Study Guide

Field 127: Middle Level Social Studies 
Sample Constructed-Response Assignment

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Test Directions for the Constructed-Response Assignment

This section of the test consists of one constructed-response assignment. You are to prepare a written response of approximately 300to600 words on the assigned topic. You should use your time to plan, write, review, and edit your response to the assignment.

Read the assignment carefully before you begin to write. Think about how you will organize your response.

As a whole, your response must demonstrate an understanding of the knowledge and skills of the field. In your response to the assignment, you are expected to demonstrate the depth of your understanding of the content area through your ability to apply your knowledge and skills rather than merely to recite factual information.

Your response to the assignment will be evaluated on the basis of the following criteria:

 start bold PURPOSE: end bold  the extent to which the response achieves the purpose of the assignment
 start bold SUBJECT MATTER KNOWLEDGE: end bold  accuracy and appropriateness in the application of subject matter knowledge
 start bold SUPPORT: end bold  quality and relevance of supporting details
 start bold RATIONALE: end bold  soundness of argument and degree of understanding of the subject matter

The constructed-response assignment is intended to assess subject matter knowledge and skills, not writing ability. However, your response must be communicated clearly enough to permit valid judgment of the scoring criteria. Your response should be written for an audience of educators in this field. The final version of your response should conform to the conventions of edited American English. Your written response must be your original work, written in your own words, and not copied or paraphrased from some other work.

Be sure to write about the assigned topic. You may not use any reference materials during the test. Remember to review what you have written and make any changes you think will improve your response.

Sample Constructed-Response Assignment

Competency 0013 
Apply pedagogical content knowledge to design developmentally appropriate instruction to help students achieve a specific, standards-based learning goal in social studies that promotes learning for all students.

 start bold Use the information in the exhibits to complete the assignment that follows. end bold 

Using your knowledge of content and sound pedagogical practices in social studies and citing evidence from the exhibits provided, write a response of approximately 300–600 words in which you:

Be sure to utilize all of the exhibits in your response.

Exhibit 1: Lesson Plan

Class Context:

Middle school students are working through a unit on the history of the United States before the Civil War. In previous classes, students have examined the political and social history of the presidencies of the 18 20s and 18 30s, including that of Andrew Jackson. In this summative activity, students are asked to examine and evaluate the place of President Jackson in U.S. history.

State Standard:

This lesson aligns with the following Content Standard from the Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies.

Content Standard 8.7: The student will examine the political, economic, and social transformations of the Jacksonian Era.

8.7.1 Describe the factors that led to the election of Andrew Jackson including the "Corrupt Bargain" election of 18 24, the expansion of voting rights, and Jackson's political success by identifying with the "common man."

Lesson Objectives:

Students will be able to identify events associated with the Jacksonian Era.

Students will be able to evaluate the significance of the presidency of Andrew Jackson.

Exhibit 2: Activity Sheet

You have developed the following student assignment.

As you have been studying, the election of Andrew Jackson in 18 28 marked the beginning of a new era in U.S. history. Although his place in U.S. politics remains controversial among historians, Jackson is often portrayed as a president who represented the interests of the common people.

Prompt: Considering what you have learned about Jackson and his policies, do you agree or disagree with this interpretation?

Exhibit 3: Student Writing Sample

Andrew Jackson did represent the interest of the common people. He became president by beating the aristocrat John Quincy Adams, who had stolen an earlier election from Jackson. Adams was the son of another president and represented the rich interests of the East Coast. But the election of Jackson put an end to that. Never again would the old-money politicians control the U.S. government.

Everyone knows the story of how common people messed up the White House with their muddy boots when Jackson was inaugurated. But they might not remember the bigger story of how Jackson passed laws to give the right to vote to more and more people, at least white men. Jackson set up big campaign events where poor people gathered to celebrate that someone like them could be successful, and even become president.

As president, he looked out for common people's interests. He canceled the national bank and fought to expand the country in the south. But he also pushed back when South Carolina wanted to secede.

Sample Strong Response to the Constructed-Response Assignment

 start bold Please note: The sample response provided below is for review purposes only and should not be used in a response on an operational exam. Use of the exact words and phrases presented in this sample response will result in a score of "U" (Unscorable) due to lack of original work. end bold 

The learning activity in this lesson plan presents students with a short passage to read, time to discuss this information with a peer study group and then asks them to respond in essay form. Asking students to respond in essay form can be an effective tool for gauging their understanding of the information they have learned. The passage provided for students is rather short but we are told in the exhibits that this class has already received instruction in this unit regarding the political and social climate of the 1820s and 1830s, as well as more extensive knowledge of the presidency of Andrew Jackson. The students are given five minutes of time to discuss the short passage and the prompt they must respond to with a group they study with in class. While this is useful, I would ensure that this time was somewhat structured and perhaps even provide my students the opportunity to take a few quick notes in a graphic organizer during their discussion time with peers. It is essential that the teacher monitors this time closely to assist with any misunderstandings or misinformation the students may have. Overall, I believe this activity to be somewhat useful but feel that it could benefit from a few small changes to improve student engagement or differentiation for diverse learners. Student engagement is an integral part of learning. Note-taking or use of graphic organizers is a more effective way of keeping students engaged and informed.

In this work sample, the student is able to demonstrate what they have learned in regards to the provided prompt. One of this student's strengths appears to be their ability to recall some of the basic ideas of Jackson's politics. This student shows that they know that his presidency is historically linked with expansion of voting rights for more white male American citizens (student references "how Jackson passed laws to give the right to vote to more and more people, at least white men"). This student has shown some knowledge related to the Oklahoma Academic Standard 8.7 which correlates to the Jacksonian era.

One weakness to work on with this student is in the area of citing factual information to back up an argument. This is a necessary skill when using source material in social studies. The student gave us their opinion that Jackson was the President for the "common man" but lacks much in the way of true events to prove this point. The essay is mostly free of grammatical errors but contains information that is unsubstantiated and even some vague misconceptions.

One strategy for building on this student's strengths while improving their weaker skills in showing evidence is to provide direct instruction and practice activities in citing evidence. Citing evidence is important in many types of writing and can prevent accidental plagiarism by inexperienced young writers. To build proficiency in this area with this student I would begin by creating visuals such as an anchor chart or poster together with them to give examples of this skill. This student may not be aware of how they can (and should) provide direct quotes from an informative source such as their textbook. We can create visuals that remind learners of skills like direct quotations, paraphrasing and how to implement these in our writing. Another strategy is to practice using these skills with sentence starters provided to the student such as "According to the text…," "The author states…," and other various ways to introduce information from source material. Giving students this scaffold may support them in beginning to cite evidence independently later as they have had more time to practice.

Rationale for the Sample Strong Response

Please note that the response is evaluated based upon the four performance characteristics of Purpose, Subject Matter Knowledge, Support, and Rationale. Please also note how the score point descriptions are based upon how the examinee attends to the performance characteristics. You should be very familiar with the CEOE performance characteristics and score scale and refer to them when reviewing this rationale.

This response fulfills the purpose of the assignment (refer to the instructions for the assignment) by responding to all elements of the assignment. This response addresses the tasks outlined in the prompt by describing the effectiveness of the learning activity, analyzing the student work sample to identify a strength and need, as well as describing an instructional strategy for improvement. The response gives details for which parts of the learning activity were likely to have been most successful as well as other aspects of the activity which could use improvement or differentiation. When analyzing the student work sample, this response not only identifies the areas of need and strength but also gives evidence from the sample of why they believe these to be valid. In addition to this, the candidate notes the possibility that the student knowledge shown in this work may begin to meet state content standards with supporting evidence. The instructional strategy described by the candidate in this response is clear, is evidence-based, and provides students with the support needed to make improvement. Appropriate terminology is used throughout this response, which demonstrates an understanding of sound pedagogical practices in social studies.

Sample Weak Response to the Constructed-Response Assignment

The activity of the study group work is effective because the group can help each other review. Students often like to work with their peers and can learn from each other. All of our students bring different background knowledge and experience that they can share with each other in their in-class study group. Learning this way is very effective and I think that many students will learn a lot from this learning activity on top of the other things they have already been taught about this.

When I look at this student work sample, I see that the student has listed a lot of things that they know about the time period and President Jackson. A strength for them is remembering these facts and being able to tell us about them without spelling mistakes. I think that they stay well focused on Andrew Jackson and agree with him in this student work sample. One weakness is that they never tell us about the Indian Removal Acts or anything about why someone might disagree in the prompt. Also, they do not tell us about political parties that happened at the time when Jackson was in politics.

I would review again with my student about the things that they excluded in their work. We could have a meeting together in a small group or individual to support them in understanding the bigger idea of politics at that time. I would also want to review timelines and more about the controversies and reasons people do not agree with Andrew Jackson being a president for the "common man". After reviewing together and giving the student more information, I would allow them to work with their in-class study group to write a new, improved response to this prompt. This would check for understanding and make sure they know this standard.

Rationale for the Sample Weak Response

Please note that the response is evaluated based upon the four performance characteristics of Purpose, Subject Matter Knowledge, Support, and Rationale. Please also note how the score point descriptions are based upon how the examinee attends to the performance characteristics. You should be very familiar with the CEOE performance characteristics and score scale and refer to them when reviewing this rationale.

This response does not fulfill the purpose of the assignment (refer to the instructions for the assignment). This response only partially addresses the tasks outlined in the prompt. The writer does answer all three of the given bullets but is incomplete in parts. When describing the effectiveness of the learning activity, the candidate states that it is effective but only appears to supply anecdotal comments about student's sharing knowledge with one another. In analyzing the student's strength and weakness, the writer supplies what they believe to be a student strength that is unclear and vaguely related to spelling skills. When noting the weakness, they mention information missing in the response but do not tell us why it is important for the student to have included this. While it is clear that the student may have some deficits in the area of content knowledge, the writer does go on to tell how they might improve this area with the student. There is no clear link between the student's strengths being used to support them in the gaining of new skill areas. The writer did not clearly outline any other strategy than reviewing with the student and then re-doing the learning activity. Overall, this response shows a limited understanding of sound pedagogical practices in social studies.

Performance Characteristics

The following characteristics guide the scoring of responses to the constructed-response assignment.

Characteristics that guide the scoring of responses
Purpose The extent to which the response achieves the purpose of the assignment
Subject Matter Knowledge The accuracy and appropriateness in the application of subject matter knowledge
Support The quality and relevance of supporting details
Rationale The soundness of argument and degree of understanding of the subject matter

Scoring Scale

Scores will be assigned to each response to the constructed-response assignment according to the following scoring scale.

Score Scale with description for each score point.
Score Point Score Point Description
4  start bold The "4" response reflects a thorough knowledge and understanding of the subject matter. end bold 
  • The purpose of the assignment is fully achieved.
  • There is a substantial, accurate, and appropriate application of subject matter knowledge.
  • The supporting evidence is sound; there are high-quality, relevant examples.
  • The response reflects an ably reasoned, comprehensive understanding of the topic.
3  start bold The "3" response reflects a general knowledge and understanding of the subject matter. end bold 
  • The purpose of the assignment is largely achieved.
  • There is a generally accurate and appropriate application of subject matter knowledge.
  • The supporting evidence generally supports the discussion; there are some relevant examples.
  • The response reflects a general understanding of the topic.
2  start bold The "2" response reflects a partial knowledge and understanding of the subject matter. end bold 
  • The purpose of the assignment is partially achieved.
  • There is a limited, possibly inaccurate or inappropriate application of subject matter knowledge.
  • The supporting evidence is limited; there are few relevant examples.
  • The response reflects a limited, poorly reasoned understanding of the topic.
1  start bold The "1" response reflects little or no knowledge and understanding of the subject matter. end bold 
  • The purpose of the assignment is not achieved.
  • There is little or no appropriate or accurate application of subject matter knowledge.
  • The supporting evidence, if present, is weak; there are few or no relevant examples.
  • The response reflects little or no reasoning about or understanding of the topic.
U The response is unscorable because it is illegible, not written to the assigned topic, written in a language other than English, or lacking a sufficient amount of original work to score.
B There is no response to the assignment.