Activities and Discussion (50 minutes)

Writing and Evaluating Performance Tasks (40 minutes)
Facilitator: Distribute the handout Performance Tasks Worksheet (with sample) (PDF).

Reassemble in the four groups established in Program 5. Each group will write a performance task that would enable students to demonstrate their grasp of the enduring idea/understanding and essential questions previously crafted for a lesson integrating the arts. Use the handout Performance Tasks Worksheet (with sample) as a guide in writing the performance task.

As you work, consider these questions:

• How will you refer to this task when giving instructions? What will the title be?
• What knowledge and skills will be assessed through this task? How will this task enable students to show what they know and can do?
• What is the purpose of this assessment tool? Will you use this evaluation to monitor students’ progress and inform further instruction, or will you measure the students’ completed process or product?
• What is the goal of the task? How will this task help to confirm students’ achievement of the unit objectives?

Decide on the following:

• the situation in which the task will take place,
• what students must do to complete the task,
• the intended audience, and
• the product or process that will result.

As a group, write a scenario for the performance task that takes into account these key elements:

• Goal: Why are you asking students to do this?
• Role: Whom will students portray as they develop the scenario?
• Audience: For whom is the process or product intended?
• Situation: What will students do to accomplish the goal?
• Performance or product: How will students demonstrate their understanding?

Facilitator: Distribute the Evaluating Performance Tasks Worksheet (with sample) (PDF) handout.

Using this handout to organize your thoughts, analyze your performance task to ensure that task criteria are clearly aligned with lesson objectives. Edit your completed scenario if necessary.

Facilitator: Distribute the Performance Tasks Rubric Worksheet (with sample) (PDF) handout.

Based on the performance task scenario you have written, design an assessment rubric that would enable you to effectively score students’ performance. Use the Performance Tasks Rubric Worksheet (with sample) as a guide.

Reflection (10 minutes)
Facilitator: Use the following questions to focus a closing discussion:

• What benefits do you see in the “backward planning” approach to writing curriculum?
• Based on these insights, how might you use assessment differently in your classroom?

This process for designing performance tasks is adapted from Wiggins’ and McTighe’s Understanding by Design.

To download PDF files, you will need a free copy of Acrobat Reader.