Evan Leuenberger 1

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Formative Assessment Practices Assignment

Learner Goals and StrategyWith my teaching scheduled for February 17th, I was assigned to teach
on the Antebellum Norths economy from around 1800 to just before the Civil
War. In reviewing the chapter, I began to brainstorm ways to make the
abstract inventions of this time period into things the students could touch
and experience. As such, the learner outcomes I wrote on the agenda for the
day were that students would learn about northern Inventions from 1800 to
1860, and that they would be able to answer how did technology and
industrialization affect the North?
For my lesson I created three activity stations, from which groups of 810 students would travel in a circular fashion for about ten minutes each. In
my first station students were divided into two groups, one working
individually and another representing specialized labor, with both groups
racing to see how many shirts they could cut and color within the time limit.
In the second activity, students interacted with Morse Code, decoding a
message and writing their own. Finally in the third station students engaged
in a scavenger hunt for about 12 items I hid throughout the classroom, each
invented in the North during that time period.
The exit ticket I created was a place for students to organize their
thoughts across stations, and ended with a synthesis, asking the questions:
1. Which invention studied in class today do you think made the biggest
impact on the United States in the years before the Civil War? Why?
2. Which invention had the biggest impact on our world today?
These final two questions went beyond attributing different inventions to the
north or south, or to playing around with Morse code. The first question was
meant to push students to dig deeper; first to name an invention studied in
the lesson, but to go beyond that to explain in their own words why that
invention mattered at the time. The second question made students make
connections on their own between inventions studied in class that day, but
also to see the legacy of these inventions on our world today.

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Student WorkOverall I was pleased with the student work I got back from Bens 5th
hour after I completed my lesson. For the questions concerning the three
different stations, students wrote responses showing that they were following
along and doing what they were supposed to do. For example many students
had at least half of the inventions for the scavenger hunt, and wrote out the
name of the inventor, the year it was invented, and the significance of the
invention. This demonstrates that it wasnt simply a mad dash to find the
hidden items, but instead that they took the time to record the pertinent
information as the directions explained.
In terms of the final two questions, I was happy with the answers the
students left. I would estimate that about seventy percent of students wrote
well thought out answers that I hoped that they would. For example the vast
majority of that seventy percent wrote that the telegraph was a major
invention from that time period and today, because it accelerated
communication across long distances. From there I would estimate that
about twenty to twenty-five percent of students wrote silly answers for the
significant invention such as toilet paper or baseball (though while those
were not the answers I intended for students to walk away from class
learning, arguably they too were important). Finally I would say that around
five to ten percent of students wrote answers that indicated that they were
confused by the question or hadnt learned what I had hoped that they
would.
Some of the misconceptions on the formative assessment have clear
remedies. For example a number of students wrote variations of making
clothes, clothes, and the clothing line as their responses for the most
important invention from the time period and today. In the future I would
highlight that it was the sewing matching, invented by Elias Howe that was
the breakthrough from that time period. The most puzzling response to the
final two questions was that the chalkboard was in important invention from
the time, despite that choice never being present in any of the stations,
including the scavenger hunt. If it were my class I might follow up with that
student to work out where the confusion originated from so that it could be
remedied before the test.
Overall I think my formative assessment accomplished its goal, in
aiding students learn more about the inventions in the North prior to the Civil
War. A strength present in a majority of the student work was that many
students were able to pick one of the inventions from class and explain why

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the invention was significant. Going further, many drew the connection
between the telegraph and telephone technology present today, which I
hoped to see when designing the second question. One of the weaknesses
from the student work overall was that very few students used complete
sentences or elaboration at any point on the exit ticket. In future
assignments I would verbalize that expectation or else write in the direction
portion about that expectation. In the future I might also give students more
time to finish recording their information after each station, and an extra five
to ten minutes at the end so that the students wouldnt be rushed and so
that they could extend more. Because it was my first time running the
activities and other distractions (the principal came into class during their
wrap up time).
If it were my classroom I would not grade the assignment, but instead
would use it to inform my own teaching of those activities, and would send
back the work with feedback. I would opt not to grade the assessment
because the activities of the day were intended to be fun and exciting.
Further, because the whole day was on the rushed side, it wouldnt be fair to
the students that they might not have had the proper amount of time to
finish the exit ticket. Because I collected them I learned about what students
took out of each activity, both what worked well and what didnt, which will
inform how I teach this lesson in the future. I would send back responses to
students, both to encourage those who picked well thought out answers, as
well as to check in with students who seemed to have missed something
along the way.
Overall I was pleasantly surprised with how well the lesson went, as
well as how much of the exit ticket was filled out. There was only one or two
formative assessment assignments that I received back with answers that
were incorrect. I would certainly consider using this formative assessment
again.

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Appendix A
Northern Industry Exit Ticket
Station I: Specialization
1. Read the section Three Phases of Industrialization on page 367. Which
stage of industrialization did this activity represent? Why would this
have been useful?

Station II: Morse Code

1. Read the section Communications Breakthroughs on page 379-380.
Why was the invention of the telegraph and Morse Code such a
breakthrough?

2. Are there any inventions we use today that are similar to the
telegraph?

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Final Thoughts
3. Which invention studied in class today do you think made the biggest
impact on the United States in the years before the Civil War? Why?

4. Which invention had the biggest impact on our world today?

Station III: Inventions of the North 1815-1862

Invention

Yea
r

Inventor

Significance

Sewing
Machine

184
6

Elias
Howe

The sewing machine allowed for the mass

production
of garments

Baseball
Doughnut
(ringshaped)
Safety pin
Potato chips
Mason jar
Dental floss
Graham
Cracker
Condensed
milk

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Toilet paper
Pink
lemonade
Screw top
Pepper
shaker
Jelly bean

1. Why did so many inventions come from the North during this time
period?

2. How many of these inventions have you used in the past week?