Goal Update- Failure!

Well, there's no sense lying- I've already fallen short of my professional goal this year. (My goal is to develop a differentiated assessment for each unit in social studies.) We just finished Mesopotamia and I didn't create a differentiated assessment- I failed!

Now here's the part where I make up an excuse. Here goes: Part of it has to do with the fact that I've never taught ancient civilizations, so much of my time and preparation is in day-to-day lesson planning and background reading to increase my own knowledge of the subject. I know where I want the course to go conceptually speaking- the themes I want to focus on within each unit of study and the materials I want to use to get there. I had my differentiation book out, open to the chapter on differentiation by product, but there was a large obstruction blocking the creative juices in my brain. I couldn't think of a project for this unit! (What do you think of my excuse? Post comments!)

Despite the fact that I didn't meet my goal for the first unit, I still think it was pretty successful overall. We studied the geography, culture (tools/technology, writing, language, religion), economy, government, and social structure of Ancient Mesopotamia and we read Gilgamesh the Hero in Language Arts (which the kids loved). The librarian from the public library gathered about thirty books on Mesopotamia for me, and students used those throughout the unit in addition to the textbook. We watched a series of short Discovery Education videos which were very engaging and provided some excellent visuals for the kids. Students worked in cooperative groups, each group became experts on a specific technology and taught the class. I have a book with awesome simulations for each ancient civilization and the kids really got into that. They made their own clay tablets and wrote their names in cuneiform (messy, but fun- definitely got across how difficult being a scribe was). Hammurabi's Court was a fun class period, but it wasn't until I read their essays that I realized they thought people who broke the law really went to a place called "Hammurabi's Court." Didn't make that point clear enough:) A lot of reading and double-column notes of course.

My assessment for this unit was a seven paragraph essay: introduction, geography, religion, culture, economy, political/social systems, and conclusion. Students wrote this over the course of one week. Day One: Reviewed some steps for expository writing. Students used a graphic organizer I provided to organize information for their essays. Day Two: drafting. Day Three: typing. Day Four: peer revising and publishing. Of course the students wanted to know how much they had to write, so we worked off of a general framework: 3 details per paragraph- okay (C), 4 details- better (B), 5 details- best (A).

The best part of having students write is it really shows you what they know. They knew a lot about the geography, religion, economy, and culture, but much less about the political and social systems so I need to spend more time and rework that section of the unit. The other thing I noticed is that students recalled and organized information effectively, but I would like to see them move beyond restating- only a handful of students explained or drew conclusions. This is something we will address, practice, and reinforce in the remaining units. The assessment for each unit will always be an essay, because students need to write as much as possible, but I definitely want a differentiated piece so students have an opportunity to showcase their strengths.

I will not give up on my goal. My next post will be about my differentiated Egypt project!