Formative Assessment Design 3.0: Technology Leveraged Image Analysis and the DBQ

Context and Purpose

As I’ve written before, Document Based Question (DBQ) is critical for the Social Science student and provides the ultimate application of historical thinking and reasoning. It requires that students read various sources and understand them such that they can cobble together enough information from multiple sources to respond to a question. Ultimately, transference to the contemporary world is the goal, either as a powerful tool for interpreting contemporary events or applying this skill to the workplace.

The DBQ is not often used in the average Social Science and History classroom. Advanced Placement (AP) classes use them as part of the learning and assessment process to prepare students for the AP Exam. Nevertheless, the average student and curriculum ought to use more DBQs—however challenging they may be. The typical DBQ asks a higher order thinking question that can only be answered by evaluating various sources, typically maps, images, or written statements from a particular historical period. Students write a response to the prompt by using the documents as evidence for an argument or historical claim. Students then write a response to the prompt.

Depending on the designed outcome, the DBQ is the ideal assessment. Typically teachers want their students to learn how to synthesize multiple pieces of information into a coherent argument, usually around other reasoning skills like Cause/Effect, Continuity/Change, and Compare/Contrast. A typical question in this order might be “Using the following documents, evaluate the extent to which European perception of Native Americans changed or stayed the same from 1500-1850” These types of questions assess a variety of skills and competencies, but they are time-consuming to create and grade.

The DBQ requires analytical, reading, and writing skills, among others. It is unrealistic to assume students have each one of these skills already. Like math, one missing skill can lead to a critical mistake that calls into question the entire problem. To that end, we need to make sure that each skill is given proper attention.

Perhaps one of the most fundamental skills that needs to be taught is the ability to read images. Different from reading a text of words, students need to practice reading the text of political cartoons, photos, graphs, charts, and maps. From these sources, students should ultimately be able to identify the image subject, specific content, argument, and finally, the bias or point of view (POV) of the author. Formative assessments on these “essential skills” will be vital for student success.

To that end, this assessment will help develop and evaluate students ability to read images for meaning, utility, and bias.

Assessment Instructions for Learners

Students will be provided with the following instructions and take part in the learning assessment:

Class Activities and Learning Agenda

• Students will first share their prior-knowledge of Native Americans and their relationship with Europeans by sharing with their peers in a group Flipgrid (an asynchronous social-media inspired video creation tool that can be either private between teacher and student, or leveraged for student interaction and discussion. This tool is best for this purpose because it allows for easy conversation beyond the four walls of the class. Students can take the feedback from the teacher and rewatch according to their needs. Moreover the conversation is continuous and already integrated into the students’ iPad and Canvas in my classroom). 
• Students are free to talk about anything they know. (This is to assess student prior knowledge and identify a baseline for where each student is at the beginning of the assignment)
• Students will then take part in a class discussion of a few projected etching of Native Americans by contemporary European artists from 1500-1850. These images are part of a Google Slides presentation entitled NOBLE PEOPLE OR BEASTS? AMERINDIANS THROUGH THE EUROPEAN EYE — A Critical Thinking Analysis. For each image displayed, students will make observations on the nuances, details, and reflections on the pictures shown. This will be done using Pear Deck, through which the teacher will ask students key questions. Through Pear Deck, students are given a version of the Google slide deck with interactive questions and tools to point to places on the slide. Using these tools, the teacher can ask students to identify certain elements of an image. On the teacher’s screen, all the students responses will be displayed privately or anonymous projected over the image for quick identification of learning or opportunities to reteach. The teacher will prompt students to reflect on the values and ideas of Christian Europeans. They will consider what religious ideas and structures these people held. What figures (like the motif of Adam or God creator) were essential to their belief systems?

• With a partner designated by the teacher, each pair of students will choose one of the following images to analyze in the same manner as done above with the whole class. Students will consider the author of the image, the audience of those consuming the image, and the specific details associated with the image (figures, actions, tone, religious imagery, etc.).

• Following this pair-think-share, students will then work on a collaborative board for each image using a Padlet in which each group (and others who want to help), can write key words, observations, and ideas under each picture. This tool is helpful for collaborative sharing of words and ideas that can be digitally shared or projected.
• After a quick discussion of the students work on the images, the teacher will read a brief primary source passage on how Europeans viewed Native Americans from 1844, an excerpt taken from a children’s history textbook.

• (SIDE QUEST) For those student teams who have not used Flipgrid or Clips before, they will get a little extra boost! I will work with each team individually to get them up to Flipgrid-speed (and discuss their images with them a little…shhh, don’t tell).

Assignment Instructions (for students)

In collaboration with their partners, students will create a short video using Clips on their iPad. This Apple creative app allows students to take or curate short video clips and easily edit text or sound for a creative video presentation. Clips is easy to use and can create a short quality video with little software learning-curve. Students will then post this Clips video to Flipgrid to share with their peers. Students will respond to the following prompt using evidence from the sources discussed in class:

Evaluate the extent to which European perception of Native Americans changed or stayed the same from 1500-1850

These are the Assignment Submission instructions that should be given to the students:

• Make sure that your video is under 5 minutes (time limit on Flipgrid)
• Make sure that you pushed your creativity.
• Make sure that you pushed your critical thinking.
• Make sure that you used all the documents (images, texts, etc.)
• Make sure that if you have questions, you ask!
• Make sure that you have fun!

Feedback and Instruction

Upon submission of the Flipgrid, the videos will be placed in a holding spot awaiting teacher evaluation and feedback. I will give verbal video feedback for each video, highlighting specific aspects of the content and process of learning and use of technology for creativity.

Students will be free to change any content or technical/creativity aspects of the project in clips after I give the feedback. I can also give further feedback if so needed and/or desired.

Once the video is complete to the students liking and teacher satisfaction, their Clips/Flipgrid video will be posted to our class page where students can will watch and share what they learned from each other’s amazing work.

As a formative assessment, the point is that students are growing and learning through the process. The following skills (as well as some content knowledge) will be used and assessed: analyzing images, using more than one piece of evidence, and using evidence to respond to a question. These same skills will eventually be used and applied with other types of media, graphs, and charts in future assignments.