Student Response and Assessment Tools

Lesson Idea Name: Early Medieval History – From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Charlemagne
Content Area: Social Studies
Grade Level(s): 9th-12th Grade
Content Standard Addressed: SSWH7 Analyze European medieval society with regard to culture, politics,
society, and economics.
a. Explain the manorial system and feudal relationships, include: the status of peasants and feudal
monarchies and the importance of Charlemagne.
b. Explain the political impact of Christianity and the role of the church in medieval society.

Technology Standard Addressed: ISTE Standards 1, 3, 4 & 6

Selected Technology Tool:

☐ Socrative ☐ iRespond ☐ Quizlet ☐ Plickers ☐ Kahoot! ☐ Office365 Forms
☒ Other: Nearpod
URL(s) to support the lesson (if applicable): https://share.nearpod.com/e/50SNrv4cOab

Technology that student will use to respond to questions/prompts:

☐ Computer ☐ Hand-held student response system (like iRespond) ☐ Phone ☒ Tablet (such as iPad)
☐ Other wireless device (such as iPod Touch)
Type of session:
☒ Teacher-Paced ☐ Student-Paced
Bloom’s Taxonomy Level(s):
☒ Remembering ☒ Understanding ☒ Applying ☒ Analyzing ☒ Evaluating ☒ Creating

Universal Design for Learning (UDL): Aside from the fact that everything is on one app in particular, I believe
that this lesson has a variety of different methods for student engagement that allows for students the full
spread of the UDL guidelines.

At the beginning of the class, I will hand out the tablets with the nearpod app on them, if necessary. Then I
would begin with asking the students right away to answer their first open-ended question, what do they
know about the Early Middle Ages? This will give me a gauge on what my students know, and what I will
have to work on as the class goes on.

Describe the purpose of the SRT activity (check all that apply):
☒ Assess prior knowledge ☒ Anticipatory set (Create interest in a topic) ☐ To illuminate common
misconceptions ☐ Formative assessment of content knowledge (for purpose of differentiation and
mastery for ALL students) ☒ Summative assessment of content knowledge ☐ Test preparation
☒ Survey/Poll ☒ Discussion starter ☐ “Homework” collection ☐ Other (please explain):

Briefly describe what will happen DURING the SRT activity: After answering their open-ended question, I
will have them watch a brief 5-minute overview of the subject via Khan Academy, before diving into the
lesson itself. I plan on having a lecture divided into two main components. First comes brief history of the
early medieval period from the fall of Rome in 476 until Charlemagne’s crowning in 800. After this, I will have
the students answer their open-ended question about why the students think Charlemagne was crowned the
first Holy Roman Emperor. Next, I will discuss life for medieval nobles, commoners and clergy, the “Three
Orders” and discuss how and why monasticism, manorialism and feudalism started and grew during the Early
Middle Ages. Afterwards, the students will discuss why they think the Three Orders came to be and what they
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 Student Response and Assessment Tools
think the life of a peasant was like. I ask the students to draw out what they think a Feudal Hierarchy would
look like, and have them discuss why the Church was important to the middle ages. Finally, I’ll have the
students perform a quick term matching activity, followed by an exit poll to see whether or not the students
themselves believe they have learned anything after the lesson. If the percentages of no and unsure is higher
than yes, I’ll be sure to fix that by going more in-depth in the next lesson.

Type of questions/prompts used in this activity (check all that apply):

☒ Multiple choice ☐ Multiple select ☐ True/False ☐ Yes/No
☒ Short open-ended response or fill-in the blank ☒ Longer open-ended response

If you are unable to provide a working sample of your questions, please list them below (8-10):

Right/Wrong answers: Will there be right/wrong answers to these questions?

☐ Yes ☐ No
☒ Mixed (Some will have correct answers, other will not.)
Immediate corrective feedback: Will you pre-select correct answers to some or all of the questions and
display correct response to the class after the SRT activity?
☒ Yes
☐ No
Why or why not? For the one portion that does have an objectively correct answer, the matching activity, I
use that as a way to help students understand key vocabulary words, and as such if students do get them
wrong I will be happy to have corrective feedback for them to help them understand the definitions of each
term.

Describe what will happen AFTER the SRT activity? The SRT is intertwined with the lesson, but the last
portion, the poll asking whether or not the students learned anything, will allow me to end the class by
answering any lingering questions the students have with the lesson, either one-on-one or as a whole group.

How will the data be used? The data collected during the activity will be used as a participation grade for the
class, as well as a way for me to gauge how receptive the students are to my teaching method and lessons. If
they are not doing so well, I will take the feedback and shape my future lessons to help better facilitate their
learning.

Describe your personal learning goal for this activity. For this activity I am trying to break up my own lecture-
focused style of education into more manageable chunks for students via SRT-driven assessments and
questions.

Reflective Practice: I feel like this is a solid lesson idea, though I do think that I need to work on other SRTs as
well, not just Nearpod. I do think that the versatility of SRT assessments will be an invaluable asset to me as a
teacher, and as such I wish to continue to use them for every lesson I feasibly can in the future.

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