned the text ("how many were unemployed") as well as noted missing information ("is this a more logical constitution?").
- Evaluating reading assignments this way takes time, but the teacher is only marking the "comment" or reflection part of the chart. The teacher can easily decide whether the text was appropriate based on student comments.
- The student can track the higher levels of thinking quickly by noting the letters at the side.
- The teacher could simply mark the comment column with "HT" indicating that the student has moved away from decoding.
- To see this chart better, click here.
DOCUMENT-BASED ESSAY QUESTIONS (DBQ)
- "What were the most important causes of the French Revolution?" [California History Standard 10.2]
- "Who and/or what caused World War I?" [California History Standard 10.5]
- "Evaluate the rule of Stalin in the Soviet Union between 1925 and 1940, taking into account the methods he used and the changes he made." [California History Standard 10.7.2]
- "Discuss the differences between the "old" and "new" immigration." [California History Standard 11.3]
- Design your own DBQ collection: students self-select topics and documents (can be a web-project)
This student's assignment was to make comments in the margins of his DBQ packet for the Stalin essay in grade 10. His thinking process is clear and easy to follow, giving the teacher information about his ability to analyze documents.
- The student asks questions in the margins that he cannot answer before he writes his essay. The process of questioning led him to argue that the data was too selective to persuade him of Stalin's effectiveness as a ruler.
- The student connects the jump in coal production to the work camps, which are not mentioned in any of the documents in the packet, showing his ability to think historically.
- Even if this student's essay was poor, the information provided by the packet shows that the student has progressed in thinking historically through the year and can be weighted equally with the essay, if the teacher so chooses.
- To see this sample of student work better, click here.
STUDENT SELF-EVALUATION
Students can self-analyze their engagement in the historical thinking process using this tool. Please note: this tool uses Bloom's taxonomy to evaluate student thinking processes.
STANDARDIZED TEST SCORES
Our team was not convinced that a change in subject-related state-wide test scores (CST) could be linked to changes in our teaching style, but we agreed to track those changes anyway.
- Year One Changes: coming soon!
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