Civitas
A Newsletter for the CCS K-12 Social Studies Community
Special Edition - Preparing for Online Ohio State Grade 4 Social Studies Tests (AIR)
Inside this edition:
- Black History Month Living Wax Museum Grade 4 Alignment
- CCS Social Studies Assessments Webpage
- Using Released Test Items
- Ohio's Computer Based Assessment Portal
- Ohio Test Prep Tutorials and Edcite Assignments
- Grade 4 Social Studies Student Review Guide
- Mastering Ohio's Grade 4 Social Studies Test Prep Book
Curriculum Update: Living Wax Museum and Social Studies 4 Standards
Many CCS elementary schools celebrate Black History Month by having students create a Living Wax Museum. In a Living Wax Museum students research and portray the contributions of famous or not so famous African Americans.
The Living Wax Museum also provides the perfect opportunity to teach Grade 4 standards that help prepare students for the Social Studies AIR Test.
See the chart linked here for ideas on how to connect Living Wax Museum themes to Ohio's State standards. The chart provides a theme, vocabulary, main idea questions, and examples that you could add to your existing Living Wax Museum project.
CCS Social Studies Assessments Webpage
Ohio's State Test Grade 4 Social Studies Released Test Items
Ohio Test Prep Tutorials and Edcite Assessment
Ohio Test Prep is a blended learning tool with eight self-paced modules for each state test in social studies. Each module contains three sections: LEARN, PRACTICE , and ASSESS. In addition to embedded YouTube video tutorials and practice games, each module includes a Mastery Assessment developed with the Edcite platform.
All of the Ohio Test Prep assessments and questions are also available in the Edcite public library, which means teachers can copy them to their own account and customize them as needed. To access the Ohio Test Prep Edcite collections, create a free account (you can log in with your CCS Google Account) and follow the collections here: https://www.edcite.com/social/profile?user=ohiotestprep.
Ohio Test Prep is under development and new content is added monthly. The video below shows how to navigate the Ohio Test Prep website.
Grade 4 Social Studies Student Review Guide
The review guide includes a 1-page student-friendly summary of each learning target, graphic organizer, along with released test questions. These unit reviews are also available for download with the learning modules at www.ohiotestprep.com.
Technology Skills and Readiness Resources Portal
Using State Practice Tests in Edcite for Diagnostic and Formative Assessment
There are limitations to using the State Practice Test Portal. Questions cannot be re-organized by standard or content statement and there is no way to track student data. It is really more for student practice with the online test format and to see the complexity of the questions.
Edcite is a free web-based platform for creating interactive assessments. Edcite has loaded Ohio's practice tests and released test items into their platform. The assessments and questions on Edcite can be copied to an individual teacher account. Teachers can then re-organize questions into smaller assessments aligned by standard. This allows teachers to collect data and use it as diagnostic and formative data.
To access the Ohio AIR Assessments on Edcite, go to: http://www.edcite.com/lp/ohio.
Best Practices for Using the Mastering Ohio's Grade 4 Social Studies Test
★ Highly focused content summaries in each of the 24 chapters provide the most essential information your students will need.
★ All of the fundamental social studies skills required by the new curriculum are introduced in this book.
★ A Unit Pre-Test allows you to see what your students already know. A Unit Test then allows you to assess what your students have learned.
Click on the link to view a sample lesson format that can be used with the Jarrett Test Prep Book. Chapter 4 - Modifying the Environment
Contact Lynda Ray (LRay3640@columbus.k12.oh.us) or Chris Weatherholtz (cweatherholtz3151@columbus.k12.oh.us) if you need a copy of the Jarrett Test Prep Book.
Ohio's Computer-Based Assessments Portal
Columbus City Schools Social Studies
Lynda Ray, K-5 Social Studies Coordinator
Chris Weatherholtz, K-5 Science/Social Studies Coordinator
Website: http://www.ccsoh.us/socialstudies.aspx
Location: Columbus, OH, United States