The Assignment:
The pre-assessment for day 3 is written out as follows:
“Each day the students will write up to 1 page in
Google Classroom. Today we will write about migrations, whether or not they
have migrated from one place to another or know people who have, why they did,
and if it was a good move. Compare and contrast your move to what you
anticipate the moves were like for people during the Great Depression.”
This is a journal entry intended to open the
subject up to the students for the first time, in a way in which the students
can relate to this part of history through their personal lives.
The Students:
For this test run, the students did not use google
classroom, but rather wrote their answers on paper. I asked 5 students in a class
for which I substitute teach who were finished with their other work. These
students were all in 12th grade. I explained that this should only
take about 5 min and it is simply to help me gage the effectiveness of a lesson
plan I have prepared.
Purpose of this Pre-Assessment:
I am beginning my lesson on mass migration during
the Great Depression with a journal entry about moving. It is fairly rare to
find a student who has not moved from one home or city to another. Of those
students, nearly all should know someone who has moved who they can reference
for this writing assignment. I am having the students write this journal entry
for several reasons. The first is that as the students enter the classroom,
they know what that they are supposed to begin writing their journal for the
day. This is a routine that I plan to have in my classes, which is difficult to
test on 5 students who are not my actual students. The second reason is that it
will help the students relate their lives to the lives of people living in the
U.S. during the Great Depression. The students are asked to write about a time
they moved- what was difficult, what was good, and why did they move. This will
help the students begin to think about the internal thought processes of the
people who had to move in the Dust Bowl areas, and emotionally relate to
“having” to move, if the students had in fact had to move due to a parents’ job
etc.
The Findings:
Four of the five students had moved before- two had
moved to San Diego from other cities. One student was from Chicago and the
other from Los Angeles. Two students had moved homes in San Diego, but have
lived here their entire lives. One student has lived in their home since birth,
but had an older sibling move away for school. Each student took an educated
guess at what migrations were like during the 1930’s, and compared their
experiences.
Effectiveness of Pre-Assessment:
The students had plenty to write about. They were
able to answer all three questions, in addition to adding some commentary. They
all wrote half of a page easily, most wrote more. Once the students finished
writing they were asking me about the lesson I plan on teaching after the pre-assessment.
In my introduction to this assignment I told them the lesson would be about the
migration patterns during the Great Depression. The students asked me about
moving during that time period and several students knew a lot about this
already and joined in the conversation. This shows me that as an introduction
and motivator, this prompt is successful.
Effectiveness of Rubric:
As of now my rubric for the pre-assessment is
simply complete is an A, partially complete is a C, and incomplete is an F. After
reading the responses to the prompt, different students went on different
tangents about their moves- which made each one very interesting. The purpose
of this pre-assessment is to motivate the students to think about the topic and
relate it to their lives. I like the idea of allowing students a little extra
freedom for the journals because I want the students to write about what
interests them, as long as it is related to the topic. It is almost like a
creative writing assignment- where asking the students to stick to hard rules
would inhibit the effectiveness of the assignment.
Adjustments to Rubric:
I do not want to make any adjustments to my rubric
unless it is to make it more specific:
Answer all four questions completely- A
Answer three questions completely- C
Answer two questions completely or less-F
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