Year 1
Humanities and Social Sciences Support Materials
Assessment Principle 1
Assessment should be an integral part of Teaching and Learning
History snapshot: Present, past, future
Humanities and Social Sciences/Knowledge and understanding/History/Present and past family life and Skills/Analysing
| Content Description |
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How the present, past and future are signified by terms indicating time (e.g. ‘a long time ago’;
Process information and/or data collected (e.g. sequence information or events, categorise information, combine information from different sources) |
Nature of the assessment
Teacher observation of a group activity – five minute warm-up
Purposes of the assessment
To determine students’ prior conceptions about time, including their ability to understand and sequence phrases that are used to denote the present, past and future in order to identify any misconceptions and to inform the depth of teaching required for the unit
Stage in the Teaching sequence
At the beginning of the teaching cycle – formative assessment
Assessment task
After facilitating a whole class brainstorm on the words used to denote the passing of time, the teacher organised students into groups of three. Each group was given a set of three ‘time’ word cards, one of which was given to each student in the group. The students had to organise themselves into the correct sequence. After a minute, the groups swapped word cards and went through the process of sequencing the words again.
The teacher observed the students and worked with those students who displayed misconceptions or misunderstandings.
At the end of the activity, the teacher reviewed the terms and correct sequence with the class and facilitated a whole class discussion to clarify and consolidate understanding.
Examples of terms for the cards:
- yesterday, today, tomorrow
- then, now, later
- before, during, after
- last week, just now, next week
- present, past, future.
Assessment process
The teacher noted those students who had difficulty sequencing the words. These students were supported through feedback and additional instruction.
Using the information
The teacher adjusted her lesson plans to ensure that students had a sound understanding of the concept of present, past and future.