The Reading: 243,000 tests taken, 1061 readers, 7 days - you do the math! I am a Table Leader so come 2 days before others, but 2 days after the Question Leader and Sample Selectors. This year with the snow and fires (in Southern California) there are 95,000 alternative exams.
CCOT (the one I was reading) - Preliminary average scores: 1.88 (unadjusted) and 2.74 (adjusted without '0's and '-'s). Most students picked Latin America or Sub-Saharan Africa, very few chose Southeast Asia and many who did thought that it included China or India (NOT TRUE!).
Rubric:
- Thesis - 1 change and 1 continuity about interregional trade (that is between two regions) - have to have information beyond the prompt - so some modifier of trade and interregional
- Address all parts - 1 change and 1 continuity about interregional trade (cannot be about production) - same as thesis, some value added
- Evidence - 6 pieces for 2 points, 3 pieces for 1 point. This can be about production - cannot be about items exchanged as part of the Columbian Exchange (only those that are exchanged as part of actual trade). Items like sugar, slaves or silver would count. This is a fairly easy point for kids to get, but not all get it.
- Analysis - of an actual change OR continuity (1) - many kids are doing this but some too subtly, should try to be more obvious to signal that they are doing analysis - however simply labeling in the margins 'ANALYSIS' does not always mean that there is analysis present.
- World Historical Context - connect a global event to a change or continuity or link three regions together by trade (so Europeans trading slaves from Africa to the Americas would count) - fairly easy point for many kids
Reports from Monty Armstrong:
- The students have a great deal of information about products of the regions but miss the part about “interregional trade.” Where did the products go? They are not moving outside the region.
- World historical context continues to be a problem.. One of the prefect solutions is the silver trade.
DBQ - seems to be going well, no major surprises and mostly reading well. Preliminary average scores: 2.64 (unadjusted) and 3.25 (adjusted without '0's and '-'s).
- Thesis - 1 relationship needed to be identified
- Docs needed to identify relationship
- 2 Groups/Groupings
- 2 POVs
- 1 Additional Document
Reports from Monty Armstrong:
- Teachers are teaching to a formula of one kind or another. You pick up a packet with 10 essays from the same school and they all read alike. Now, this is not a bad thing, but in some cases the teacher left the PoV or the additional document out of the formula and ALL the essays are missing the same item. If you going to teach to a formula, make sure it contains ALL the scoring points.
- Some school groups of essays only have 8 of the 9 docs. The implication is that the students have been told they do not have to use all the docs. WRONG! They have use address ALL the docs but they get one mistake. They do not have use all the docs for evidence (8/9) but they have to address them all.
- Putting 3 or 4 document numbers at the end of a paragraph and assuming they will get the evidence or the grouping point. They have to be more specific.
Back to the issue of a formula. I encountered a problem today with the formula approach. A teacher was teaching the students to create a standard intro drawn from the question and then telling them they needed to note three items to discuss in the essay. That works many times but not for this question. For this DBQ the thesis could be as simple as,”The peasants and the CCP had a mutually beneficial relationship, each side helping the other.” By having students try to fit the thesis into the 3 item formula, many lost points.
C&C - also not much that is surprising, the trick for most kids is making sure they address the prompt. Preliminary average scores: 1.75 (unadjusted) and 2.69 (adjusted without '0's and '-'s).
Rubric:
- Thesis - 1 similarity and 1 difference about how empires used religion to govern
- Address all parts - 1 similarity and 1 difference about how empires used religion to govern
- Evidence - 5 pieces for 2 points, 3 pieces for 1 point. Evidence has to be about religions in the related empire. Had to have one piece of evidence for each empire
- Direct Comparison - one similarity/difference about how empires' use of religion to govern
- Analysis - must explain the reason for the direct reason
Reports from Monty Armstrong:
- The students are still having trouble with the thesis.
- This is a question about government, not about religion.
- One of the changes this year is that they one need 1 compare and 1 contrast and then they can expand on one of those for the 3rd comparison.
- The bar for evidence is low.