Social Studies, Global History
and Geography:

The New Assessments

(Transcript Of the February 1, 2000 Teleconference)

Transmitted via New York 's Public Broadcasting Stations, produced by the New York State Education Department and the New York State Satellite Broadcast Network; recorded at the studios at Bulmer Telecommunications Center, Hudson Valley Community College.

For additional information, call or write:

John Quinn
Room 668 EBA
Office of Curriculum and Instruction
New York State Education Department
Albany, NY 12234
(518) 474-3954
E-mail: jquinn@mail.nysed.gov

For copies of the videotape and Facilitator Guide, contact Teresa Moore, Questar III BOCES, (518) 477-6749.

>> Rochelle: Hello. Welcome to the New York State Education Department's Satellite Broadcast Network presentation "Tools for Schools, Social Studies, Global History and Geography, the New Assessments." I'm your moderator today, Rochelle Cassella.

At 1:15 p.m. on Thursday, June 15th, tenth graders across New York State will sit down to a new Regents exam in global history and geography. It's an exam students must pass before graduation. And in the near future, the State's fifth grade students also will take a new test, an assessment that shows how well students are meeting the State's more rigorous learning standards in social studies.

Today we'll look closely at both the elementary and high school assessments, their content, their structure and how they will be scored. By video, we'll visit classrooms in Rochester, the Bronx and the Churchville-Chili School District where we'll see teachers preparing students for one of the more challenging aspects of the exam, the document-based essay question.

As you watch, keep in mind our six tools for schools, elements common to all high-performing schools. Later in the show we'll offer you tool tips for bringing these elements into your classroom. And those tool tips: innovative leadership, comprehensive planning, ongoing staff development, engaging curriculum, flexible resources and involving parents and community.

Whenever we are faced with something new, our first questions focus on some basic issues: What will it look like? What kinds of questions will it ask? What do we need to know in order to be successful? George Gregory is the Supervisor for Social Studies for the New York State Education Department.

George, let's deal with the elementary exam first. What exactly will it be looking like?

>> Well, Rochelle, it's a new exam for us in the sense that we're moving from a Grade 6 program evaluation test to a Grade 5, November Grade 5 test for all students that they must pass. The composition of the test includes multiple-choice questions, 35 of those, which counts as 50% of the test, three or four what we call constructive response questions that accounts for approximately 30% -- 20% of the test --

>> Rochelle: I think we may have some slides on that.

>> Yes, slides on that.

>> Rochelle: Okay.

>> And a document-based question that is 30% of the test, 10% of that for the short-answer scaffolding -- what we call scaffolding questions -- and 20% for the essay itself.

We're also proposing that the examination be delayed a year so that November of 2001, all students would take the first Grade 5 assessment, and this assessment would be used to then determine students who are in need of academic intervention services as well as the students to work on their skills and knowledge and social studies content in fifth grade.

>> Rochelle: And that would be a change in timetable, would it not?

>> It's a change from our original date, which was November of 2000, this coming November.

>> Rochelle: Okay.

>> The test, as I said, measures third and fourth-grade content, mostly third and fourth-grade content; it also focuses on skills, K through 4. 60% of the content is derived from fourth grade, 40% will be derived from third grade social studies content. It's a skills-based assessment measuring content, broad concepts, themes, as well as skills from the K through 4 social studies program.

>> Rochelle: So why would this be a better assessment of student knowledge and skills than what we have been seeing up to this point?

>> This test requires students to take a look at documents for the first time, to work with documents, analyze documents, to tie the document analysis as well to writing. We're trying to link this to the E.L.A. writing requirements so that students are able to, for the first time, look at documents and write about them.

The constructive response questions that we're including with the elementary and intermediate assessment begin to get students ready to look at the high school level document-based questions. So the use of documents, the requirement that students analyze documents and write about them, will change instruction and will also require them to provide more in-depth analysis for it.

>> Rochelle: So this isn't just the old memorize the dates and give them back to us. This really requires more in-depth thinking in terms of what kids are doing?

>> That's right. There will be questions obviously from history that students will have to memorize and answer. So there will be facts and concepts that will be tested on the multiple-choice portion of the test. But we're also asking students to do more than that in terms of the constructed response and the document-based questions.

We're also asking teachers then to score the examination in groups so that the K through 5 teachers will work together in teams to take a look at students' responses and then to use that information to provide students with some type of academic intervention if it's necessary for students as they move through 5 and get ready for the next assessment, which is the intermediate, at the end of Grade 8.

>> Rochelle: So what's available in terms of state resources to help districts and teachers who are helping to prepare the students?

>> We are mailing shortly a sampler for the elementary test that will include a sample test as well as sample constructed-response questions, multiple choice and document-based questions. We're also planning scoring sessions for teachers that will occur in the spring and summer of this year to help teachers prepare for how to score the test as well as take a look at some of the other sample questions that have been designed for this age group.

We have the resource guide available. We have our web site available as well for teachers to visit, to take a look at sample questions.

>> Rochelle: And there's a CD-ROM available, is there not?

>> There's a CD-ROM available. It also includes web sites; it also includes examples of activities, learning activities, some of which we'll be looking at shortly as well.

>> Rochelle: All rightie. The scoring training also can serve as staff development. We've heard a lot of teachers, especially those who come in for the E.L.A. exam, say that by sitting in on scoring training and seeing the rubrics and the training, we can really understand what it is that we need to do in the classroom.

>> Sure. The staff development helps teachers to take a look at the rubrics carefully, to study the rubrics, to take a look at the questions and to decide as a group of teachers what they are expecting students -- how they are expecting students to respond, what they are expecting students to say for each of the different questions. They also have a chance to interchange and to talk about what they do with their students in terms of instruction to get students ready for the assessment. So assessments are really beginning to change instruction, to drive instruction this way, and staff development is a very important part of that.

>> Rochelle: Okay. And as with the new English language arts curriculum, the new social studies learning standards are requiring teachers to adjust their teaching styles, and to do so, teachers need staff development and they need good leadership. That's the case in the Rochester City School District and in the fourth grade class of teacher Bernice Mahar.

>> We're going to continue with our storytelling. There are lots of people who would like to practice their storytelling skills. And we will have some opportunity to do this...

>> Bernice Mahar: There is a drastic change in my teaching style. I started out being a very traditional teacher. "I'm in front. I'm delivering information. You will learn the information that I deliver."

With the coming of the standards, I have had to move away from the traditional role to become the facilitator, where I can ask the questions that will lead them to discover things for themselves.

>> My story comes from the Seneca tribe.

>> One of the things I don't feel that elementary kids get enough experience at is being presenters or being speakers. So when I'm doing an English language arts lesson or a social studies lesson, I want them involved. I want them to become part of it, and the end product is to become better able to communicate with people that they meet. So I try to do a lot of things where they either have to speak to each other, they have to work with other students, or they do a lot of writings where they're getting details and putting those details together in an interesting way.

>> We're going to stop you there. What would you like to tell Mary that you liked about her story?

>> I liked her eye contact with the audience.

>> I like how she changed her voices when she got to the characters.

>> Very good. I liked the way that you really are being very attentive, effective listeners.

>> Bernice Mahar, like many educators, recognizes that our children learn in a more optimal manner when teaching is integrated across disciplines. If we can approach or highlight social studies concepts and themes while children are reading, writing, speaking and listening, then we are more likely to engage them and help them approach their own learning in a more holistic and meaningful manner.

>> Let me stop you there, Kendra. And let's talk about the things that you liked about Kendra's story.

>> I like that she spoke loudly and didn't like slur all her words and spoke clearly.

>> Did you get involved in this story?

>> We did a critical analysis of our local curriculum. We analyzed it in terms of where we saw significant gaps, where we felt as though we fell short in terms of supporting the standards. As a result of that critical analysis of our local curriculum, we pulled together a team of local educators at each of the grade levels, asked them to gather around the table. We asked them to review the framework documents, followed by the learning standards document and the core curriculum and draft a curriculum document at each of our grade levels that would highlight the social studies learning standards, significant contents standards as to what students should know, and sample performance indicators that would support what students should be able to show that they know in light of their knowledge of basic social studies content.

>> Do you have any suggestions for Kendra?

>> She's like rocking around and stuff.

>> At the beginning of the story, she doesn't start reading fast and then slow down.

>> Put more excitement in it.

>> How did you feel about your presentation, Kendra?

>> I felt like I need a little more work, a little more confidence in myself.

>> Now I would like for you to decide on what strategy you want to work on this afternoon to get your story firmly in your mind. We have paper...

>> We looked at the content of what the social studies in K/3 or K/4 should be. And from the content, we tried to align content with the standards that were coming from State Ed, and from aligning the content with the standards, we then went to what would be indicators that our kids are meeting these standards.

So we had curriculum. Then we had indicators or activities that could show us how our students were advancing so that the second and third grades, which were now fourth graders, can have a lot of those preliminary experiences that they needed so that by the time they got to fourth grade, we can move on to the more -- to more of the things that they need to do to meet the standards.

>> The boys met the next evening in their place by the river.

>> You saw students using a wide variety of materials. There were library books; some students were drawing; some students were working on the computer, either doing research or word processing. Some students were using note cards to take notes. But what I would like to do is to reach every learning style, give all students a chance to become involved in a project in a way that it's best for them.

>> What is the point that you want to make for the reader so that you will remember? And I would just put that one thing down as a note to remember.

>> You probably observed me going around and asking some of the students to read certain portions of their story and find the essential points. When they move on to document-based questions, they're going to have to read material, make a judgment about what is important about that material that they need to remember in order to answer questions, and then put it in words that they will be comfortable with but yet still will answer what the essential question is they need to answer.

>> We've done a lot of collaboration with our colleagues in E.L.A. We want to draw upon their experience, having just recently gone through preparing teachers and students for the E.L.A. assessment. Therefore, tremendous emphasis has been given both in our professional development and the kinds of activities that we would like to see implemented in the elementary classroom that give our youngsters the opportunity to read, write, speak and listen well and do it through a critical lens.

>> One of the major pieces of our curriculum guide at each grade level includes a section as to how to provide optimal instruction for students with disabilities. The one point that I think is worth noting is that the strategies that we would use to support our students with learning disabilities also represent best practice in terms of instructional strategies. So we have encouraged so-called regular educators to also look at these strategies to help students across the board.

>> Some kids, if you observe them for awhile, you can figure out what strategy works with them. But I'm always looking for strategies to use with students, whether it's talking to parents, getting another professional in the building to observe students, let me know what I can do to make the learning situation better. But because we're interested in each student achieving as high or as best as they can, you will have to constantly be looking at your teaching style, to see if it fits in with that particular student, and then maybe adjusting so that you're reaching that student.

>> What do you think you might need to do if you draw it over?

>> Don't put a background or...

>> If we want more from our students, if we envision a brighter future for them, that requires work, not only on the part of students, but on the part of the adults who provide the leadership, on the part of parents who serve as our young people's first teachers, who also must be part of this discussion and this game plan to raise the bar. And raising the bar in terms of student achievement will enable us to create young people who will be able to lead us into the 21st century.

>> Rochelle: Joining us now from Rochester is Marilyn Patterson-Grant, Director of the District Social Studies Curriculum. Welcome, Marilyn. Thanks for joining us.

This is a terrific program in Rochester, obviously taking a lot of planning and a lot of staff development. One of the things about staff development collaboration you mentioned to me that didn't make the tape was what you have done with the Teachers' Union in Rochester. Can you tell me about that?

>> In Rochester, we're keenly aware of the fact that if we're going to raise the bar for student achievement, we must equip our educators with the skills and habits of mind that will support such an endeavor. In the last two years, the central office has collaborated with the Rochester Teachers' Association to present a series of seminars focusing on the needs of novice educators.

These teachers receive strategic release time to support them being selective practitioners. These sessions are conducted by mentor teachers and curriculum heads from Central Office, and what we have built is an opportunity for teachers to collaborate with each other, focus attention on standards-based curriculum instruction and assessment and come away with tangible products that can in turn be implemented in their instructional program. We found this to be a very beneficial strategy for our district.

>> Rochelle: And something I think that probably a lot of the districts could use as well. As George indicated, there's a proposal out to have the first offering of the exam in November of 2001 instead of 2000. Should the proposal be accepted, how will Rochester use that additional time to prepare students?

>> We will use this time primarily to expand the nature and scope of our professional development opportunities. In addition, we will continue to solicit exemplars of students trying to reach the standards that have been established and disseminate those materials to a wider audience. We will also use this as an opportunity to expand our outreach to parents and critical members of our larger community because we realize their role and the significance of their involvement in supporting a standards-based instructional program.

We're also in the process of trying to develop a videotape that actually captures exemplary practice in our classroom.

>> Rochelle: That you would then share with teachers throughout the area?

>> It would also be used as an instrument for staff development.

>> Rochelle: You also have a monthly question-and-answer, something that comes from the district office that's available for teachers?

>> We have a social studies department newsletter. We have monthly citywide meetings, in addition to our annual superintendents' conference day. We try to make use of every forum, including new teacher seminars, not only in social studies but the other course areas as well, to disseminate updated information.

>> Rochelle: So really that networking, keeping teachers involved and abreast and sharing ideas is crucial to student success?

>> It's an important element.

>> Rochelle: Thank you very much, Marilyn, and good luck. We like what we saw going on in Bernice's classroom.

Time now to turn to the global history and geography Regents exam. This is what's going to be happening in the high school level.

George, who is going to actually take this exam and what is it that they're going to face?

>> Our current sophomores, this year's sophomore class. Students who entered ninth grade in September of '98 will be the first students to take the global history and geography examination. They must pass this examination, as well as the U. S. history and government examination in June of 2001, in order to earn a diploma.

This examination, the ninth and tenth grade examination, will be based 60% on the tenth grade content, 40% on ninth grade content. It will include -- and we have a graphic on this. The components of the test include multiple-choice questions, thematic essay, a document-based question. Fifty multiple-choice questions worth 55% of the exam; the thematic essay worth 15% of the exam, and the document-based question, which is 30% of the examination, 15% for the scaffolding portion where students answer short-answer questions tied to each of the documents and 15% for the essay itself.

So that's a change from our current examinations. There will be no choice on this examination. Students must answer both of the essays.

>> Rochelle: Why was the choice taken out? Why is this a better assessment of what students know?

>> With choice, you have a situation where not all students take the same examination because we know inherently that not all essay questions are of equal value. So that all students take the exact same examination, we have pretested our essays and we know how difficult these essays are, so all students across the state will take the exact same exam with no choice.

>> Rochelle: Okay. What kind of resource is available here?

>> Again, we provided to districts last June a sampler for global history and geography, a test exam, an actual examination with multiple choice questions, thematic essay, D.B.Q., as well as student papers so that teachers can use these papers in their staff development work, to show students the scoring rubric, the kinds of questions that will be used.

We also, on the CD-ROM, have given teachers web sites and information about sample-type activities they can use with students. The core curriculum has been out there for teachers for the past three or four years to use for global history and geography. And we're also, this winter and spring, providing scoring sessions across the state to get teachers ready to score these new examinations, as well as our web site, where we are constantly adding additional scoring material for teachers to use to prepare them for the examination.

>> Rochelle: Okay. We're going to now see some of the preparations for the exam in practice as we visit two high schools. One is a class at Churchville-Chili High School in the suburbs of Rochester. It's a total inclusion class of both general ed and students with disabilities. They're all preparing for the Regents exam. And then it will be on to the Bronx for a look into the global history class of teacher Rafina Bautista.

>> I'm going to give you a task to do. You're going to have five minutes, six minutes, to take a look at the hard copy and then sitting with the person next to you, or if you're sitting on your own that's fine, too, I'm going to ask you to come up with some symbols to -- I want you to come up with some symbols that help illustrate one or two of the slides from each of the presentations.

>> Today's lesson was basically to kind of pull together a review of imperialism, what we have been looking at over the last two weeks.

>> So I had three or four different activities set up to kind of review in many different ways, trying to use different approaches. We have a lot of different kids' needs.

In this particular class, we have a pretty eclectic group. We've got kids with a wide variety of needs and strengths. I feel that when I organize groups or working individually, I try to use a lot of variety. Sometimes I'll plan groups specifically matching up kids' abilities, and sometimes it's random. Here at Churchville-Chili, our inclusion program works to ensure that all special education students have access to the regular ed curriculum and high-quality instruction that all students get. So the students have services that are pushed into regular ed classes so in any one class you might see students receiving all different levels of service. We have special education teachers working alongside regular ed teachers with a teaching aide in the classroom. Those special ed teachers act as co-teachers, co-facilitators of the curriculum with the regular ed teacher. We have special ed teachers working in consultation with the regular ed teacher, helping them modify the curriculum and so on in their planning to work with students with less severe disabilities. We have special ed teachers who work as a consultant teacher directly with students as needed.

So we really have a range of service that we offer the students, but the crux of it is to get special education students into regular ed classrooms with their regular ed peers, access to the regular ed curriculum, access to the high-quality instruction that is a part of the regular ed program.

>> In terms of the curriculum with our special ed kids -- well, in all kids, really -- taking the task that's going to be asked of them, breaking it down and helping the teachers understand what's expected of the kids and then coming up with creative ways to help the kids work through those tasks.

I think task analysis is a real important part of our planning day. Our co-teacher and I will take a task like our document-based questions -- which is a large essay, a large process; it's a writing process -- and coming up with strategies and ways that break that down into chunks that kids can handle, present it in a way that they can feel successful and then move forward and put the whole process together.

>> Working with a teaching partner, you need to be flexible. You need to be very flexible. You have to be aware of their needs and what they're comfortable doing in the classroom.

Traditionally, I do take a leadership role. But we do have our own strengths. There's many things that my teaching partner sees that I don't and she picks up on, and the way I like to look at it is -- and the way we approach it to the class is that I'm the content specialist and she's like an instructional specialist and together we try to create the most creative lessons that meet the needs of all kids.

>> For students at Churchville-Chili that aren't successful the first time through the State exam, we have a variety of academic intervention services that are available to them. Hopefully, the first time through, they'll be successful and hopefully we'll be able to identify which students are at risk of not being successful before the exam so we can begin academic intervention services prior to that.

But the range of services could be anything from a very mild service around a reading issue or something like that, a consultant teacher service where a regular ed teacher gets some advice from a reading teacher about how to handle the student's needs, to anything to some extra time added to the student's class, you know, a social studies lab which we have now so the student can get an extra 40 minutes a day with a social studies teacher and special education teacher or another service provider that's deemed appropriate.

But the key to the academic intervention services here is being able to identify what the student's need is. So instead of going into academic intervention and getting a review of social studies, of global history, that we know what difficulty the student is having. You know, if they're having difficulty reading, we need to know what that difficulty is so that we can address that problem. And treat each student as a different student, make sure we know what that diagnosis is and then prescribe service individually for those kids so that we can address that need quickly and get them academic intervention as fast as possible.

>> The thematic essay and the D.B.Q. is a big change. It's a large shift. I feel we have been prepared well with the curriculum work and the planning time and all the extras that we have done to help our kids be successful. I'm very confident the kids are going in there equally confident.

>> Okay. Good morning. The first task we're going to do -- and this should be familiar to most of you; I know you've done this, where you have read a story, a passage, and you're supposed to do what at this point?

>> Summarize.

>> Summarize. Main idea. So pay close attention while I read this story. I'm going to read it twice.

>> Today the idea was for the students, using different viewpoints, different documents, to answer the question, "Was World War I unavoidable?"

>> This is a story regarding the murder of the archduke...

>> The initial activity was a motivation for the lesson. What they were asked to do was to listen for facts and try to get from the particular reading why did the assassination take place, the reasoning behind it, and also to figure out how did this particular war cause a whole world war?

>> I'm going to read it a second time.

>> In today's lesson, Ms. Bautista helped to prepare students for the document-based questions by beginning with a sample or model. She read an excerpt and had students listen to that excerpt, and then she modeled with them how they were to answer questions dealing with the document.

>> What is the main idea of this story here? Vanessa?

>> The death of the archduke...

>> The main thing was that it was important for him to be there on that day, directing army maneuvers...

>> The first step that she did was the scaffolded part in Section A of the State's D.B.Q. essay, where students give short answers to the documents that they will then have to discuss in a full essay.

>> So they saw the threat. The present emperor at that time was about 80 years old, okay? If we take a look at this map, I think we can probably understand a little more the conflict in that particular area.

>> I have always seen history as something that's up to interpretation, how each individual would look at a particular event. There are different viewpoints, the person interacting, the eyewitness, all of those things.

I think document-based learning is important because it gives the students different perspectives and allows them to take a perspective and come to their own conclusion of history rather than it being fed to them.

>> Why did the assassination take place? By interpreting this map, what can we interpret as the conflict in this area?

>> When we were introduced to the particular new Regents, we were asked to come to a global history summer institute at City College where they actually worked collaboratively with City College professors as well as staff developers from the schools throughout the city.

>> And what we did at the summer institute was to go over activities, techniques, methodologies that can be used in the classroom to prepare kids for the new Regents examinations.

>> And I would take what I've learned from these workshops and try to implement that with my own students, trying to get them to learn how to analyze documents and how to develop a thesis and support the thesis using the information that they have analyzed.

Within your group, you'll be looking at -- each group will be looking at a different document. But right now we're going to look at one together so I can explain to you what we're going to do with it.

>> Miss Bautista is using the skills that she was prepared to do in the classroom, and in today's lesson, she used the scaffolding techniques that we had discussed at the summer institute and support room conferences in preparing kids to write the longer essay that they have to do on the Regents.

>> New Speaker: ...the same because all of this happened, it triggered the assassination of the archduke...

>> I used one particular document, which is an artist's drawing of his viewpoint of the war, and I used that with the entire class to model what they were asked to do within their group. So they were asked to look at that particular diagram and next to summarize the main idea and to answer the question, which was "Was the war unavoidable?"

>> I think that the idea that the artist is trying to convey is that... led up to the assassination of the archduke, affecting Europe and triggering a war that would soon involve the world.

>> Okay.

>> We were told that the grading for the June Regents was going to be different from the past Regents that we have had. So throughout the semester, our staff development has been to work on how to grade these particular document-based questions and also thematic essays.

>> What we're planning to do in scoring the Regents in June is two teachers will be assigned for each essay, each part of each essay, so there will be two teachers assigned to score the thematic essay, two teachers to score Part A of the D.B.Q. essay and two more teachers to score Part B of the essay and then another teacher will be on standby in case there's a discrepancy of more than a point in the scores. The teachers are already aware of this and understand the whole process.

>> So we have actually had an opportunity to look at exams that have been tested at the State Department and learn what their criteria is and learn how they grade it, and using the rubrics we decide how to evaluate it and we come to a consensus on what we'll be looking for so that when we do grade in June, there's consistency.

>> In April of 1913...

>> I plan a particular group so they are cooperative learners. They are working collaboratively and they are sharing ideas and yet we have different variabilities. Somebody is to read; somebody is to write. There is a presenter in the group, although some groups chose to all present. They were asked to come to a consensus on how they would best summarize that particular document, whether it be a primary source or a map or a diagram or a chart of some sort.

After they summarize it, they come to an agreement. They then would transcribe that concept on the chart paper.

>> Four or five sentences for a summary of what you did. Type a paragraph and put it here. That's very good.

>> We have a large number of students whose second language is English, and we are preparing them for the Regents just as we're preparing everyone else. The students in the bilingual social studies classes are getting the same textbooks, same content, and same essay questions and other exam questions as the mainstream students. What is done in the bilingual classes is that the teachers are truly bilingual and incorporate both the native language, which in the case of Walton High School is Spanish, and English in teaching their lessons.

>> Our document was Document 1, the Triple Alliance between Germany, Italy and the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. And the summary is...

>> The main idea of this document is the mutual agreement and promises between Germany, Italy and the Austrian-Hungarian empires to defend each other in case of war without direct provocation on their part.

>> Students are not asked to just simply memorize information. Students are asked to analyze and to come to conclusions and to support their opinions and look at generalizations and stereotypes and try to figure out what would be opinion, what would be fact, what can be interpreted, and what can be argued.

>> For homework, I would like you to use a document that we discussed in class and that you presented on to answer the question of whether or not you felt the war was unavoidable. In this essay, you have to make sure you are using evidence from the seven documents, and you are also using outside information which means using your homework assignments...

>> Students are being taught to be thinking citizens. They're being taught to analyze things as if they are adults, and this kind of teaching and learning will help students not only for the Regents but for the rest of their lives.

>> Rochelle: I think Dr. Elia said it right there; that's our story and we're sticking to it. We're going to make those kids good citizens and thinking well in the future as they move out into the "real world."

In our studios at Hudson Valley Community College today, Dr. Anthony Elia and Fatina Bautista from Walton High School. Thank you very much for joining us. And Scott Wilson, a social studies teacher from the Churchville-Chili District. We welcome all of you. Thanks so much for coming in.

Dr. Elia, I want to start with you and then I'm going to talk to the teachers. I know we have teachers out there who have questions about what you do in that classroom.

But students must pass this exam, Dr. Elia, in order to graduate. Right now the percentage of high school students passing the current global history exam is between 60 and 65%. What do we need to do at that high school level, and certainly that K through 12 level, to make sure that students, all students, really, have access to those Regents exams and also have access to the kinds of instructions that make them successful? What at Walton are you doing to make that happen?

>> Most importantly, every school must follow the State Education Department's curriculum. What we did is when the curriculum came out about three years ago, we as a department analyzed the curriculum and decided on what the calendars of lessons should be. So our first calendar of lessons dealt with the new global history I, and at the same time, I was working for the central board in developing a curriculum guide to be used in the New York City schools where documents were incorporated with the new assessments and the thematic essay and the D.B.Q. essay. We also incorporated the E.L.A. standards into the social studies curriculum guide as a board.

So what we did is we were developing -- or I was developing with a group of people the Board of Ed curriculum guide, and with my own department, we were developing our calendars of lessons. So we had various breakoff points in what we were going to teach in Global I and with the first two units of the curriculum. The State curriculum is divided into eight units. So there were two units for each semester, so Global History IV, which we'll be teaching next semester, there will be Units 7 and 8 to be taught. And we have developed calendars of lessons for each of them so that everyone is following the State curriculum.

We have a resource guide with documents that we use and there has been staff development going on with the teachers over at least three years in preparation for the curriculum and the assessment. So our teachers have had practice in developing the thematic essays and the D.B.Q. essays. They have had practice in marking them. They have had practice in using the rubrics for each of the exams.

So we are on our way toward meeting the Regents this June.

>> Rochelle: Okay. And so a shameless plug for our tools for schools, but basically what we have seen here is a lot of comprehensive planning, a lot of responsive leadership, a leadership very responsive to-- very quick response to those changes in the new learning standards, and also a lot of ongoing and very supportive staff development in terms of even developing your own materials and seminars and workshops and things for teachers as well.

Now I'm going to go back to Rafina and Scott, who are in the classrooms. Rafina, in your classroom, we saw you really working on a pretty complicated lesson here, dealing with this document-based question.

First you modeled the lesson for students. Why do you feel that modeling the lesson for students before they're actually participating in it is so important?

>> I think modeling is important because we make assumptions when we explain to students. We don't have actual feedback right there that they understand the lesson, so if you actually carry it through as an example for the entire class, you have the entire class participate in the example that they will work at on their own, and it does help.

>> Rochelle: Okay. In terms of planning time, we're finding in our discussions with teachers that preparing for these lessons takes a lot more time than it used to because it means changes in how you instruct. When you sat down to begin preparing this particular lesson, you had documents that you had to come out with to hand to students and say, "Okay, these are the documents that you're going to look at," and you had seven groups of students and you had to have seven different documents.

How long does it take you to prep a lesson like this? Where do you go to get that information, those documents that you need to help make this lesson happen in the classroom?

>> Well, besides the resource guides created by the Board of Ed, there are also other resource guides we have always used, even before the new curriculum came out, to find primary source documents and charts and such. So in going through these books, I would try to locate those documents that would fit with that thesis or that particular topic. Sometimes you take them and shorten them so that the kids can work in a 40-minute time period or even to listen.

>> Rochelle: When do you do all this planning? When do you do all this putting together?

>> (Laughing) At home... at home on the weekend!

>> Rochelle: And I think that's probably what we're hearing, that teaching is more than just in the classroom. And we certainly hope that parents and community members watching understand what's going on.

Scott, I want to talk with you about what was going on in your classroom and that writing process in developing document-based questions, especially when you have a class that includes general ed and students with disabilities. How do you approach that document-based question and writing process?

>> In Churchville, we have a practice of team teaching, including a special ed teacher with the global history teacher. I've had the benefit of working with the same person for a number of years, so we have grown to develop strategies. And probably one of the greatest benefits in working with the special ed teacher, she has experience breaking tasks down, and this writing process with the D.B.Q., it's a multilevel, multistep process. And we have taken advantage of summertime, curriculum time, and planning time through the district to really analyze that process and come up with some strategies that include using graphical organizers and outlines that help break that process down, strategies that look at using the rubric to help develop those graphic organizers. What is going to be expected of the students in terms of writing their essay and then working backwards and developing an outline form for a graphic organizer that students can practice using, sharpening their skills in terms of writing a good introductory paragraph, body paragraph, including outside information as well as information that they pull from their analysis of the documents.

>> Rochelle: So basically, by having an inclusion class, you have really learned, as Marilyn said earlier, some good teaching techniques that work very well for students with disabilities which are frankly just good teaching techniques.

>> Yes, and that's the benefit of teaching an inclusion classroom. Having two heads -- pulling two heads together is better than one sometimes. I find that it's a real benefit. There's things that my teaching partner will see that I don't see, and she knows half the class, their strengths and weaknesses, and I know half the class's strengths and weaknesses, so we take advantage of our planning time as well. We have common planning time that we not only plan lessons but we plan strategies for specific kids' needs.

>> Rochelle: And also she is there really basically to help students, and you also find your general ed students asking for or looking for support.

>> We don't differentiate in the classroom. We're a true team and we'll work with all the students in the classroom.

>> Rochelle: We have a lot of cooperative learning going on in both classrooms. Scott has a team and, Rafina, you have a team. That's very helpful in that students learn from each other. When it comes to the exam, they're sitting alone. So how do they make that transition? Have you seen it work well in the sense of the cooperative learning and then when they take the exams on their own it's okay?

>> There is individual accountability. I mean, yes, they're working within their group, but they still have to go home and write this essay, and there are still homework assignments that they have to do. There's a lot of individual work and individual demands that we do go over in class, so there's a lot of preparation on where each student is at.

>> Rochelle: And building the team itself so there's not one student doing all the work and everybody else is sitting by is important.

>> Yes.

>> Rochelle: All right.

>> I can see that, too. I think students working together may pick up a strategy and approach that their peer uses that they may find useful as well. One of the skills that we have been working on in our classroom is using a highlighter to help identify key words in the documents, and that's a skill. It's something that the kids need to practice. Some kids are better than others. The first time you hand a highlighter to them -- (Laughter) -- but they're looking for key words and working with their peers helps them sharpen that skill and then again they practice on their own, like you said, with homework assignments or other types of individual tasks.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. Thank you very much.

We have also talked about scoring and how helpful that can be in staff development. Scoring for both the elementary assessments and the Regents exams is different than it has been in the past. George, tell us about the scoring. What is different?

>> The scoring for the elementary and intermediate will differ slightly from the high school commencement exams because the commencement exams are graduation requirements. For the elementary exam, we're suggesting and asking districts to involve their K through 5 teachers, teachers who are responsible for the instruction of the students, so we're asking that they be the ones responsible for scoring exams in their buildings, and that the same be true for the intermediate. So the seventh and eighth grade teachers who are instructing these students will score the intermediate-level examinations.

The high school exams are more complicated in the sense that it's a new scoring process that not all districts are familiar with. We have a graphic on this. What we're asking for is that these examinations be scored reliably. What we're doing is asking principals to appoint a coordinator for scoring, and that this occur well in advance of the administration of the examination next June; that the training and logistics of the exam take place before that time. The same rule is applied for social studies as applied for the English Regents examination last year. We're requiring that two qualified social studies teachers score each examination. Each exam that students earn the same grade, receive the same score, the student would earn that score, but if I scored a 4 and you scored a 3, the student could earn a 3.5. A third grader must score an examination paper if the two scores differ by more than one point, as Dr. Elia pointed out in his piece. So you would need at least three scorers, three qualified scorers for each student paper.

We're also asking that only one rater score the scaffolding questions, a change from our earlier talk about scoring, and we're also providing districts with a scoring guide, similar to what was mailed with the global history sampler last June, that will include sample papers, anchor papers for different score points. And again, well in advance of the examination, we're asking districts to provide some type of training so that teachers feel comfortable with the scoring.

We're also in the stage with SUNY two-year colleges of providing in-service training across the state and in New York City, Long Island with districts providing information on how to assemble a scoring team, what the rules for scoring are, and then actually practice scoring sessions for teachers where they work with sample papers and eight to ten teachers sitting around the table scoring both the thematic and the document-based questions.

And there will also be a handy conversion chart, hopefully a simpler version than ones I have seen, that will help districts to determine the final score for students.

This will all occur prior to the assessment so that on June 15th, 2000 when the examination is given, districts would open the examination and that afternoon the teachers would train, using the scoring papers, and once the training occurs, teachers would then work with student papers and begin the scoring process.

>> Rochelle: Let's take a look at some scoring training in some video visits that we made last year.

>> All right. Let me just refresh your memory in terms of what the purposes of the scoring program are. We have really two main purposes. One is to design a system of scoring the Grade 5 social studies elementary assessment that is reliable.

>> It is summer, and these elementary school teachers from across New York State are in class. The teachers are reviewing papers of students who were given pilot tests, scoring them against rubrics designed to tell how well students are meeting the new learning standard for social studies in grades kindergarten through fourth. Based on the work being done in this room, the State Education Department will have a task it will administer to fifth grade students for the first time in November of 2000.

>> This is the second step in the process -- second or third step in the process of putting together State assessments so that by fall, we will have the results from these scoring sessions and we can then sit down with a committee of teachers, put the test together, multiple-choice questions, short-answer constructive response questions and one essay question for elementary students.

>> It also was a learning session for teachers. By reviewing the pilot tests and how students answered the questions, teachers gain a sense of what they will need to do in the classroom in order for their pupils to succeed.

>> The thing that a teacher in a classroom needs to consider is that these tests, I believe personally, the value in these assessments is that they are testing not only material but testing concepts and skills in a way that gets at deeper thinking, and in order to assess them, teachers need to look at that and say, "I need to teach differently if my students are going to do well on these assessments, and that means the assessments are going to be driving the curriculum. A good way to teach social studies is to use documents, is to use visuals, is to ask questions at a higher level rather than just a literal level.

So if students are going to do well, teachers need to be aware of how their students are going to be tested and look at those questions and say, "If these are the kinds of questions there are going to be, I need to adjust my instructions somewhat and I need to start using documents," and that's a good thing.

>> We have to integrate the English language arts with the social studies, with the math, with the science, as much as we possibly can so that the children are getting all the information they need to be able to do these evaluations well, and when they do these evaluations well, we will know that they have learned well the things we're trying to instruct them in.

>> The teachers involved in the two-day session are enthusiastic. Most like what they see. Teachers working with students who have disabilities feel the test is constructed in such a way that it will support what students know.

>> In the past, when I was giving other types of tests, I noticed that each question was basically different from the one before it, and the reason I liked this test was because of the way that we clustered the questions around one concept. I think it helps the special ed child because they don't have to switch from one concept to the next concept to the next concept. They had an opportunity to think about one particular concept, answer several questions based on that concept, and they didn't have to keep switching. They didn't have to keep changing.

>> What we're going to do, very simply, is see if we can teach some things to you folks that would be useful to you as you go back -- how many of you are global history teachers?

>> In Syracuse in September, the emphasis shifted to training global history teachers on how to score the new global history Regents exam that will be given to high school sophomores for the first time in June.

>> Rochelle: Time now to review our tool kit: Suggestions for how you can incorporate some of what you have seen into your classroom instruction.

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>> Rochelle: That is all the time we have today. I'm going to thank my guests once again and to everyone who assisted us in putting together our videos and our exemplary practices.

If you would like a copy of today's program or if you have questions, contact the Satellite Broadcast Network at rcassel1@twcny.rr.com, tmoore@questar.org. Phone number, (518) 477-6749, or fax number, (518) 477-4311.

We would like to know what you thought about today's program so we have an on-line survey. Please visit it at www.nysed.gov and hit the "Tools for Schools" link to complete it. If you would like information about resource guides, transcripts or other curriculum instruction and assessment topics, contact the SED Curriculum and Instruction home page at www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/.

Coming up on our schedule, training sessions on scoring the fourth grade English language arts assessment, Tuesday and Wednesday, February 8th and 9th. It will be sent to satellite downlink sites so contact jquinn@mail.nysed.gov to get some information.

Tuesday February 8th, from 2 to 3 p.m., we look at discipline issues for students with disabilities. That program is also available by satellite. Contact Teresa Moore, tmoore@questar.org, for the coordinates.

And on Wednesday, March 1st, we take an in-depth look at the continued phase-in of the Math A curriculum.

I'm Rochelle Cassella. Good-bye.