Concordia University Nebraska Education Department Assessment Blueprint

Name: Brianna Van Bibber Grade Level: 5th Grade

Topic/Central Focus: Pre-Civil War Course for which unit is developed:

Instruction and Assessment

Cumulative list of Standard(s) to be met in the Unit:

 SS 5.4.2.a Compare and contrast primary and secondary sources to better
understand multiple perspectives of the same event.
 SS 5.4.2.b Identify and describe how multiple perspectives facilitate the understanding
of US history.
 SS 5.3.5 Use geographic skills to interpret issues and events.
 SS 5.1.2.e Examine how cooperation and conflict among people have contributed to
political, economic, and social events and situations in the United States.
Unit Learning Targets
What will students know? What will students What will students do?
1. Sectionalism understand? 1. The students will
2. Slavery 1. Students will compare different
3. Tariffs understand that the perspectives of
4. Discrimination North and South differ northerners and
5. Abolitionists from each other based
southerners.
6. Slave Codes off regional agricultural
7. Underground Railroad and industrial needs. 2. The students will read
8. Nat Turner 2. Students will different writings and
9. Harriet Tubman understand that quotes from people
10. Levi & Catherine Coffin compromises were from the pre-civil war
11. Free States made to avoid time period.
12. Slave States separation of the south 3. The students will
13. States’ Rights and north. sequence events
14. Missouri Compromise 3. Students will leading up to the Civil
15. Fugitive Slave Law understand that political war.
16. Compromise of 1850 issues caused disputes 4. Students will analyze
17. Kansas-Nebraska Act between the North and
18. John C. Calhoun geographical
the South that lead to
19. Henry Clay the beginning of the differences from the
20. Daniel Webster Civil war. north and south.
21. Stephen Douglas
22. Bleeding Kansas
23. Harriet Beecher Stowe
24. Dred Scott
25. John Brown
26. Harper Ferry, Virginia
27. Abraham Lincoln
28. Fort Sumter, South Carolina
29. Jefferson Davis
30. Secede
31. Confederacy
32. Union
33. Border State
34. Civil War
Pre/Diagnostic Assessment:

Description:
This quiz will ask students two questions and students can explain what they know about the topics.
The questions are open ended so that they can explain what they know best.
Concordia University Nebraska Education Department Assessment Blueprint

Purpose:
This test will show the teacher what background knowledge that the students already possess and
where learning needs to start. This test will show if the students need to be brushed up on previously
learned content before moving on into the next phase of pre-Civil war content.

Learning targets addressed:

 Know
o 1-34
 Understand
o 1-3
 DO
o 1

Justify the assessment method chosen:

I chose an individual formal assessment where the students will answer open-ended questions that will
ask them to retrieve knowledge that was learned in previous courses. Open ended questions will allow
students to conceptualize their prior knowledge. The students will also be asked to shade in and line a
picture of the United States to prove understanding of the nation’s physical political divide.

Summative Assessment:

Description:
This quiz will have a list of multiple choice and fill in the blank questions that will test if the students
learned important vocab words from the section. The students will then be asked to read primary
sources and decide which side they believe the authors are from and why based off evidence in the
reading. Students will also be asked to explain in short other concepts and their importance.

Purpose:
This test will show the teacher what vocab words the students learned and didn’t learn. This will also
show the teacher which concepts were understood, and which concepts did not get learned. The
students will also prove their understand of multiple perspectives to the teacher.

Learning targets addressed:

 Know
o 1-34
 Understand
o 1-3
 Do
o 1,2,4

Justify the assessment method chosen:

Knowing vocabulary and concepts is important so that students remember why people or events are
important. I also have students reading through primary sources and deciphering the content and
language. This forces students to find information for themselves and make decisions based on prior
learning and

Formative Assessment Task: Compare Primary Sources

Description:
Students will be given two primary sources to read from the book. The students will then be asked to
compare and contrast the perspectives together as a class.
Concordia University Nebraska Education Department Assessment Blueprint

Purpose:
1) The teacher will be informed on whether or not the students are understanding differing
perspectives.
2) The students will be able to talk and learn about the differing perspectives of both sides of the
looming war.

Learning targets addressed:

 Know
o 1-34
 Understand
o 3
 Do
o 2

Justify the assessment method chosen:

The students will be able to pick apart the differing perspectives of people on both sides of the war.
Students will also get to read from resources and discuss with their classmates.

Formative Assessment Task; Diary Entries

Description:
The students will write a letter or diary entry over after each textbook lesson that will capture events,
people, and other important information that a person of that time period would write about.

Purpose:
This project will prove to the teacher that the students understand the concerns of different people at
that time and the big events and concepts that were taking place.

Learning targets addressed:

 Know
o 1-34
 Understand
o 1-3
 Do
o 3,4

Justify the assessment method chosen:

This type of assessment requires students to consider events and circumstances from the perspective
of someone who is not themselves. The students will also be required to have enough content
knowledge to write about certain events, people, and conflicts of the pre-Civil War era. Students will
perform this writing task that will require them to use critical thinking to pull information together to
form a full picture of the events happening in this time period.

Formative Assessment Task: Debate

Description:
Students will be given a statement from a primary or secondary source and then be asked to defend
their stance based on the point of view of a northerner. The students will then be asked to reread the
statement and write a defense based on the point of view of a southerner. The students will debate
themselves using the information from the reading and the inferences they made based on the entries
they wrote and the sources they have read.

Purpose:
The purpose of this assignment is to encourage students to think outside of themselves and determine
Concordia University Nebraska Education Department Assessment Blueprint

if they have learned to look at the perspectives of different sides of this event. This will show the
teacher that they students understand the multiple perspectives of this unit.

Learning targets addressed:

 Know
o 1-34
 Understand
o 1-3
 Do
o 1-2
Justify the assessment method chosen:
This assessment will demonstrate the student’s ability to compare and contrast different points of view
while showing a deeper understanding of the conceptual content at hand. The students will also use
critical thinking to defend multiple points of view.

COPY/PASTE ALL CREATED ASSESSMENTS BELOW. LABEL EACH ASSESSMENT SO THAT IT CLEARLY
COORESPONDS TO ONE OF THE ASSESSMENTS EXPLAINED ABOVE.

Pre-Civil War Unit Pre-Test

Concordia University Nebraska Education Department Assessment Blueprint

Name: ______________________________ Date:____/_____/________     

       
Directions: In the space provided below, write two to three sentences about

the differing social views of the Northern and Southern states that caused

tension leading up to the Civil War.

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

Directions: Briefly explain why Southern states placed laws into action that

would limit the African American population in the South. 

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

Summative Assessments

Name ___________________
Concordia University Nebraska Education Department Assessment Blueprint

Directions: Circle the option that best b) Harriet Tubman

answers each question.
c) Sojourner Truth
1) These laws were made to control the
behavior of slaves and make their lives d) Rosa Parks
difficult. 
6) This event allowed Maine to become a
a) Amendments  free state and Missouri to become a
slave state.
b) Commandments
a) Bleeding Kansas
c) Slave Codes
b) Kansas-Nebraska Act
d) Petitions
c) Missouri Compromise
2) This slave led a meeting for slaves who
at the time were not allowed to gather in d) Fugitive Slave Laws
large groups according to the slave
codes.  7) This person was also known as “The
Great Compromiser”.
a) Nat Turner
a) Henry Clay
b)  Joseph Cinque
b) Abraham Lincoln
c) Harriet Tubman
c) John C. Calhoun
d) Levi Coffin
d) Dred Scott
3) This white person opened a school for
slaves in North Carolina.  8) This person led attacks on pro-slavery
groups in Kansas.
a) Catherine Coffin
a) Dred Scott
b) Harriet Tubman
b) Jefferson Davis
c) Joseph Cinque
c) John Brown
d) Levi Coffin
d) Stephan Douglas
4) Nat Turner and his followers killed 60
white people in this town. 9) This man ran as a republican nominee
for president who was against slavery.
a) Southampton County, Virginia
a) Jefferson Davis
b) Washington D.C.
b) Henry Clay
c) Harper Ferry, Virginia
c) Levi Coffin
d) New Haven, Connecticut
d) Abraham Lincoln
5) This African American woman returned
to the south 19 times to lead around 300 10) The South elected this man as their
slaves to freedom via the Underground president after they broke away from the
Railroad. United States.

a) Catherine Coffin a) Jefferson Davis

b) Abraham Lincoln
Concordia University Nebraska Education Department Assessment Blueprint

c) John Brown 8. _______Fugitive Slave Laws___

stated that escaped slaves must be
d) Dred Scott returned to their owners.

9. ____Harriet Beecher Stowe___

Directions: Fill in each blank with the words wrote novels on the cruelty of
from the vocab box that best completes slavery.
each sentence. 
10. The Northern states called
themselves the
1. __Sectionalism_ is a loyalty to a _______Union______.
section or part of the country rather
to the whole Country. 

2. The ____Underground Railroad was Directions: Circle True or False for each of
an organized secret system set up to the statements in which best applies.
help enslaved people escape from
the South to freedom.  3) True / False
a) The Compromise of 1850 allowed
3. A ___Free State___ was a state in California to become a free state.
which slavery was not allowed.  4) True / False
a) Daniel Webster was not in favor of
4. A ___Slave State___ was a state in the Compromise of 1850.
which slavery was legally allowed.  5) True / False
a) The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed
5. ____Catherine Coffin____ helped the territories to choose whether or
more than 2,000 slaves escape to not they would be a free or slave
freedom. state.
6. ____John C. Calhoun____ from the 6) True / False
south, was a senator who believed a) Southern states referred to
in states’ rights. themselves at the Confederacy.
7) True / False
7. _______States’ Rights____ allowed a) To secede from your country means
states to make decisions that to form a better bond with the other
concerned them. states.

Directions: Give a 3 to 5 sentence explanation of each of the given questions on a separate

piece of lined paper. 

1. What were some geographical differences that led the South and the North to dispute.
Concordia University Nebraska Education Department Assessment Blueprint

2. What role did the Underground Railroad play in helping slaves, and why was it
important?

3. After reading the two dialogues provided below, describe which side you think each
writer belongs to and use specific details from the dialogues to support your reasoning. 
Concordia University Nebraska Education Department Assessment Blueprint

Formative Assessment; Performance Task

Diary Entries
Directions: Students will write a diary insert that will explain an event in the life of a person they will
create from the Pre-Civil War era. These diary entries will contain specific dates, people, and information
regarding the content they have learned.

The students will do this for each lesson of the unit. Therefore, there will be 4 entries in all. Each letter
must contain one person, event, and place from the lesson. Lack of any of these elements will result in
deducted points.

The students are allowed to create any person they wish from either the South or North. The student may
take the creative liberties into their own hands. This means the entries can be on notebook paper,
construction paper, the student may make their own diary, etc…

Diary Entry Rubric

Concordia University Nebraska Education Department Assessment Blueprint

The student The student The student The student The student did
accurately accurately accurately accurately not accurately
demonstrated demonstrated demonstrated demonstrated demonstrate use
knowledge of the knowledge of the knowledge of the knowledge of the of the content in
content in 4 of content in 3 of content in 2 of content in 1 of any of the
the entries. the entries. the entries. the entries. entries.

(10 pts) (8 pts) (6 pts) (4 pts) (0 pts)

The student The student The student The student The student did
accurately accurately accurately accurately not accurately
displayed a displayed a displayed a displayed a display a historical
historical figure historical figure in historical figure in historical figure in figure in any of
in 4 of their 3 of their entries. 2 of their entries. 1 of their entries. their entries.
entries.
(8 pts) (6 pts) (4 pts) (0 pts)
(10 pts)

The student The student The student The student The student does
accurately accurately accurately accurately not accurately
displayed a key displayed a key displayed a key displayed a key display a key
event from the event from the event from the event from the event from the
Pre-Civil War era Pre-Civil War era Pre-Civil War era Pre-Civil War era Pre-Civil War era
in 4 of the in 3 of the entries. in 2 of the entries. in 1 of the entries. in any of the
entries. entries.
(8 pts) (6 pts) (4 pts)
(10 pts) (0 pts)

The student uses The student uses The student uses The student uses The student does
correct grammar correct grammar correct grammar correct grammar not use correct
and punctuation and punctuation in and punctuation in and punctuation in grammar and
in all 4 entries. 3 entries. 2 entries. 1 entry. punctuation in any
of the entries.
(5 pts) (4 pts) (3 pts) (2 pts)
(0 pts)

The student The student The student The student The student does
accurately accurately accurately accurately not accurately
included a included a included a included a include a historical
historical place in historical place in historical place in historical place in place in any of the
all 4 entries. 3 entries. 2 entries. 1 entry. entries.

(10 pts) (8 pts) (6 pts) (4 pts) (0 pts)

Concordia University Nebraska Education Department Assessment Blueprint

Formative Assessment
Debate
Name: __________________

Directions: In the space provided below, write a defense from the point of view of a person
from a Northern State for the given statement in bold. After you are done writing, read the
statement a second time and write an objection for the same statement based off the
reasoning of a person from a Southern State.

“Abraham Lincoln should be our president.”

Northern Southern
States States
Concordia University Nebraska Education Department Assessment Blueprint

Formative Assessment:

Name _________________
Directions: In the Ven diagram below, compare and contrast the two readings provided.