MHS Social Subjects Approach to Assessment

Why do we assess?
Assessment is an essential part of learning and teaching. It helps to provide a picture of the learners progress and
achievements. From this picture we can plan next steps.

As pupils move up through the school, toward the senior phase, they will experience assessment practices which lead to
qualifications.

What are broad features of assessment in social studies?

As with all aspects of Curriculum for Excellence, assessment practices should be seen from the perspective of the learner.
Learners should be engaged in all aspects of assessment processes and be afforded an element of choice and personalisation in
showing that they have achieved the intended outcomes.

Assessment in social studies will focus on children and young peoples knowledge, understanding and skills in their studies of
people, past events, society, place and the environment.

Evidence of this learning will be gathered as part of pupils day-to-day learning. Pupils will be asked to:
describe and record;
explore and analyse sources;
interpret and display information;
talk and debate;
undertake investigations and
present their thinking orally, in writing or in a multimedia format.

Specific assessment tasks will be valuable in assessing progress. This will include assessment of how well children and young
people can use their knowledge and understanding to interpret evidence and present an informed view. Learners can also
demonstrate evidence of progress through their abilities in applying their knowledge and skills in increasingly demanding and/or
unfamiliar contexts, such as environmental issues, citizenship, and their awareness of the world and Scotlands place in it.

Children and young people can demonstrate progression in knowledge, understanding and skills by how well they deal with
increasingly demanding and challenging concepts. Pupils will be expected to demonstrate their:

growing abilities to understand the complexity of such issues with increasing maturity and empathy
abilities to draw together their learning to demonstrate the depth of their understanding
skills in supporting their understanding by reference to carefully-considered evidence and sources
capacity to demonstrate higher order skills such as analysing and evaluation.


Assessment should also link with other areas of the curriculum, within and outside the classroom, offering children and young
people opportunities to develop awareness of social issues such as sustainability and enterprise through field trips, visits to local
and national heritage sites, and meetings with members of the community.


Assessment within the Social Subjects department will also reflect cross curricular areas. This means that opportunities to
demonstrate progress in literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing and IT will be recognised in each of the three subject areas.
Social Subjects contribute to a cross curricular project on Fair Trade (S1). Decision making, enterprise, presenting and debating
skills are all assessed by both teachers and peers. Likewise in S2 pupils study the USA and subject based assessment is based on
a shared context.


What we assess in Social Subjects
Within the Social Subjects Curriculum, assessment focuses on the application of standards and expectations of each young
learners progress and achievement in knowledge and understanding, skills and attributes and capabilities. Our young
people need to develop their understanding of social, political, economic and environmental issues, the human achievements
that have made the society in which they live and how they can influence that society. Rigorous, reliable and challenging
assessment in Social Studies helps young people to do this and understand how well they are developing as global citizens in the
21st century.
It is expected within our Curriculum by the end of S3 the significant aspects of learning will be covered, including:
1. understanding the place, history, heritage and culture of Scotland and appreciating local and national heritage within the
world;
2. developing an understanding of the world by learning about how people live today and in the past;
3. understanding economic, political, social and environmental issues
4. becoming aware of change, cause and effect, sequence and chronology
5. understanding the principles of representative democracy, participation and citizenship by practising democracy through
electoral participation and active citizenship in the school and local community
6. using and applying skills in creating models, maps and graphical representation of information
7. locating, exploring and linking periods, people, events and features in time and place
8. gaining business enterprise skills and knowledge and an understanding of the importance and methods of managing finance
Geography
Recording Assessment within the Broad General Education

Throughout S1-S3 each pupils progress is tracked using a spread sheet recording system on Microsoft Excel. Pupils also have a
log book to record their progress and a tracker for the whole of the Broad General Education. Progress in also tracked centrally
on the schools administration programme.

Geography
In the Geography Classroom a range of topics are studied including; Glaciation and Coasts, Rivers, Population, Urban Studies,
Climate Change and Geography in the News. Each of these topics provides; breadth, depth, challenge and enjoyment,
personalisation and choice, progression, coherence and relevance as set out in a Curriculum for Excellence. The Experiences and
Outcomes are so broad we concentrate on the following skills within the Broad General Education to be assessed;
Reading and using 4 and 6 figure grid references
Using a scale (1:50,000, 1:25,000)to measure /approximate distances on an OS map.
Extract information from an OS map and use it to make decisions and solve problems.
Use content and index pages effectively to locate places and maps.
Extract information from a variety of sources.
Communicating an idea in a variety of ways e.g. talk, report
Interpreting information from graphs
Display data in a variety of ways e.g. pie chart/bar graph
Research a simple topic and problem solve.
Evaluate various sources.
Use an OS map to highlight features of our landscape.
Extract information from an OS map and use it to explain the local environment
Use the internet and academic materials as an effective research tool.
Create a cross section with the aid of an OS Map.
Interpret information from graphs, images and GIS.
Write a Geography Report.

To ensure young people are making progress across all aspects of the Social Subjects Curriculum, assessment will place
a greater emphasis on literacy and numeracy, health and wellbeing, Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
and higher order skills, including creativity. Furthermore, written work generated in Geography will be assessed against
the Scottish Criterion Scale in which all pupils should achieved targets in Literacy by the end of S3.

The Social Subjects Experiences and Outcomes can be found at the following address:
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningteachingandassessment/curriculumareas/socialstudies/eandos/index.asp

How We Assess Young Learners Progress
In the Geography department assessment involves gathering, reflecting on and evaluating evidence of learning to enable
learners progress to be checked.
A range of assessment approaches are used to assess the different types of achievement. This range allows learners to
demonstrate what they know, understand and can do. The range and variety of assessment approaches takes account of the
relevance of contexts to our young peoples prior experiences, interests and aspirations. Within the Geography classroom the
learning intentions and outcomes are shared with the pupils to allow them to consider what they are working towards. The
success criteria is generated by the pupils through discussion with the teacher and each other.

Evidence comes from day-to-day learning as well as from specific assessment
tasks, activities, tests and summative examinations.

The young learners are assessed in a variety of ways and evidence generated from the following activities;
Presentations
Powerpoint/Prezi Presentations
Written work such as Newspaper Articles, essays etc
Posters
Debates
Role Play
Projects
Problem solving tasks
Group Discussions
Quizzes
Questioning


Feedback

Our young learners are given feedback in a variety of ways throughout the year. Apart from the obvious verbal feedback from
the teacher, young learners are encouraged to assess their classmates and give them written or verbal feedback. Furthermore,
self-evaluation takes place within the classroom on a daily basis as the pupils have a log book to record their progress after each
lesson. This allows pupils to assess their own work and set themselves targets and next steps to act on and improve their
learning.


Modern Studies

What we assess
In Modern Studies pupils study a wide variety of contemporary topics these are associated with three broad themes:
democracy, social issues and international situations. Within these pupils will be expected to meet a range of learning
outcomes. For example:
I have compared the rights and responsibilities of citizens in Scotland with a contrasting society and can describe and
begin to understand reasons for differences.

(For full list of the Curriculum for Excellence outcomes for Modern Studies please visit the Education Scotland web page:
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningteachingandassessment/curriculumareas/socialstudies/eandos/index.asp
Or, contact the school and we can organise a copy.)
Again, broadly speaking, pupils are expected to demonstrate understanding of the topics and show that they are confident in
the skills required.
Cross curricular outcomes:
Literacy skills are a fundamental aspect of learning throughout social subjects. Pupils will use a variety of texts and media.
Assessment evidence will include the ability to respond to these and use them to demonstrate skills such as detecting bias and
finding evidence to support / oppose arguments. Literacy skills will also be assessed by applying the Scottish Criterion Scale to
extended writing exercises.
Numeracy skills are regularly applied / assessed during tasks which involve statistics and graphical information. The Fairtrade
enterprise activities incorporate opportunities for budgeting skills. There are regular opportunities for pupils to interpret and
present work graphically.
Health and wellbeing skills are directly assessed through an health inequalities elective. Social wellbeing outcomes are routinely
promoted and evaluated
IT skills are assessed through power point presentations, web based research and use of excel to present information
graphically.
(http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/hwb_across_learning_experiences_outcomes_tcm4-540905.pdf)

How and when
Assessment happens all the time and through a variety of ways. These include: textbook based tasks, class and group
discussions, conversations, quizzes, crosswords, debate, extended writing, project work and presentations. Assessment
approaches are planned to encourage learners and ensure appropriate support so that all learners can maximise their potential.
As pupils progress toward the end of the broad general education phase they will encounter more formal, standardised
assessment tools, pitched at a level which demonstrates their progress. For many this will be at National 3 level, others it may be
National 2, but for a significant number it may be at National 4 and beyond.
There is an emphasis on peer and self-evaluation.
Choice
Pupils are given opportunities to choose from a range of tasks and therefore have a choice on what is being assessed.
What happens to the assessment information?
Pupils are given feedback: where theyve done well, where/how they could improve their performance and next steps.
Assessment information is used to report back to parents and as pupils advance from the broad general education phase, will
guide their subject choices.