Grade level: 4

Background information on this unit: This is a History unit

focusing on exploring ancient civilizations through the stories they
shared. This unit was split into three separate tiers for easier and more
particular grading as well as to illustrate to the students the three
steps to a presentation: research, compilation/editing, performance.
This assessment plan focuses on the last tier, performance. The two
previous tiers have been assessed separately already. Personal
communication throughout the first two tiers will take place in the form
of mini-presentations and class discussions so the teacher can stay
informed throughout the entire process, the students can benefit from
all of the ancient civilizations being researched in the classroom, and
the students acquire practice speaking in front of the classroom in lieu
of tier three. This will greatly influence the Performance Phase.

PERFORMANCE PHASE ASSESSMENT PLAN:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.4.4
Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an
organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive
details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an
understandable pace.

Objectives:
SWBAT: dramatize a story.
SWBAT: demonstrate appropriate facts found during the
Research Phase.

SWBAT: speak clearly at an understandable pace.

Table of Specifications

Objectives

Knowled Understand
ge
ing

1. dramatize a story.

X
X

2. demonstrate appropriate facts

found during the Research Phase.
3. speak clearly at an
understandable pace.

PERSONAL COMMUNICATION
At the start of tier three, personal communication will change
from mini-presentations to journal entries, and classroom discussions
will continue from the first two tiers. The overarching journal title will
be Performance Phase: [enter student title here] by [enter student
name here]. Classroom discussions will be based on the journal entries.
Students will have the opportunity to respond to dispositional
questions as well as content and reflection questions.
The teacher will benefit by having the opportunity to determine
how much information the students are able to find and interpret as
well as understand what they are getting out of it and whether or not
to adjust something in the lesson plan. The teacher will also be
involved with the entire process from discussing with the students how
to find reliable sources to assessing how it all comes together in the
final tier.
The students will benefit by having the opportunity to reflect on
their project up to that point; they will be given the opportunity to
suggest changes to the lesson; and they will assess themselves on
their time management skills, collaboration skills, and leadership skills.

SAFE ENVIRONMENT DURING PERSONAL

COMMUNICATION
Due to the fact that the teacher will be using group discussions
to informally assess students dispositions, ability to retain information,
and ability to self-assess, it is important to create an environment in
which students feel comfortable discussing with one another. If
students do not feel comfortable in the classroom, a group discussion
will not be a reliable form of assessment.
In order to set up a safe environment, the teacher will need to
establish that it is okay to make mistakes, share those mistakes with
the class, and ask questions. This will hopefully motivate students to
say what is on their mind instead of dismissing their thoughts. Asking
questions and sharing ideas and experiences will help students get
more out of the lesson.
In order to establish that questions and mistakes are okay, the
teacher can model how to find silver linings in every mistake that is
made (possibly referring to a story the class read recently or a
situation the students can relate to). The teacher can also ask openended questions with no correct answer so that students can see that
some questions do not always have right and wrong answers.
The teacher can create a safe environment for students with
culturally diverse backgrounds by letting the children pick which

ancient civilization they would like to research (letting them know that
no group can have more than a certain number of people). The teacher
can also allow ELL students to use automated translating applications
or show them how to change an online source into a different language
(if available) or offer resources in different languages. Before starting
the journals each day, the teacher can start a small class discussion
finding different ways to re-word the prompts. Other ideas can be
incorporated into this assessment plan to accommodate student
needs.
The collaboration and group comfort established early in the unit
(and earlier in the year) will help every student feel safe in classroom
discussions.

STUDENT INVOLVEMENT
Students can use assessments and the information from
assessments provided to become responsible for, and improve, their
own education. When students are involved in their assessments, they
become aware of where they are in relation to their learning targets
and can better plan the next steps in their education.
To involve the students in the assessment process of the ancient
civilization story unit, the teacher will ask the students to assess
themselves via journal entry prompts. The teacher will also discuss the
objectives of tier three with the students at the beginning of the
Performance Phase. This discussion will include the question, What
would you like to add? Each group will create and discuss an objective
they would like to add. Each groups objective will be put on the board
and the class will discuss which one they want to add to the given list
of objectives discussed previously for the Performance Phases
assessment.

STUDENT VOICE
In order to make sure every student has the opportunity to
assess their own mastery of the learning targets, the instructional
prompt for their journals in tier three will consist of three unfinished
sentences: I learned, I was curious about, I would like to learn more
about. The way in which these sentences are finished will be part of
the classroom discussion every day.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
To assess the learning of these fourth-graders, the teacher will be
involved in the entire process. In the Performance Phase, the teacher
will formatively assess the students cognitive development through a
series of journal entries and classroom discussions as well as walking
around from group to group during Collaboration Time. The students

will also create a portfolio, saving all of their work for each tier to show
their progress from start to finish.

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
The teacher will assess the overall outcome of tier three using a
rubric based on Common Core State Standard ELA-Literacy.SL.4.4. The
rubric will be a four-level Holistic rubric assessing each of the four
objectives for tier three.

PERFORMANCE PHASE JOURNAL ENTRY PROMPTS

(2 questions every day)
1. Dispositional: Does your ancient civilizations story remind you of
any other story?
Instructional: I learned I was curious about
I would like to
learn more about
Class discussion: Instructional and Dispositional
2. Dispositional: How was your groups time-management? Could it
have been better?
Explain.
Instructional: I learned I was curious about
I would like to
learn more about
Class discussion: Instructional and Dispositional
3. Dispositional: What was your greatest contribution to this unit?
Instructional: I learned I was curious about
I would like to
learn more about
Class discussion: Instructional and Dispositional
4. Dispositional: What would you change about this unit? Which phases
did you like or
not like? Why?
Instructional: I learned I was curious about
I would like to
learn more about
Class discussion: Instructional and Dispositional

STUDENT RUBRIC
Performance Phase Rubric ~ Acting out the Story
Consistently
achieves
objective
without
prompting ~
4
Student
dramatizes
the story
with
movement
and change
in voice,
looking up
from their
script. Very
fluid.

Consistently
achieves
objective
with
prompting ~
3
SWBAT:
Student
dramatize a
dramatizes
story.
the story
with
movement
and change
in voice,
looking up
from their
script. Not
fluid. Very
choppy.
SWBAT:
Student
Student
demonstrate demonstrate demonstrate
appropriate
s
s too many
facts found
appropriate
facts or not
during the
facts found
enough

Sometimes
achieves
objective ~
2

Does not
achieve
objective ~
1

Student
dramatizes
the story
with minimal
movement
and minimal
change in
voice.

Student
simply reads
and does
not act or
look up.
Distracted.

Student
demonstrate
s facts from
an
unreliable

Student
does not
have
appropriate
facts found

Research
Phase.
SWBAT:
speak
clearly at an
understanda
ble pace.
SWBAT:
[enter
students
objective]

during the
Research
Phase.
Student
speaks
clearly at an
understanda
ble pace.

facts.

source.

Student
fluctuates
between too
fast and just
right.

Student
speaks too
fast and, as
a result, it is
hard to
understand.

during the
Research
Phase.
Student
does not
speak.

Feedback By:

My Rubric
EALR/GLEE and Objectives
E
Communicates 1 expectation; Clearly worded;
Concise; Begins with Student will be able to:;
Has an action verb; Observable and measurable
behavior or activity. Each objective is explicitly
aligned with EALRs; The performance is derived
explicitly from objectives.
Personal Communication Questions
E
Questions for individual, questions for
group/class; questions are worded in a common
language; questions are aligned with objectives.
Consistency, and alignment with targets.
Personal Communication Paragraph
E
Teacher has developed/demonstrated cultural
awareness; the environment is safe for students.
A system is in place to maintain accurate
records; consistency, and alignment with targets.
A discussion of how personal communication
will be used to assess student learning before the
assessment is included.
Student Voice
E
Students are given opportunity to reflect on their
learning relative to targets AND asked to
articulate the next steps to support their learning.

Student Involvement
E
Students are involved in the assessment process
in an engaged, sustained, and creative way.

Rubric
E
Must be based on Objectives. Must have a
scoring system. Must have a space for the
students objective to be added.

Rubric for me
Rubric must fit format of previous P/C
assignment rubrics.

Table of Specifications
E
Objectives are indicated in row headings and
achievement targets are column headings. An X
shows where each objective should fall for the
achievement targets.

Meets
standard
without
help

Meets
standard
with help

Partially
meets
standard
with/without
help

Fails to
meet
standard

Meets
standard
without
help

Meets
standard
with help

Meets
standard
without
help

Meets
standard
with help

Meets
standard
without
help

Meets
standard
with help

Meets
standard
without
help

Meets
standard
with help

Meets
standard
without
help

Meets
standard
with help

Meets
standard
without
help

Meets
standard
with help

Meets
standard
without
help

Meets
standard
with help

2
Partially
meets
standard
with/without
help
2

Fails to
meet
standard

Partially
meets
standard
with/without
help

Fails to
meet
standard

2
Partially
meets
standard
with/without
help
2
Partially
meets
standard
with/without
help
2
Partially
meets
standard
with/without
help
2
Partially
meets
standard
with/without
help
2
Partially
meets
standard
with/without
help

1
Fails to
meet
standard
1
Fails to
meet
standard
1
Fails to
meet
standard
1
Fails to
meet
standard
1
Fails to
meet
standard

Feedback By:

My Rubric
EALR/GLEE and Objectives
E
Communicates 1 expectation; Clearly worded;
Concise; Begins with Student will be able to:;
Has an action verb; Observable and measurable
behavior or activity. Each objective is explicitly
aligned with EALRs; The performance is derived
explicitly from objectives.
Personal Communication Questions
E
Questions for individual, questions for
group/class; questions are worded in a common
language; questions are aligned with objectives.
Consistency, and alignment with targets.
Personal Communication Paragraph
E
Teacher has developed/demonstrated cultural
awareness; the environment is safe for students.
A system is in place to maintain accurate
records; consistency, and alignment with targets.
A discussion of how personal communication
will be used to assess student learning before the
assessment is included.
Student Voice
E
Students are given opportunity to reflect on their
learning relative to targets AND asked to
articulate the next steps to support their learning.

Student Involvement
E
Students are involved in the assessment process
in an engaged, sustained, and creative way.

Rubric
E
Must be based on Objectives. Must have a
scoring system. Must have a space for the
students objective to be added.

Rubric for me
Rubric must fit format of previous P/C
assignment rubrics.

Table of Specifications
E
Objectives are indicated in row headings and
achievement targets are column headings. An X
shows where each objective should fall for the
achievement targets.

Meets
standard
without
help

Meets
standard
with help

Partially
meets
standard
with/without
help

Fails to
meet
standard

Meets
standard
without
help

Meets
standard
with help

Meets
standard
without
help

Meets
standard
with help

Meets
standard
without
help

Meets
standard
with help

Meets
standard
without
help

Meets
standard
with help

Meets
standard
without
help

Meets
standard
with help

Meets
standard
without
help

Meets
standard
with help

Meets
standard
without
help

Meets
standard
with help

2
Partially
meets
standard
with/without
help
2

Fails to
meet
standard

Partially
meets
standard
with/without
help

Fails to
meet
standard

2
Partially
meets
standard
with/without
help
2
Partially
meets
standard
with/without
help
2
Partially
meets
standard
with/without
help
2
Partially
meets
standard
with/without
help
2
Partially
meets
standard
with/without
help

1
Fails to
meet
standard
1
Fails to
meet
standard
1
Fails to
meet
standard
1
Fails to
meet
standard
1
Fails to
meet
standard