Assessment Results and Analysis:

Series 1:
Mean:

Series 2:
25%

Median: 20%
Mode:

20%

Mean:

93.7%

Median: 100%
Mode:

100%

Prior to this course, the students had very little exposure to the formal subject of
geography as a class unto itself and I anticipated that the results for the pre-assessment would be
low all around. Geography as a social science is not offered in many schools at the secondary
education level and as such, I knew that the majority of the material would be completely new to
most of the students. As depicted in the graph above, the bars in blue represent the scores from
the pre-assessment and confirmed my suspicions that most of the students would receive very
low scores. A large portion of the students simply guessed or else put misinformation in the
lines, while others made educated attempts at answering the questions. Those students who
received zeros left the majority of their questions unanswered and answered incorrectly on those

in which they did provide a response. The scores for both the pre-assessment and the postassessment accurately represents the class as I had full attendance on both days. As shown
above, the mean was 25% with the median not being not far off at 20%, with the mode
representing the same figure of 20%. The range for the pre-assessment was 60, and while it
shows a significant disparity between the highest and lowest scores, the entire class minus one
students score (the one student in the pre-assessment who scored 60%) were below passing. The
questions which most students answered correctly were An absolute location is: and, A
relative location is:, both of which are questions which they could apply prior knowledge of
basic geography to answer. The answer that was left blank by most students was the last question
which asks them to explain how human environmental interaction plays a role in the city of Long
Beach. This questions would have required more in-depth knowledge of the theme and its
characteristics in order for the students to attempt to answer it, hence I was not surprised when I
saw that the majority of students left it blank.
After seeing the scores of the pre-assessment I decided to give the students two full days
of the course content through individual and group activities to fully absorb the material and
prepare them for the post-assessment which would be given at the beginning of the third day of
instruction. As the lesson plans above shows, I mixed in lecture with secondary document
reading/analysis plus partner share and individual activities in order to expose the students to the
content through multiple modalities. At the time I felt that the combination of lecture, text
reading/sharing, and the graphic organizer gave the students enough in-depth knowledge to
significantly turn their scores around.
As the results in orange from the graph show, the scores were almost the exact opposite
of what we saw in the pretest. The average score was 93.7% while over half the class received

perfect scores as is shown in the mean of 100%. As such the mode also depicts 100% while the
range also improved significantly, by twenty percent (60 to 40). This time around I had no blank
answers all the students attempted to answer the questions. Of the twelve students who did not
receive 100% on the post-assessment, the most commonly missed questions were questions #6
and #10. Questions #6 asks students to name an example of perceptual region. The
aforementioned 12 students ended up giving characteristics or examples of stereotypes in certain
regions (i.e. Californians surf, or Texans are cowboys), but they did not successfully name an
example of a perceptual region (i.e. SoCal/NorCal/Dixie). While I knew they were heading in the
right direction in attempting to answer the question, those students fell short of answering the
question correctly. Question #10 was also among the most commonly missed questions and
unsurprisingly so due to its higher complexity. Again, while the students did attempt to answer
the question, they ended up naming characteristics of the theme itself and did not fully answer
how those characteristics applied to the city of Long Beach itself. For example, one student
wrote down, HEI (human environmental interaction) is the way in which people change the
landscape. While he successfully stated a correct characteristic of the theme, he was not able to
state how the theme and that particular characteristic applied to Long Beach and how people
changed the landscape of the area.
While the scores for the post-assessment were significantly better than those of the preassessment I did reflect on whether the assessment itself was not challenging enough for the
students once they learned content. While the pre-assessment results were alarmingly low, the
scores were simply a reflection of the students lack of exposure to the material; however, once
they did learn the material, the post-assessment results show that the test could have definitely
been more challenging.

Next Step:
Having observed the results of the post-assessment I now know that my students can
easily recall terms and definitions; however, there are a few students who had trouble
successfully applying their knowledge of the material to answer critical thinking questions.
Overall, as mentioned above, I also feel that the exam could have been a bit more challenging for
the students. Ways in which I plan to increase the rigor of future assessments will be to include
more critical thinking style questions to the assessment instead of simply asking students to
define terms or recall information. Also, varying the question types will also help the students
think differently about their answers and the questions themselves. Examples of this could be to
provide true/false questions coupled with a correct the false statement style questions. This
way the students will be challenged to apply their knowledge of the material in an alternative and
perhaps more challenging way.
In order to prepare students for this more challenging type of exam will be to
incrementally include critical thinking style questions during lecture/input as well as during
student activities. I must also make sure to keep touching back to themes of geography, including
their more complex parts, during subsequent units throughout the rest of the semester. For
example, when discussing the sub regions of the United States I will make sure to include
questions that will challenge the students to think about why the Northeast is called the
Gateway to America and how the theme of movement is applied to this idea (i.e. the movement
of people from across the Atlantic migrating to the U.S.). Concurrently, the theme of human
environmental interaction will be addressed in this same section while discussing the emergence
of megalopolises in the Northeast. While asking students to think about these ideas I will also
provide scaffolds such as a graphic organizers which will break down a theme and its

characteristics so students can apply them to questions such as the one mentioned in the prior
statement. An example can be seen below:

Here the students will have inserted the italicized information, and then they will answer
the questions in the last two boxes. In this manner, they will have identified the characteristics of
the theme of human environmental interaction before having to answer how these characteristics
apply to the concept of megalopolises. By breaking down complex themes like HEI and
applying them to common subjects in geography I can facilitate their understanding of how each
of the themes applies to different aspects of each unit in question. Concurrently, I can use the
same model for EL students and SN students and add visuals plus less complex vocabulary in
order to facilitate their learning in a way that will help them access the material in a more
comprehensible way.

Aside from providing graphic organizers in order to break down complex themes I also
want to make sure to focus less on the lecture part of the lesson and more on the discussion. In
order to do that I plan on having copies of the PowerPoint slides for all students in order for them
to worry less about writing things down and more on absorbing the content, and then discussing
complex questions with each other; however, before we can begin these academic conversations
I do want to make sure that the students learn the content, and as such, will have them partake in
investigative vocabulary activities where they will find definitions, provide me with a summary
definition of their own, as well as a drawn visual representation of the term. This way, the
students will not only be writing down the meaning of the word as it is stated in a text, but also
their own interpretation of the terms along with a visual to accompany their summary response.
This way the students will be more familiar with the terms as they will have had to apply them in
a way where they have to find meaning behind the content specific language and terminology.
By doing this I hope to have the students ready to discuss more difficult ideas in a class setting
and then be able to answer these questions in an assessment with more ease and increased
confidence.
Just as in my plans on what to do next, the aspect of my lesson plan that I would go
back and change is also the note taking and presentation portion of the material. I realize now
that while note taking and listening to lecture may be an effective way for the students to write
down information and keep a record of the content, it is not necessarily the best way for the
students to absorb the material in a way that they can then apply it to critical thinking questions
and actually learn the complex themes and aspects of the subject. Instead of lecturing, again, I
would much rather hand out copies of the slides to all the students and then provide them with a
list of questions that relate to the unit of study which we can answer as a class and in groups. In

this manner, I can see who in the class is collaborating and having an easier time answering
questions, and in turn, I will be able to see who in the class needs more assistance and guidance.
Assessment Copy:

Intro to Geography: Assessment

1.

Name the 5 themes of geography:

__________________________________________________________________
2.

What is functional region:

3.

An absolute location is:

4.

A relative location is:

5.

An example of a formal region is:

6.

An example of a vernacular or perceptual region is:

7.
A place includes ___________________ and ________________
characteristics.
8.

What three things are included in the theme of movement?

a.

_____________________

b.

_____________________

c.

_____________________

9.

Define Human Environmental Interaction:

__________________________________________________________________
10. Briefly explain how human environmental interaction plays a role in the city of
Long Beach (think about how people affect the environment and how the
environment affects people):