Grades 9-12: Civil Rights Movement in Context
Rating: 
Common Core Standards
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading
CCRA.R.1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
CCRA.R.4 Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
CCRA.R.5 Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.
CCRA.R.9 Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.
Description of Formative Assessment
This Grades 9-12 formative assessment titled “Civil Rights Movement in Context” cited on beyondthebubble.stanford.edu was developed by the Stanford History Education Group in collaboration with the Library of Congress’s Teaching with Primary Sources Educational Consortium. The assessment is intended to inform instruction about a student’s ability to contextualize two historical documents and place them in the correct chronological order. It asks students to go beyond factual recall to apply information in a specific historical context. In this formative assessment students are given two primary source documents written over twenty years apart. They read the documents, determine which was written first, and explain their answers using evidence from the documents and their knowledge of history.
Cautions
Connecticut teachers should be cautioned that before this formative assessment is used in a history/social studies course, some modifications to the targeted standards will be necessary. The targeted standards for the formative assessment are not clearly labeled. The assessment document first lists the ELA College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards noted above and then includes a document in the assessment materials showing Reading Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies in various grades 6-12. Depending on the grade using this assessment, the actual standards targeted will need to be more clearly labeled. While reading standards are listed, writing standards are not and could be since students write their response to the assessment question. Before implementing this assessment, students will need to have background knowledge on the Civil Rights Movement. There is no direction on when in the unit instruction this assessment should be implemented or the amount of time it might take for students to complete.
Rationale for Selection
This formative assessment is a good example of how to elicit direct, observable evidence of the degree to which a student can independently demonstrate the major targeted grade level CCSS standards with appropriately complex text(s). It asks students to consider content in ways that require thought, judgment, and deep understanding: balancing knowledge content and historical thinking. It offers an easy to use assessment to capture students’ knowledge in action- rather than their recall of discrete facts. While not clearly noted, it appears this assessment could be completed in a short amount of time providing timely feedback on student understanding to inform instruction. Assessment materials include a scoring rubric as well as annotated student responses.