Running Head: Assessment

TED 634: Content Area Literacy

Assessment

Chris Gomez

Professor Smith

National University

November 19, 2016

Assessment 2

Content Standards

Standard 7.1.1

Study the early strengths and lasting contributions of Rome (e.g., significance of Roman
citizenship; rights under Roman law; Roman art, architecture, engineering, and philosophy;
preservation and transmission of Christianity) and its ultimate internal weaknesses (e.g., rise of
autonomous military powers within the empire, undermining of citizenship by the growth of
corruption and slavery, lack of education, and distribution of news).

Standard 7.1.2

Discuss the geographic borders of the empire at its height and the factors that threatened its
territorial cohesion.

California Common Core Standards

4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary
specific to domains related to history/social studies.

5. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary
specific to domains related to history/social studies.

7. Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other
information in print and digital texts.

9. Draw Evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Assessment 3

Assessment

Chapter 1 Summative Assessment (The Fall of the Roman Empire)

Directions: Match each definition to a word in the word bank. Each word is used only once.
Write the corresponding letter on the appropriate line.

1. ______ to fail suddenly and completely.

2. ______ an empire that, at its height, around 200 C.E., spanned the Mediterranean world
and most of Europe.
3. ______ a large territory in which several groups of people are ruled by a single leader or
government.
4. ______ a disagreement or fight caused by opposing points of view.
5. ______ a pattern of illegal or immoral activities by government officials.
6. ______ a slow breakdown or failure.
7. ______ Roman emperor who, in 330 C.E., moved the capital to Byzantium and later
renamed it Constantinople.
8. ______ a picture made up of small pieces of tile, glass, or colored stone.
9. ______ a pipe or raised channel built to carry water over a long distance.
10. ______ a specialized method used to achieve a desired result
11. ______ one of a kind.
12. ______ a person trained to write or copy documents by hand.
13. ______ a popular saying meant to express something wise or true.
14. ______ the study of wisdom, knowledge, and the nature of reality.

Word Bank

A. Aqueduct B. Constantine C. Corruption D. Decline E. Empire

F. Mosaic G. Philosophy H. Proverb I. Roman Empire J. Scribe
K. Collapse L. Conflict M. Unique N. Technique
Assessment 4

Short Essay

Directions: On the lines provided, develop a short essay answering the essential
question for the chapter. Your response should begin with a thesis statement
(argument), followed by details and evidence to support your argument.

Essential Question:

What were the major causes leading to the Fall of the Roman Empire?

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Assessment 5

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Assessment 6

Rationale

The summative assessment chosen for the content being covered by students allows for

students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the material through an

understanding of key vocabulary terms discussed throughout the unit along with developing an

essay answering the essential question for the unit based on the Fall of the Roman Empire. A key

aspect of the summative assessment is for students to develop an essay response. In this response

students will be required to utilize all knowledge and understanding gained throughout the unit.

In the response, students will be expected to draw on key issues and factors leading to the fall of

Rome and provide specific details and evidence within each issue/factor to support student

claims. The implementation of a constructed essay response will allow for the teacher to fully

understand student knowledge and understanding from the unit in more specific detail. The

summative assessment also begins with a vocabulary section where students identify vocabulary

terms and definitions. This aspect of the summative assessment will allow students to begin the

assessment and in a sense, warm up or hone in their thinking towards the subject. Students will

have previously encountered and read texts on these vocabulary terms and will be able to

demonstrate their understanding of key vocabulary terms from the unit. Students will be

provided with a word bank to allow students to more easily identify vocabulary terms effectively

and efficiently.

Contrary to an assessment that utilizes multiple choice or true/false questions along with

short answers, this assessment will allow for students to fully demonstrate their understanding of

the content and allows the teacher to directly gauge this understanding in their students. An

assessment relying heavily on multiple choice questioning may prove to be either challenging or

easy to students. With multiple choice questions, students are required to view the content as
Assessment 7

simply being right or wrong or black and white. While multiple choice assessments allow the

teacher the option to spread out multiple topics and questions within the content along with being

relatively quick and easy, it does not fully encompass student understanding or the ideals of the

study of History all together. Writing is a key and fundamental aspect of history and through

writing; students are provided the opportunity to express their knowledge and understanding of

the content along with developing and demonstrating their own unique perspective of the

content. It is important for student to develop their own understanding and perspective of the

content an be provided with the opportunity to express their own individual thinking and

knowledge of which a multiple choice based assessment does not allow for thus requiring student

to compose an essay to demonstrate understanding of the content in relation to the standards and

learning objective of the unit.

Reading and Writing Strategies

In order to support students to achieve content understanding, the teacher will need to

implement reading strategies for students to gain comprehension of the text material for the unit.

The classroom will consist of students from a variety of reading levels as well as students with

disabilities and ELLs. While there are many reading strategies available to support students, the

strategy that will be utilized to support student reading will be through the reciprocal teaching

approach to reading. Through the reciprocal teaching approach, all students in the classroom will

be supports as students will read and summarize text material within groups in the classroom.

Here the teach is able to first introduce and direct students prior to reading but students will still

be required to read the material together in the groups. As students read, they will periodically

stop to collectively discuss and summarize the material that in return will improve student
Assessment 8

understanding and comprehension of the material and identify where the information falls into

the overall learning goals of the unit content in preparation for content assessment.
Assessment 9

Reference

McKenna, M. and Robinson, R. (2009). Teaching Through Text: Reading and Writing in the

Content Areas. Boston: Pearson.