Sample Assessment Items
This is not meant to be printed off and given as a test…this document is to give you ideas of how this standard might be assessed. Please use these as an example when you are developing your own formative assessments. Remember formative assessment is to be given throughout the teaching of a standard to help you guide your instruction based on students needs. A good formative assessment should have a mix of multiple choice as well as open ended.
SS5H5 The student will explain how the Great Depression and New Deal affected the lives of millions of Americans.
a. Discuss the Stock Market Crash of 1929, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, the Dust Bowl, and soup kitchens.
b. Analyze the main features of the New Deal; include the significance of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Works Progress Administration, and the Tennessee Valley Authority.
c. Discuss important cultural elements of the 1930s; include Duke Ellington, Margaret Mitchell, and Jesse Owens.
Multiple Choice:
What event happened in 1929 that signaled the start of the Great Depression?
a. World War II ended.
b. The stock market crashed.
c. Pearl Harbor was attacked.
d. Roosevelt began deficit spending.
Answer: b
The CCC, TVA, and WPA were all part of ______.
a. the war effort
b. Roosevelt’s New Deal
c. the Tennessee Valley Authority
d. Hoover’s plan to deal with the Depression
Answer: b
Most of the New Deal legislation was designed to ______.
a. advance civil rights
b. reform the federal government
c. improve relations with other countries
d. deal with the nation’s economic problems
Answer: d
Which of these contributed to the Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression?
a. stock market speculation
b. the effects of World War II
c. success of the U.S. farm economy
d. foreign boycotts of U.S. products
Answer: a
Which of these was an outcome of the Great Depression?
a. FDR's New Deal
b. Truman's Square Deal
c. the great flood of 1932
d. increased production by automakers
Answer: a
Why was the "New Deal" such a new concept for the United States government?
a. It was the first time a Democrat had been President.
b. It was the first time a Republican had been President.
c. The Federal government became very active in the national economy.
d. The states refused to take part in Roosevelt's attempts to end The Great Depression.
Answer: c
What was the MAIN purpose of the Civilian Conservation Corps?
a. It gave money to single women with children.
b. It provided aid to freed slaves after the Civil War.
c. It organized peaceful protests during the civil rights movement.
d. It provided employment for young, unmarried men during the Depression.
Answer: d
Which statement is the MOST accurate about President Franklin D. Roosevelt?
a. He only served one term as president.
b. He was the only president to be impeached.
c. He was very positive and offered hope to America.
d. He was a ruthless president who made the Depression worse.
Answer: c
Which of these is the BEST description of "Hoovervilles"?
a. shantytowns in which homeless families lived during the Great Depression
b. housing projects associated with poverty that were constructed in urban areas
c. the first planned suburbs which were developed in the period after World War I
d. nickname for the department of Housing and Urban Development during the New Deal
Answer: a
From the mid-1930s to 1940 over 2.5 million people had moved out of the Great Plains states in the center of the United States. What BEST accounts for this movement?
a. The Dust Bowl
b. Jim Crow laws
c. The Great Migration
d. US entry into World War II
Answer: a
• overproduction in factories
• overproduction by farmers
• unpaid war debts
• stock market crash
All of these were DIRECT causes of what event?
a. World War I
b. World War II
c. the Dust Bowl
d. the Great Depression
Answer: d
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) helped supply which of these resources to farmers and residents of Alabama and other states in the Southeast?
a. electricity
b. food
c. laborers
d. loans
Answer: a
Which of these would have been used MOST by Americans in the 1930s?
a. movies
b. radio
c. telegraph
d. television
Answer: b
Margaret Mitchell is best known for her accomplishments in what area?
a. acting
b. literature
c. music
d. politics
Answer: b
In what way did Jesse Owens help to raise moral in the United States during the Great Depression?
a. he sang songs and played happy music on the radio
b. he went from town to town racing people for money
c. he helped Roosevelt make key decisions about the economy
d. he won multiple gold medals for the U.S. during the 1936 Olympics
Answer: d
Duke Ellington is remembered for his accomplishments in ______.
a. acting
b. boxing
c. jazz
d. track and field
Answer: c
• 1900: Born in Atlanta, GA
• 1922: Reporter for The Atlanta Journal newspaper
• 1936: Gone With the Wind published
• 1937: Won Pulitzer Prize
• 1949: Died in Atlanta
All of these are describing what author?
a. Anne Rice
b. Zelda Fitzgerald
c. Margaret Mitchell
d. Zora Neale Hurston
Answer: c
• 1913: Born in Alabama
• 1935-1936: Attended Ohio State University
• 1936: Won 4 Gold Medals at Olympic Games in Berlin
• 1950: Voted "Greatest Track Athlete of All Time" by Associated Press
• 1980: Died of lung cancer
These are describing what athlete?
a. Babe Ruth
b. Carl Lewis
c. Henry Aaron
d. Jesse Owens
Answer: d
Open ended:
What was the New Deal? What did President Roosevelt hope it would do?
What were the U.S. contributions to WWI?
What was the impact of the Treaty of Versailles (1919)?
Why is the period from 1918 to 1929 called the “Jazz Age”? How did the Jazz Age change America?
How did individuals such as Louis Armstrong, Langston Hughes, Babe Ruth, Duke Ellington, Margaret Mitchell, and Jesse Owens influence American culture?
How did individuals such as Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh change the face of American transportation?
How did Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt handle the problems facing Americans during the Great Depression?
What is Margaret Mitchell most remembered for?
What did Jesse Owens accomplish in 1936? What made his accomplishment especially significant?
How did groups like the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Works Progress Administration, and the Tennessee Valley Authority help to improve the country while putting unemployed Americans back to work?
What role did institutions such as banks play in the Great Depression?
How did the ideas of the artists, musicians, and writers of the Harlem Renaissance impact the rest of American society?
How did ideas from Harlem, New York spread to other parts of the United States?
Why did farmers living in the Dust Bowl move to other regions of the United States?
How did areas change when farmers from the Dust Bowl moved in?