(14.1) Think of a lesson plan from your licensure area. Knowing that assessment is an integral part of teaching, explain at least four informal and formal assessments that you will use in your lesson plan to provide you with feedback and involve the students in assessing their own learning.
For the purposes of this reflection, I will be assuming the role of a High school Government teacher. I will present a 3 day lesson concerning the anti-Establishment and Free Exercise clauses from the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Major changes are coming to High school Social Sciences next year, which will move US Government from a Sophomore class to a Senior class. I think this is an excellent opportunity to give students a chance to truly experience how the government works first hand, by creating a simulation scenario. Near the beginning of the year, I will have assigned each student a position within the US Government (e.g. President, VP, Senator, Representative, or Justice) representing each of the three branches. Throughout the semester, including the lesson being discussed currently, students will actively act out various government functions.
Given this, in the last 20 minutes of a Friday (Day I) class, I will have the students watch a news story featuring a controversial display of the Ten Commandments in a courthouse. I will then ask them to write a journal entry reacting to the story. At the close of class, I will collect the journal entries. This activity will allow me to assess the individual and collective understanding of the issue. I will then be able to construct Monday's lecture to reflect their current knowledge.
On Monday (Day II) I will present a lecture on the history and current interpretations of the two clauses. I will also facilitate a directed discussion by asking the class questions about various implications of anti-Establishment clause, and the extent to which they believe individuals had the right to exercise their religion. I will end the class by handing out a summary of Lemon v Kurtzman, a landmark court case dealing with school prayer. I will ask them to come to class tomorrow having read the summary and having prepared short statement in response.
On Tuesday (Day III) students will break out into their pre-assigned groups and share their thoughts on school prayer, with each student presenting their statement. After that I will facilitate a classroom debate on the subject, which will provide me with an opportunity to qualitatively assess their knowledge We would end the debate by having a "vote" in each group, reconnecting the idea of Checks & Balances and Separation of Powers from an earlier unit.
A formal and quantitative assessment will take place a week later, when students will take a test on the entire First Amendment, including speech, press, and assembly.
In following this lesson plan I will have four ways of assessing students knowledge of the objective. A pre-lecture journal entry to assess prior knowledge; a typed response to lecture topic and court case; an entire classroom discussion to assess their mastery in a qualitative fashion; and finally a formal exam, which determines if the lesson has had lasting impact.
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