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Teacher Overview: 9th Grade Pre Assessment

Go directly to student-facing materials!

Purpose and Rationale

The purpose of this task is to assess students’ writing skills in general, and specifically their
ability to use documents to compose a well constructed response given a Regents-like
prompt. The resultant student writing should be used to set student learning targets that influence the instructional
strategies teachers use in their classrooms in later units.

We have chosen what we think is a high-interest topic for this pre-assessment and one that we think students will
have some prior knowledge of. In addition, we suggest that this same task be given towards the end of the year as a
post-assessment so we chose a topic that would be covered around the time of this task’s second administration.

Administration Suggestions
The follow tips were generated by New Visions Global Pilot Teachers as suggestions for improving success of the
administration of this pre-assessment

● Explain why you are having students complete this task by stating “This will help me understand what you
can do and show me how to help you be a better writer and history student.”
● Grade the task on completion rather than product. Grade the task based on both completion and product.
Offer students an opportunity to get 100% on the first grade of the year by completing all sections of the
pre-assessment. You can then score a subset of the assessments with a rubric in order to capture a literacy
baseline and determine which skills to focus on in the upcoming unit.
● Display the directions on the board and explain them to the students.
● Walk the students through the pre-assessment explaining what each section asks of them with special
attention to how to complete the DBQ section.
● Read the Historical Context and Task aloud for the class.
● Have a discussion about whether we should study history before giving students the task so they have some
ideas to start with. Use Rumors of Dialogue Lines Group Learning Routine. See examples here.
● Administer the pre-assessment under testing conditions.
● Consult students’ IEPs and provide testing accommodations to those who need them. This will provide more
definitive information about students’ abilities since the testing environment will be closer to what they will
experience on an exam. Find tips for SPED accommodations here.

Analysis Suggestions

Analyze the student work from this pre-assessment with colleagues who also administered it. When looking at the
student work, consider how students responded to the free response question, short answer questions, and DBQ
task. First, start by examining a few examples of student work together using tools similar to this Pre-Assessment
Analysis Sheet and this rubric based on the NYS Regents Exam until those scoring the papers agree. Record your
students’ performance and group them into those who:
● have not yet mastered sentence-level skills
● have mastered sentence-level skills but not yet paragraph-level skills

UNIT 1 | Historical Thinking | Pre-Assessment

 ● have mastered both sentence and paragraph-level skills
Based on the results, set learning targets for the next unit or marking period for those groups of students and gear
your instruction towards helping them improve and move on to the next level.

Alignment to State Standards

NYS Social Studies Framework:
Key Idea Conceptual Understandings Content Specifications

9.10 INTERACTIONS AND
DISRUPTIONS: Efforts to reach the
Indies resulted in the encounter between
the people of Western Europe, Africa, and
the Americas. This encounter led to a
devastating impact on populations in the
Americas, the rise of the transatlantic
slave trade, and the reorientation of trade
networks. (Standards: 2, 3, 4; Themes:
MOV, TCC, GEO, SOC, GOV, CIV, ECO,
TECH, EXCH)
9.10b
Transatlantic exploration led to the
Encounter, colonization of the Americas,
and the Columbian exchange
Students will map the exchange of crops
and animals and the spread of diseases
across the world during the Columbian
exchange.
Students will investigate the population of
the Americas before the encounter and
evaluate the impact of the arrival of the
Europeans on the indigenous
populations.
Students will contrast the demographic
impacts on Europe and China after the
introduction of new crops with
demographic effects on the Americas
resulting from the Columbian exchange.

Social Studies Practices

NYS Social Studies Practices New Visions Student Social Studies Practices

Gathering, Using and Interpreting Evidence (A2, Compare

A3, A5, A6, A7) The act of examining two or more things to identify
Chronological Reasoning and Causation (B2, B3, similarities and differences.
B4)
Comparison and Contextualization (C2, C4, C5,
C6) Categorize
Geographic Reasoning (B2) The act of placing similar events, people, or places
into groups and identifying what they have in
common.

Source
The act of analyzing evidence in terms of content,
authorship, point of view, bias, purpose, format,
and audience.

Close Read
The act of reading a source to identify the structure
and meaning of an author’s argument.

Corroborate
The act of comparing pieces of evidence to see
where they agree or disagree.

Contextualize
The act of describing the geographic, economic,
political, and historical circumstances of an event
on a local, regional, and global scale.

UNIT 1 | Historical Thinking | Pre-Assessment


Common Core State Standards
Depending on how you structure your lesson, you may address different standards. Below, are the standards that we
believe are most important for this lesson.
Reading
Key Ideas and Details:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.1: Cite specific textual evidence to
support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such
features as the date and origin of the information.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2: Determine the central ideas or
information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate
summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.3: Analyze in detail a series of events
described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones
or simply preceded them.
Craft and Structure:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.4: Determine the meaning of words and
phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing
political, social, or economic aspects of history/social science.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.6: Compare the point of view of two or
more authors for how they treat the same or similar topics, including
which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.7: Integrate quantitative or technical
analysis (e.g., charts, research data) with qualitative analysis in print or
digital text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.9: Compare and contrast treatments of
the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.10: By the end of grade 10, read and
comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 9-10 text
complexity band independently and proficiently.
Connect Cause and Effect
The act of identifying and explaining the long and
short term causes and effects of a historical event.
Think Like a Geographer
The act of analyzing an event by considering how
environments affect human activities and how
human activities affect physical environments.
Construct Arguments
The act of creating meaningful and persuasive
understandings of the past by using relevant
evidence from primary and secondary sources and
drawing connections to the present.
Writing
Text Types and Purposes:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST9-10.2: Write informative/explanatory
texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/
experiments, or technical processes.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.2.A: Introduce a topic and organize
ideas, concepts, and information to make important connections and
distinctions; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures,
tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.2.B: Develop the topic with
well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions,
concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples
appropriate to the audience's knowledge of the topic.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.2.C: Use varied transitions and
sentence structures to link the major sections of the text, create
cohesion, and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.2.D: Use precise language and
domain-specific vocabulary to manage the complexity of the topic and
convey a style appropriate to the discipline and context as well as to the
expertise of likely readers.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.2.E: Establish and maintain a formal
style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of
the discipline in which they are writing.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.2.F: Provide a concluding statement
or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation
presented (e.g., articulating implications or the significance of the topic).
UNIT 1 | Historical Thinking | Pre-Assessment
 9th Grade Global History Pre-Assessment
NAME __________________________ SCHOOL _________________________

PART 1: FREE RESPONSE QUESTION

Directions: In the space below answer the following questions in paragraph form.

Question: Should we study history? Why or why not?

Response:

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UNIT 1 | Historical Thinking | Pre-Assessment

 PART 2: DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION
This question is based on the accompanying documents. The question is designed to test your
ability to work with historical documents. Some of these documents have been edited for the purposes
of this question. As you analyze the documents, take into account the source of each document and
any point of view that may be presented in the document. Keep in mind that the language used in a
document may reflect the historical context of the time in which it was written.

Historical Context:

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed west from Europe and landed in the Caribbean. His
voyage and those that followed transformed the lives of people living around the Atlantic
Ocean through an increase of trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

Task:

Using the information from the documents and your knowledge of global
history, write a response in which you

● Discuss the effects of Atlantic Ocean trade after 1492

In developing your answer to Part II, be sure to keep this general definition in mind:
(a) discuss means “to make observations about something using facts, reasoning, and
argument; to present in some detail”

UNIT 1 | Historical Thinking | Pre-Assessment

Document 1

Source: Hanes, World History, Continuity and Change, 1999 from the NYS Global History and Geography
Regents Exam, August 2002.

1. Based on this map, identify two products that were traded across the Atlantic Ocean between 1451 and
1870.

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(a)

(b) ______________________________________________________

UNIT 1 | Historical Thinking | Pre-Assessment

Document 2

When Europeans came to the Americas they brought diseases with them that the people living in
the Americas had never encountered. Smallpox was the most deadly of those diseases.

Source:James Killoran et al, The Key to Understanding Global History, Jarrett Publishing (adapted) from the
NYS Global History and Geography Regents Exam, June 2003.

2. Based on this document, identify one population change that took place in Mexico from 1518 to
1593.
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UNIT 1 | Historical Thinking | Pre-Assessment

Document 3

. . . Long-Term Effects. The trade in African slaves brought about the largest forced movement of people in
history. It established the basis [reason] for black populations in the Caribbean and in North and South
America. At the same time, it disrupted social and political life in Africa and opened the door for European
colonization of the continent. . . . The shift [change] in European demand from gold, foodstuffs, and such
products to slaves changed the relations among African groups and states. The prices Africans received for
slaves made it more profitable for them to take captives [prisoners] from their neighbors than to establish
[set up] networks for producing and selling other goods. In this way the slave trade encouraged strong
states to raid [attack and steal from] weaker states for slaves. As a result, many African societies were torn
by organized slave wars and general banditry [theft]. Successful slave-raiding and trading societies formed
new states that were dominated [controlled] by military groups and constantly at war with their neighbors. . .
Source: John Middleton, ed., Africa: An Encyclopedia for Students, Volume 4, Thomson Learning from the NYS Global
History and Geography Regents Exam, August 2008.

3. Based on this excerpt from Africa: An Encyclopedia for Students, state two effects of the slave trade on
Africa.
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UNIT 1 | Historical Thinking | Pre-Assessment

Part B
Response
Directions: Write a well-organized response to the prompt below. Use evidence from at least two documents
in your response. Support your response with relevant facts, examples, and details. Include additional outside
information.

Historical Context:

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed west from Europe and landed in the Caribbean. His
voyage and those that followed transformed the lives of people living around the Atlantic
Ocean through an increase of trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

Task: Using the information from the documents and your knowledge of global
history, write a response in which you

● Discuss the effects of Atlantic Ocean trade after 1492

Guidelines:
In your response be sure to
● Develop all aspects of the task
● Incorporate information from at least two documents
● Incorporate relevant outside information
● Use a logical and clear plan of organization

UNIT 1 | Historical Thinking | Pre-Assessment

Document Based Response

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UNIT 1 | Historical Thinking | Pre-Assessment