Olson_Assessment_Journal_2

 **Assessment Journal #2**

This assessment is a social studies unit test. This test is comprised of: a content section (multiple choice, fill in the blank with a word bank). On the next page there is a section with a cause and effect component where students read a passage and pull out different pieces of it to show cause/effect relationships within it. Some “causes” are already filled in for the students and they are required to write the “effect” while some “effects” are included and students are required to fill in the “cause”. This assessment is made through the social studies text book my cooperating teacher uses. Along with the text book provides, she included a handwritten part of the assessment. Here, she asks one question: Explain what kinds of crops grow mainly in the South East, where and why? She also includes a map and asks them to trace different areas of it.
 * Context and structure:**

This assessment is implemented by giving it out to students while they are seated at their desks. She asks them to separate their desks from the grouped arrangement in order to monitor cheating. Students complete assessments within a 30 minute time frame. Extra time is given to students who she notices struggling the next day or in the hall for an extra 10-15 minutes. Results vary among students. Many students scored very high while others did poorly. Students seemed to have enough time and only two students needed about 10 extra minutes.
 * Implementation and results:**

I feel that this assessment is effective because it asks students a variety of things. Students are given multiple choice, word banks, long and short answer questions. They are also asked to use map reading skills. I think this assessment gets students to use a variety of skills in order to assess their knowledge. I feel this assessment could be fair for all or most students because many are good at different test taking strategies. Although not very authentic, this test does give students a chance to excel at their strong points due to the variety. I appreciated this test because it wasn’t comprised of all multiple choice or all short answer questions. Like me, some students may not do extremely well on multiple choice questions, but be able to express themselves more clearly on a written portion of an assessment. I feel this assessment allowed for this, and the teacher added components in order for students to be successful.
 * Reflection:**

<<Section 3