One method of testing in my classroom is the traditional pen and paper test. However, when I found this packet in the piles of worksheets laying in the corner of the room I thought I can have a little fun with this. What I had the students do was read the short passages as a class and only when we were discussing a countries explorations. For instance, I spent one day talking about the Spanish and Portuguese explorers so I had the students only read about them in the packet, next day would be French, etc. So I gave them the reading in small doses. When it came time to finally take the assessment, there were several sections in the packet instead of having the students do all of them I had them pick 4 of the sections to answer. Grading was difficult because not all the students chose the same sections so I had to come up with a grading system for each individual student. But it worked well, the students did really well and it was slightly different from what they were normally used too; the traditional pen and paper test, memorization and same formatting; this gave them a choice while getting the content through to them.

Road to Revolution was a unit I had where I explained how the colonies began feuding with England, ultimately parting ways with the king. I wanted to come up with a way to assess the students that was not a paper test, so I came up with this timeline project. I gave them a chart of key events which went in date order and explained what the event was and why it was significant in the American struggle for separation. This was not only a great project but a great assessment to see if they understood the first few lessons about the colonies grievances towards England and the steps they took to get their points across. This assessment went very well, and all of my students were engaged and enjoyed working on it, most importantly though it shows my diversity in assessing my students ensuring their success and engagement in the content.