School Improvement in Maryland
Government-Assessment
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Social Studies Rubric: Observations
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Level 4

The response shows understanding of the content, question, and/or problem. The response is insightful, integrates knowledge, and demonstrates powerful application.

  • The application shows powerful evidence of higher order thinking skills.
  • Concepts are accurate and well supported.
  • There are no misconceptions.
  • The response is comprehensive.

Observations: The response includes more than one technique of HOTS and contains several examples that enrich the explanation. The response integrates the bullets and does not treat each bullet as a separate question.

Level 3

The response shows some understanding of the content, question, and/or problem. The response includes appropriate application that demonstrates evidence of higher order thinking skills.

  • The application shows some evidence of higher order thinking skills (HOTS).
  • Concepts are accurate and supported.
  • There are no interfering misconceptions.
  • The response may not develop all parts equally.

Observations: The response answers the question of HOW IT WORKS or the SO WHAT part of a response.

Possible strategies to obtain HOTS are

Using cause and effect Applying analysis and evaluation Comparing and contrasting
Weighing and balancing competing interests Applying relevant knowledge from related fields of history, current events, etc Including an analogy that illuminates the knowledge

A 3 answer has a good foundation of knowledge and builds the sides of the house with HOTS as support.

Level 2

This response shows knowledge of the content, question, and/or problem. The response is acceptable with some key ideas. The response shows little or no evidence of application.

  • The response includes some basic ideas.
  • The response provides little or no support.
  • There are minimal misconceptions.

Observations: This response has some meat on the bones or skeleton of ideas.

Level 1

The response shows minimal knowledge of the content, question, and/or problem. The response is related to the question, but is inadequate.

  • The response includes incomplete or fragmented ideas or knowledge.
  • There may be significant misconceptions.

Observations: This response has a skeleton of idea(s). The answer needs to include a new piece of information and not simply restate the prompt or form an opinion without any new knowledge.

Level 0

The response is completely incorrect or irrelevant.