This packet is everything a parent or guide needs to assess Unit 04 at home — learning targets, the answers that count as correct, the mastery rubric, calibration examples, and a clipboard score sheet. No multiple-choice test: the student shows mastery by identifying metamorphic rocks, inferring each one’s protolith, and routing a grain around the rock cycle aloud.
By the end of the Metamorphic Rocks & the Rock Cycle unit, a student should be able to:
Six criteria, each judged Not yet / Approaching / Mastered (Page 3).
Identify metamorphic rocks and route a grain through the cycle.
The student defends the protolith and cycle path each rock records (Page 4).
Rock ID, inferred protolith, and the traced cycle path kept distinct.
You are making a decision, not adding up points. For each criterion, decide whether the work is Not yet, Approaching, or Mastered — the column language tells you which. A criterion counts as mastered only when the student can both name the rock and defend the protolith and cycle path it records. A student carries three tokens per term; one token buys a re-do of one criterion on another day, so a single bad afternoon never sinks the unit.
Accept any answer in the synonyms column — they are pre-approved as equivalent. The third column flags the confusions that look close but are not yet, so you can coach precisely.
| Canonical answer | Accepted synonyms | Common confusion / discriminator |
|---|---|---|
| Metamorphism | ||
| Metamorphism | change by heat & pressure | The rock stays solid — it recrystallizes, it does not melt |
| Recrystallization | solid-state regrowth | Minerals regrow larger or realign without the rock melting |
| Directed pressure | differential stress | Squeezing from one direction; aligns minerals into bands |
| Texture & grade | ||
| Foliation | banding / layering | Mineral alignment under directed pressure — not sedimentary layers |
| Non-foliated | unbanded | No alignment; e.g. marble, quartzite |
| Metamorphic grade | intensity of change | Rises with heat & pressure: slate → phyllite → schist → gneiss |
| Protolith | parent rock | What the rock was before metamorphism — limestone → marble |
| The rock cycle | ||
| Rock cycle | rock-forming loop | Any rock can become any other; not a one-way path |
| Marble | metamorphosed limestone | Non-foliated; protolith is limestone (a carbonate) |
| Quartzite | metamorphosed sandstone | Non-foliated; protolith is quartz sandstone |
| Gneiss | high-grade banded rock | Coarse light/dark bands; highest grade in the slate–gneiss series |
| Criterion | Not yet | Approaching | Mastered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heat & pressure without melting | Thinks metamorphism means the rock melted. | Names heat and pressure but not that the rock stayed solid. | Explains how heat and pressure recrystallize a rock in the solid state, short of melting. |
| Foliated vs non-foliated | Cannot tell banded from unbanded rock. | Labels foliation but cannot say what causes it. | Distinguishes foliated from non-foliated rock and explains foliation as mineral alignment under directed pressure. |
| Metamorphic grade (slate → gneiss) | Treats all foliated rock as the same. | Orders part of the sequence but misplaces phyllite or schist. | Orders slate, phyllite, schist, and gneiss by rising grade and reads increasing heat and pressure. |
| Protolith reasoning | Cannot say what a metamorphic rock started as. | Guesses a protolith without evidence. | Infers the protolith — limestone to marble, sandstone to quartzite, shale to slate — from texture and composition. |
| The rock cycle | Treats the three rock families as unrelated. | Names the rock cycle but cannot route a grain through it. | Traces a mineral grain around the full rock cycle, linking igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic paths. |
| Integration (cross-domain) | Treats the science as isolated facts. | Names a link to history, reading, or writing but cannot defend it. | Connects the unit across History · Reading · Writing and defends why it matters. |
The split between Approaching and Mastered is the rock’s history: not just naming marble, but inferring it came from limestone and placing it in the cycle. Ask “what was this rock before, and where does it go next?”
Read these before you grade. They show what Mastered and Not yet actually sound like, plus the edge cases where you should coach rather than decide on the spot.
Student: ______________________________________ Date: _______________ Guide: _________________________
| # | Criterion | Decision | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat & pressure without melting | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 2 | Foliated vs non-foliated | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 3 | Metamorphic grade (slate → gneiss) | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 4 | Protolith reasoning | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 5 | The rock cycle | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 6 | Integration (cross-domain) | NY / Appr / Mast |
☐ No ☐ Yes — for criterion: __________ Tokens remaining: ☐ 3 ☐ 2 ☐ 1 ☐ 0
NY = Not yet · Appr = Approaching · Mast = Mastered · Unsure between two levels? Circle the lower one and note what a re-do would need.