Formative Assessment
Throughout this suggested activity, you will support students in achieving the following skill that is the focus for assessment:
The following formative assessment opportunity is provided to help students unpack and develop the focus skill for assessment. Feedback prompts are also provided to help students enhance their demonstration of the focus skill for this activity. Formative assessment support is not intended to generate a grade or score.
Formative Assessment: Assessment for Learning Opportunity
Describe the Work of Kiva
Involve students in a peer review to provide and receive feedback on the comprehensiveness of the information they have provided on the work of Kiva. Use the feedback prompts below to provide structure in guiding students through this formative assessment opportunity.
Feedback Prompts:
- Is the information on topic?
- Have I included information about how the organization meets the five principles of effective aid?
- Is there enough information to help the reader understand?
These feedback prompts can be posted on an interactive white board or bulletin board, or incorporated into a feedback tool that can be copied for student use. Samples of tools created for a similar skill within a different formative assessment context may be found in the Social Studies 10-4 Formative Assessment Summary 
.
Linking to the Summative Assessment Task
- As students describe the work of Kiva through the suggested activity Ensuring that Help Is Helpful, they will have completed the first portion of the Summative Assessment Task – Microloans: A Globalization Aid?
- Students should consult the assessment task and the assessment task rubric to ensure that they have provided the information required. Encourage students to use the feedback received during the formative assessment opportunity to make enhancements to their work in progress.
- If students have not yet selected a format for their analysis of Kiva, encourage them to do so now.
Students research the activities of an organization such as Kiva to determine how it assists in improving quality of life for others, particularly women and children.
Instructional Support
A number of possible tasks are provided in this suggested activity. It is not intended that you work through all of the tasks, but rather select those tasks and resources that will best meet the learning needs of your students. The focus should be on ensuring that students have the background and support to be successful with the skill that is the focus for assessment (describe the work of Kiva).
Setting the Context for Learning
- Discuss with students that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently worked with its Development Assistance Committee to develop a system for the international community to make aid more effective. This resulted in the 2005 Paris Declaration , which was written to ensure that donors and recipients hold each other accountable for their commitments. The Paris Declaration states five fundamental principles for making aid more effective. In general terms, the principles are summarized below:
- Ownership: Recipients set their own strategies for poverty reduction and improvements.
- Alignment: Donors support these objectives and use local resources.
- Harmonisation: Donors keep procedures simple and make sure work is done efficiently.
- Results: Recipients and donors focus on results and results get measured.
- Mutual accountability: Donors and partners are accountable for results.
- Have students view a selection of videos (see the possibilities below) centred on ways that groups and businesses support improvements in the quality of life of others. After viewing, have students discuss evidence in each of the videos of the five fundamental principles of effective aid.
- Explain to students that the Summative Assessment Task – Microloans: A Globalization Aid? will focus on a deeper analysis of how a specific group—in this case the non-governmental organization Kiva—might or might not be successful in meeting the five fundamental principles.
- Let students know that as they work through their inquiry over the next several classes, they will be working on the skills that they need in order to be successful with the summative assessment task.
- Share the summative assessment task and the assessment task rubric with students.
- The language of the assessment task rubric is clarified through the formative assessment opportunities provided for each suggested activity. The boldfaced descriptive words in the rubric are also clarified in the Summative Assessment Task Rubric Glossary .
Describe the Work of Kiva
- Discuss the distinction between globalization and global issues. For example, providing support following the earthquake in Haiti is a response to a global issue but not an issue related to globalization.
- If students decide to focus on an organization other than Kiva, help them use the five principles from the Paris Declaration as a lens to help determine whether or not they have made an appropriate selection.
- Discuss with students methods of gathering information about an organization like Kiva. Caution students to consider carefully the sources that they use when gathering information. This would be an appropriate time to remind students about the qualities of reliable websites. The following two links may aid students in understanding:
- Brainstorm with students ways to organize the information that they gather. The following questions based on the five principles might be a useful organizational tool:
- What are some ways in which the organization makes sure that the recipients help develop the strategies for poverty reduction and improvements?
- What are some ways in which the organization uses local resources?
- In what ways does the organization keep procedures simple?
- What are some ways in which the organization measures success?
- In what ways do the organization and the recipients take responsibility when results are not as good as expected?
- Encourage students to note where they accessed the information. Full bibliographic references are not required; however, students should acknowledge when information and ideas come from another source and provide enough information so that the source can be retrieved at a later time.
- Remind students that they need to record key ideas by using point-form notes rather than copying directly from a source. If they are copying directly, they need to limit the quotes to a reasonable length and provide appropriate citations.
Suggested Supporting Resources
Textbook References
Student Basic Resource—Oxford University Press, Living in a Globalizing World:
- Page 324 Kalimani Women's Water Project
Student Basic Resource—McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Exploring Globalization:
- Pages 336–337 The Fair-trade Movement
Teaching Resource—Oxford University Press, Living in a Globalizing World:
- RM 0.3 Analyzing & Discussing Issues
- AM 1 Demonstrating Understanding Rubric
- AM 2 Generating & Organizing Ideas Rubric Show more
- AM 15 Discussing Issues Rating Scale
Web Resources
Web Links for Online Sources:
Note: The vocabulary found in some of these links may be challenging for students. You may wish to use certain sites for your own reference only.
Knowledge and Employability Studio (Social Studies):
Videos:
Distributed Learning/Tools4Teachers Resources:
Critical Challenges:
