Neolithic Revolution Cave Art Assessment

One of the standards for my grade level is for the students to demonstrate knowledge of the impact of the Neolithic Revolution. I've used the assessment described below for the last two years to assess students' knowledge of the advent of farming on early humans.

The assignment asks the students to imagine they are a Stone Age human living just after the discovery of farming (i.e. the Neolithic Revolution). The students are to create a before and after cave art style drawing/painting that depicts life before farming and how it changed after. It's helpful to show students examples of cave art. The text I use has several examples that give students a good idea of what cave art looked like. Naturally, this assessment should come after a discussion of the Old/Middle Stone Ages and the New Stone Age so they have some exposure to life before and after farming. If time is short, handouts on each could be provided, thereby making the assessment an assessment and a lesson at the same time.

The students must show four aspects of life before the Neolithic Revolution and then show how life changed after. Of course, the teacher could require more or fewer examples depending on the level of the students.

Students often seem to struggle with the idea at first. This is good. It means their brains are having to work. After they get the idea, however, the work they produce, in my experience, is great. I use a rubric to grade the assignment. The rubric includes points for each example before and after farming and for the neatness and/or visual appeal of the artwork. Not being artistically talented at all, I usually give full credit for the latter as long as the artwork is readable and colored. If I can't understand what a student has drawn, I have them label each drawing with a word or two to let me know what it depicts.

It would be relatively simple to differentiate this assignment further based on Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Theory. For instance, the teacher could offer the option of a song, poem, actual cave art model, diorama, etc. to allow the students to show the before/after effects of the Neolithic Revolution. I prefer to keep the cave art option because it helps drive home the concept that writing did not exist at this time in history.

Geography Assessment Project - Design an Island

I decided not to do it this year due to time constraints with my curriculum, but for the past few years I've had my students do a culminating geography project to assess the skills they learned during the unit.

The project revolved around islands designed by students in groups. I tried various group sizes, but groups of four seemed to be most effective for me.

The islands were designed around a theme of the students' choice. The themes were quite creative - everything from Candyland to Napoleon Dynamite Island, The Island of Elders, and Guitar Island.

The requirements for the island designs were intended to assess all the geography skills we covered in the unit, including the Five Themes of Geography. The students had to have at least eight different landforms (including a human-made one), four different regions, a coordinate grid, cities (including a capital), a source of fresh water, a method of transportation, and a map key with color codes for regions and a scale. The students also had to pick a real life ocean location for their island and supply the latitude and longitude.

Groups also had to write a "Five Themes Profile". The profile described how human activity changed the island, the purpose and effects of their human-made landform, the effects of natural resource harvesting on the island, any trade (import/export) the island engaged in, and how the island's regions are defined and why.

Finally, the students had to design a flag and a symbol to represent their island's theme and culture. They also had to prepare and deliver a presentation to the class about their island.

I usually gave the students a full week (about four hours) to work on their island maps, flags, and five themes profile and another day or two for presentations.

The project could be simplified or made more detailed. For example, the students might design a government to rule over their island and write news stories about events that happened there. I've also thought it would be cool for the students to do their designs on the computer, but resources and time have never afforded me the opportunity to fully explore the idea.

At any rate, this project has proven to be a fun and effective method of assessing students' geography skills in a non-traditional way following (or preceding) a traditional test.

Teaching the Five Themes of Geography - Human/Environment Interaction

When you study geography as it relates to history, it really is all about humans' interaction with the Earth's environment. Much of the story of human history is the development of new ways of modifying, reacting to, and adapting to the environment. As such, this is probably the theme that gets the most attention in my ancient world history classroom.

Teaching the Five Themes of Geography - Movement

Movement is how people, things, and ideas get from place to place on Earth. It is a simple theme to teach because it is so concrete. Afterall, all my students got to school today somehow didn't they? Their lunch was made from ingredients that were transported from somewhere. And when I write information on the board or the principal makes an announcement on the school PA system, we are "moving" ideas aren't we?