Study Guide
Field 115: Social Studies
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Sample Constructed-Response Item 1
Competency 0007
Pedagogical Content Knowledge
Use the information in the exhibits provided to complete the exercise that follows.
You are planning instruction for an eleventh-grade United States History and Government class. The unit you are planning aligns with the following Key Idea, Standards, and Themes from the New York State Grades 9 to 12 Social Studies Framework.1 Acknowledgments 1
Key Idea:
11.3 Expansion, Nationalism, and Sectionalism ( 1800 to 1865 ): As the nation expanded, growing sectional tensions, especially over slavery, resulted in political and constitutional crises that culminated in the Civil War.
11.3b Different perspectives concerning constitutional, political, economic, and social issues contributed to the growth of sectionalism.
Standards:
1: History of the United States and New York
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.
3: Geography
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live—local, national, and global—including the distribution of people, places, and environments over Earth's surface.
5: Civics, Citizenship, and Government
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental systems of the United States and other nations; the United States Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation.
Themes:
3. Time, Continuity, and Change
4. Geography, Humans, and the Environment
6. Power, Authority, and Governance
9. Science, Technology, and Innovation
You are preparing to teach a lesson using the two primary sources provided.
Using your pedagogical and content knowledge of social studies, write a response of approximately 400 to 600 words in which you:
- identify a specific learning goal for the lesson that is appropriate for the given grade level and that aligns with the Key Idea, Standards, and Themes provided;
- describe how you will assess student readiness for the lesson's learning goal;
- describe an instructional strategy you will use to help students meet the learning goal, explain how you will use the source materials included here, and describe additional resources needed;
- identify a potential challenge in delivering the instruction, and describe a strategy you would use to meet this challenge;
- describe a modification you would use to meet the needs of all learners; and
- describe a performance task you will use as a formative assessment to measure and promote student learning related to the learning goal for the lesson.
Source 1
John L. O'Sullivan
from "The Great Nation of Futurity"
The United States Democratic Review, November 1839
America is destined for better deeds. It is our unparalleled glory that we have no reminiscences of battle fields, but in defense of humanity, of the oppressed of all nations, of the rights of conscience, the rights of personal enfranchisement. Our annals describe no scenes of horrid carnage, where men were led on by hundreds of thousands to slay one another, dupes and victims to emperors, kings, nobles, demons in the human form called heroes. We have had patriots to defend our homes, our liberties, but no aspirants to crowns or thrones; nor have the American people ever suffered themselves to be led on by wicked ambition to depopulate the land, to spread desolation far and wide, that a human being might be placed on a seat of supremacy.
We have no interest in the scenes of antiquity, only as lessons of avoidance of nearly all their examples. The expansive future is our arena, and for our history. We are entering on its untrodden space, with the truths of God in our minds, beneficent objects in our hearts, and with a clear conscience unsullied by the past. We are the nation of human progress, and who will, what can, set limits to our onward march? Providence is with us, and no earthly power can. We point to the everlasting truth on the first page of our national declaration, and we proclaim to the millions of other lands, that "the gates of hell"—the powers of aristocracy and monarchy—"shall not prevail against it."
The far-reaching, the boundless future will be the era of American greatness. In its magnificent domain of space and time, the nation of many nations is destined to manifest to mankind the excellence of divine principles; to establish on earth the noblest temple ever dedicated to the worship of the Most High—the Sacred and the True. Its floor shall be a hemisphere—its roof the firmament of the star-studded heavens, and its congregation an Union of many Republics, comprising hundreds of happy millions, calling, owning no man master, but governed by God's natural and moral law of equality, the law of brotherhood—of "peace and good will amongst men."
Yes, we are the nation of progress, of individual freedom, of universal enfranchisement. Equality of rights is the cynosure of our union of States, the grand exemplar of the correlative equality of individuals; and while truth sheds its effulgence, we cannot retrograde, without dissolving the one and subverting the other. We must onward to the fulfilment of our mission—to the entire development of the principle of our organization—freedom of conscience, freedom of person, freedom of trade and business pursuits, universality of freedom and equality. This is our high destiny, and in nature's eternal, inevitable decree of cause and effect we must accomplish it. All this will be our future history, to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man—the immutable truth and beneficence of God. For this blessed mission to the nations of the world, which are shut out from the life-giving light of truth, has America been chosen; and her high example shall smite unto death the tyranny of kings, hierarchs, and oligarchs, and carry the glad tidings of peace and good will where myriads now endure an existence scarcely more enviable than that of beasts of the field. Who, then, can doubt that our country is destined to be the great nation of futurity?
Source 2
Henry Lewis
Saint Louis in 1846 (Painting, 1846)2 Acknowledgments 2
painting showing a river in the distance on the banks with trees there are covered wagons and horses with people resting on a log in the background on the other side of the river shows a city with many buildings and in the river are boats with steaming engines
Sample Strong Response to Constructed-Response Item 1
The learning goal of this lesson is for students to analyze two late-Jacksonian era primary sources in order to understand and describe the characteristics of mid-19th century American nationalism.
In order to assess readiness, I would check students' understanding of the settlement and territorial expansion of the United States from 1783 to the 1840s that provided the geographical context for the formation of a new national identity in the Jacksonian era. This could be done by projecting a map of the United States on the front board and, as an entire class, filling in the sections of the old Northwest and Southwest, the Louisiana Territory and Florida, and Texas as they happened in rough chronological order. During this activity, I would point out to the students that, as the United States changed geographically, so did its identity as former European colonies change into something new.
One strategy to activate student learning would be to pose the essential question, "What is America?" After brainstorming answers with students in terms of contemporary America, I would note that each generation since the American Revolution has answered that essential question differently, and in this lesson we are going to investigate how Americans in the 1840s answered it by analyzing an essay and painting from the time period.
Given the O'Sullivan essay's complexity, a jigsaw method would help students access the text. Divide the class into five heterogeneous groups. Assign four of the groups to read a particular paragraph in the O'Sullivan essay, extracting three to five key phrases that express characteristics of America's identity. The fifth group would analyze the Lewis painting with the same goal in mind. When all groups were done and their work checked for successful identification, I would reorganize them into five new groups, comprised of one member from each of the original groups, and instruct them to share their analytical findings. I would then provide excerpts of speeches from the time period and instruct the students to highlight key phrases that agree or disagree with the article or painting.
Probably the greatest challenge for students in this lesson is the complexity of the vocabulary in the O'Sullivan essay, such as antiquity, beneficent, or cynosure. One effective strategy to counter this would be to put the O'Sullivan essay into a new document, identify the challenging vocabulary, and then parenthetically insert next to the words an accessible definition or synonym, e.g. antiquity [ancient times] or beneficent [unselfish].
Whenever a lesson entails identifying and describing the characteristics of a broad historical phenomenon, a graphic organizer that breaks those characteristics into the categories of political, economic, cultural, and social is necessary. At the beginning of the lesson, I would distribute a chart entitled "What was America in the mid-19th century?" that had four columns, one for each of the above categories. With this modification, students would be instructed to sort their analytical findings by category and record them in the appropriate column, e.g. "freedom of trade and business pursuits" in the economic characteristics column or the pioneering family in the Lewis painting foreground in the social characteristics column.
One way to formatively assess the extent of student progress toward the learning objective would be to have each student imagine they are a Jacksonian Era politician running for election in St. Louis. They have to compose and deliver a one-minute speech. Their campaign speech must incorporate at least five of the characteristics, three from O'Sullivan and two from Lewis, that were prevalent in Jacksonian Era nationalism.
Sample Constructed-Response Item 2
Competency 0007
Pedagogical Content Knowledge
Use the information in the exhibits provided to complete the assignment that follows.
You are planning instruction for a ninth-grade Global History and Geography class. The unit you are planning aligns with the following Key Ideas, Standards, and Themes from the New York State Grades 9 to 12 Social Studies Framework.3 Acknowledgments 3
Key Idea:
9.9 Transformation of Western Europe and Russia: Western Europe and Russia transformed politically, economically, and culturally circa 1400 to 1750 . This transformation included state building, conflicts, shifts in power and authority, and new ways of understanding their world.
9.9c Absolutist governments emerged as Western European and Russian monarchs consolidated power and wealth.
Standards:
2: World History
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.
3: Geography
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live—local, national, and global—including the distribution of people, places, and environments over Earth's surface.
4: Economics
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of how the United States and other societies develop economic systems and associated institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision-making units function in the United States and other national economies, and how an economy solves the scarcity problem through market and nonmarket mechanisms.
5: Civics, Citizenship, and Government
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental systems of the United States and other nations; the United States Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation.
Themes:
2. Development, Movement, and Interaction of Cultures
3. Time, Continuity, and Change
6. Power, Authority, and Governance
10. Global Connections and Exchange
You are preparing to teach a lesson using the two primary sources provided.
Using your pedagogical and content knowledge of social studies, write a response of approximately 400 to 600 words in which you:
- identify a specific learning goal for the lesson that is appropriate for the given grade level and that aligns with the Key Idea, Standards, and Themes provided;
- describe how you will assess student readiness for the lesson's learning goal;
- describe an instructional strategy you will use to help students meet the learning goal, explain how you will use the source materials included here, and describe additional resources needed;
- identify a potential challenge in delivering the instruction, and describe a strategy you would use to meet this challenge;
- describe a modification you would use to meet the needs of all learners; and
- describe a performance task you will use as a formative assessment to measure and promote student learning related to the learning goal for the lesson.
Source 1
Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon (French diplomat and diarist)
from Memoirs ( circa 1694 to 1755 )
The frequent fêtes, the private promenades at Versailles, the journeys, were means on which the King seized in order to distinguish or mortify the courtiers, and thus render them more assiduous in pleasing him. He felt that of real favours he had not enough to bestow; in order to keep up the spirit of devotion, he therefore unceasingly invented all sorts of ideal ones, little preferences and petty distinctions, which answered his purpose as well.
He was exceedingly jealous of the attention paid him. Not only did he notice the presence of the most distinguished courtiers, but those of inferior degree also. He looked to the right and to the left, not only upon rising but upon going to bed, at his meals, in passing through his apartments, or his gardens of Versailles, where alone the courtiers were allowed to follow him; he saw and noticed everybody; not one escaped him, not even those who hoped to remain unnoticed. He marked well all absentees from the Court, found out the reason of their absence, and never lost an opportunity of acting towards them as the occasion might seem to justify. With some of the courtiers (the most distinguished), it was a demerit not to make the Court their ordinary abode; with others 'twas a fault to come but rarely; for those who never or scarcely ever came it was certain disgrace. When their names were in any way mentioned, "I do not know them," the King would reply haughtily. Those who presented themselves but seldom were thus characterised: "They are people I never see;" these decrees were irrevocable. He could not bear people who liked Paris.
Louis the 14th took great pains to be well informed of all that passed everywhere; in the public places, in the private houses, in society and familiar intercourse. His spies and tell-tales were infinite. He had them of all species; many who were ignorant that their information reached him; others who knew it; others who wrote to him direct, sending their letters through channels he indicated; and all these letters were seen by him alone, and always before everything else; others who sometimes spoke to him secretly in his cabinet, entering by the back stairs. These unknown means ruined an infinite number of people of all classes, who never could discover the cause; often ruined them very unjustly; for the King, once prejudiced, never altered his opinion, or so rarely, that nothing was more rare.
He liked splendour, magnificence, and profusion in everything: you pleased him if you shone though the brilliance of your houses, your clothes, your table, your equipages. Thus a taste for extravagance and luxury was disseminated through all classes of society; causing infinite harm, and leading to general confusion of rank and to ruin.
As for the King himself, nobody ever approached his magnificence. His buildings, who could number them? At the same time, who was there who did not deplore the pride, the caprice, the bad taste seen in them? He built nothing useful or ornamental in Paris, except the Pont Royal, and that simply by necessity; so that despite its incomparable extent, Paris is inferior to many cities of Europe.
Source 2
M. P. Pogodin (Russian historian)
from the essay "Peter the Great" (1841)4 Acknowledgments 4
Yes, Peter the Great did much for Russia. One looks and does not believe it, one keeps adding and one can not reach the sum. We can not open our eyes, can not make a move, can not turn in any direction without encountering him everywhere, at home, in the streets, in church, in court, in the regiment, at a promenade—it is always he, always he, every day, every minute, at every step!
We wake up. What day is it today? January 1, 1841—Peter the Great ordered us to count years from the birth of Christ; Peter the Great ordered us to count the months from January.
It is time to dress—our clothing is made according to the fashion established by Peter the First, our uniform according to his model. The cloth is woven in a factory that he created; the wool is shorn from the sheep that he started to raise.
A book strikes our eyes—Peter the Great introduced this script and himself cut out the letters. You begin to read it—this language became a written language, a literary language, at the time of Peter the First, superseding the earlier church language.
Newspapers are brought in—Peter the Great introduced them.
You must buy different things—they all, from the silk neckerchief to the sole of your shoe, will remind you of Peter the Great; some were ordered by him; others were brought into use or improved by him, carried on his ships, into his harbors, on his canals, on his roads.
At dinner, all the courses, from salted herring, through potatoes, which he ordered grown, to wine made from grapes, which he began to cultivate, will speak to you of Peter the Great.
After dinner you drive out for a visit—this is an assemblée of Peter the Great. You meet the ladies there—they were admitted into masculine company by order of Peter the Great.
You receive a rank—according to Peter the Great's Table of Ranks.
The rank gives me gentry status—Peter the Great so arranged it.
I must file a complaint—Peter the Great prescribed its form. It will be received—in front of Peter the Great's Mirror of Justice. It will be acted upon—on the basis of the General Regulation.
You decide to travel abroad—following the example of Peter the Great; you will be received well—Peter the Great placed Russia among the European states and began to instill respect for her, and so on and so on and so on.
Sample Strong Response to Constructed-Response Item 2
This lesson's learning goal is for students to analyze and describe how Western Europe (France) and Russia were transformed politically, economically, and socially/culturally by absolutist governments such as those of Louis the 14th and Peter the Great. Throughout instruction, this goal will appear on class materials and be posted in the classroom.
I will check for student readiness by using a game-based classroom response system, asking questions from our previous units on feudalism, the Renaissance, and absolute monarchies, including key vocabulary words from these units. Educational technology will allow me to administer a multiple-choice quiz in a game-like format, keeping students engaged. Responses will reflect student understanding of France and Russia prior to 1400. I could reinforce specific topics if quiz results indicate gaps in knowledge.
My instructional strategy will combine direct instruction and learning centers. We will begin with a teacher-directed mini-lesson on the reigns of Louis the 14th and Peter the Great, providing the class with background about these rulers. During the mini-lesson, students will take notes to capture key points. I will divide the class into five heterogenous groups of 4 to 5 students each. The classroom will be set up as a gallery walk with five centers. Each group will get two graphic organizers to complete as they move through the centers. The top of each organizer will have the ruler's name with three columns below labeled Political, Economic, and Social/Religious/Cultural. Before students join their groups, I will work with the whole class to complete several examples to serve as a model. The students will use the exhibits at each station to fill in the columns with specific examples of how each leader influenced that area of society in their country. For example, students might list that Peter the Great instituted the Table of Ranks under their Social heading or describe the building of the Palace of Versailles under the Economic heading for Louis the 14th . The five centers will consist of documents 1 and 2, station 3 with a podcast about Louis the 14th and his reign during the 17th and 18th centuries in France, station 4 featuring an online video about Peter the Great, and station 5 displaying photos/descriptions of French and Russian architecture created during the time of these rules. Student groups will work together to complete their graphic organizers.
A potential challenge for this lesson will be the difficulty of the vocabulary and the use of period language in both documents. I will provide a glossary for words such as fetes, courtier, haughtily, promenade, superseding, cultivate, and gentry. Also, I will rewrite some passages to make them accessible by using more contemporary wording. These rewritten versions and the glossary will assist English Language Learners and/or students with disabilities.
In addition to grouping students heterogeneously, the use of photos, videos, and podcasts will help to meet the needs of all learners. Diverse classrooms can benefit from the multimodal instructional delivery, allowing students with different learning styles to grasp information.
To wrap up the lesson and formatively assess student learning, I will have each student submit an exit ticket with two examples each of how France and Russia were transformed under the leadership of Louis the 14th and Peter the Great, respectively. This will allow me to gauge students' learning and the effectiveness of my lesson, and ensure that the next lesson is well connected.
Performance Characteristics for a Constructed-Response Item
The following characteristics guide the scoring of responses to a constructed-response item.
| Completeness | The degree to which the response addresses all parts of the assignment |
|---|---|
| Accuracy | The degree to which the response demonstrates the relevant knowledge and skills accurately and effectively |
| Depth of Support | The degree to which the response provides appropriate examples and details that demonstrate sound reasoning |
Score Scale for a Constructed-Response Item
A score will be assigned to the response to a constructed-response item according to the following score scale.
| Score Point | Score Point Description |
|---|---|
| 4 |
The "4" response reflects a thorough command of the relevant knowledge and skills:
|
| 3 |
The "3" response reflects a general command of the relevant knowledge and skills:
|
| 2 |
The "2" response reflects a partial command of the relevant knowledge and skills:
|
| 1 |
The "1" response reflects little or no command of the relevant knowledge and skills:
|
| U | The response is unscorable because it is unrelated to the assigned topic or off task, unreadable, written in a language other than English or contains an insufficient amount of original work to score. |
| B | No response. |
Acknowledgments
1From the New York State Education Department. New York State K-12 Social Studies Framework. Internet. Available from https://www.engageny.org/resource/new-york-state-k-12-social-studies-framework; accessed January 30, 2019.
2Saint Louis in 1846, 1846 (oil on canvas), Lewis, Henry ( 1819 to 1904 ) / Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri, USA / Eliza McMillan Trust / Bridgeman Images
3From the New York State Education Department. New York State K-12 Social Studies Framework. Internet. Available from https://www.engageny.org/resource/new-york-state-k-12-social-studies-framework; accessed January 30, 2019.
4Riasanovski, Nicholas A. The Image of Peter The Great In Russian History and Thought. Copyright 1985 Oxford University Press, Inc. Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear.