Designing a Culminating Task Presented by Anne Maben UCLA Science & Literacy Coach Based on the model by Jay McTighe, Maryland Assessment Consortium

Process of Instructional Planning Traditional PracticeStandards-based Practice Select a topic from the curriculum Design instructional activities Design and give an assessment Give grade or feedback Move onto new topic Select and group key standards Design an assessment/task for students to demonstrate they have mastered the standard(s) Decide what key activities/learning that students need to show proficiency Plan scaffolded instruction to assure that each student has adequate opportunities to learn Use data from assessment to give feedback, re-teach or move to next level

Performance Tasks are assignments/projects used to provide students with the practice necessary to provide evidence they have successfully mastered the standard.  Requires active engagement  Feedback is critical. Performance Tasks

Culminating Tasks may be the identical project or assignment  Teacher acts as a facilitator.  Purposefully lets the student navigate the project or assignment with limited intervention. Culminating Tasks

The Standard 1. What content standard and content benchmarks are being addressed? Developing a Culminating Task

1.What is the content knowledge or skills required by this standard? 2.What are the core ideas? 3.What do I know about my students' prior knowledge and experience in relation to this standard(s)? 4.Do I (the teacher) understand all concepts and skills that are key to achievement of the standard? 5.Should the standard be addressed as a whole or in parts? Critical Filters

2. Identify the Essential Question or Student Learning Goal for this task. Essential Question/Learning Goal What will it take to move the task to a more polished culminating task? How can a role, a setting, a challenge, an audience and a product or performance create a task that is relevant to the student's lives and the world they live in? Does the culminating task promote self-reliant, self-directed learning?

3. What Reading and Writing Language Arts Standards will be incorporated into the culminating task, to support high- stakes testing & science content literacy? Language Arts Standards

ConceptualProcedural Types of Knowledge Bloom’s Levels of Cognitive Domains Remember UnderstandApplyAnalyzeEvaluateCreate Factual Metacognitive Conceptual Procedural Step 4 - Determine the Level of Rigor

The basic elements for communicating in an academic discipline, understanding it, and organizing it. What someone must know to be acquainted with the discipline or to solve any of the problems in it. Exists at a relatively low level of abstraction Factual Knowledge

Two Types: 1. Knowledge of terminology 2. Knowledge of specific details and elements Can you think of some examples, dealing with our standard?  Do ALL of the standards call for this???

Includes schemas, mental models, or theories in different cognitive psychological models. Represents the knowledge an individual has about –how a subject matter is organized –how the different parts or bits of information are interconnected and –how these parts function together. Conceptual Knowledge

Where do they call for this type of knowledge in the standards – can you give me some examples? How could you model this? 1. Knowledge of classifications & categories 2. Knowledge of principals 3. Knowledge of theories, models, & structures

Concerns the “how” of knowledge; knowledge of different “processes,” whereas factual and conceptual knowledge deal with what might be termed “products.” Procedural knowledge represents only the knowledge of these procedures, their actual use is included in the apply category of the cognitive dimensions. Procedural Knowledge

1. Knowledge of subject specific skills & algorithms A series or sequence of steps, followed in a fixed order. What kind of procedures are find in math? in science? 2. Knowledge of subject specific techniques & methods A technique with no predetermined answer or solution, such as experimental design. Is the scientific method really a procedure??? Procedural Knowledge

3. Knowledge of criteria for determining when to use appropriate procedures Students are expected to know when to use procedures, an important prelude to their proper use. At a later state, they may be expected to show relationships between the methods and techniques they actually employed and the methods employed by others.. Procedural Knowledge Open-ended inquiry and experimental design activities give the most bang for your buck!

Metacognitive knowledge is knowledge about cognition in general as well as awareness of and knowledge about one’s own cognition. Metacognitive Knowledge Needs explicit discussion with students Many I & E Standards are metacognitive knowledge

1. Strategic knowledge Includes knowledge of the variety of strategies that students might used learn the knowledge. Can be grouped into three general categories: Rehearsal Elaboration Organizational Metacognitive Knowledge

2. Knowledge about cognitive tasks, including contextual and conditional knowledge Different cognitive tasks require different “tools”, just as a carpenter uses different tools for performing all the tasks that go into building a house. 3. Self-Knowledge Self-knowledge includes knowledge of one’s strengths and weaknesses in relation to cognition and learning. Metacognitive Knowledge What student-centered strategies employ these types of knowledge?

4.Choose the Cognitive Domain and Level of Knowledge used to determine the level of rigor necessary for this task. What is the Level of Rigor? Culminating task level for 7-8 (Evolution)

5. Write a simple statement of the task Identify the setting, role, audience and product the student will create Write a rough draft of the task. Description of the Task

Does this task  require the student to know about their audience?  incorporate writing, speaking, thinking, collaborating and/or quality production?  require the student to apply the knowledge? Is it  an application that requires the student to engage in a complex reasoning process?  engaging?  Will it be meaningful to the student? Is the Task Challenging?

Does the task:  encourage creative responses by permitting students to investigate several paths to a solution?  enable students to demonstrate understanding by doing?  Does the task allow students at various levels of ability and experience to engage? Is the Task Challenging?

6. What prior knowledge must students have of important concepts and skills? CONCEPT(S) PROCESS SKILLS Prior Knowledge

7.What are the key activities/lessons that will be used by teachers across the curriculum to prepare students for successfully completing the culminating task? Scaffolding Lessons & Activities

10.Determine Criteria for Success Is the task an assessment of targeted knowledge that the student has had the opportunity to learn? Does the task measure what is intended to be measured? Does the rubric identify what is right AND wrong...does the criteria measure content and thinking skills?

Rubrics & Scoring Guides Describes the levels of performance student is expected to attain Includes descriptors, which tell the evaluator what characteristics or signs to look for in a student’s work and how to place that work on a predetermined scale. Often supplemented by exemplar papers, that serve as a concrete standard against which other samples may be judged.

Rubrics And Scoring Guides A Four-Point Rubric: Levels of Mastery 4 = Mastery response (Exceeds the standard) 3 = Proficient response (Meets the standard) 2 = Basic (Below standard) 1 = Limited (Does not meet standard)

Scoring Guide

Rubric for PPT Presentation

Analysis of Student Work What did the student do? What evidence do you have about student understanding of the concept? What type of questions were asked? What evidence do you have about student understanding of the Process Skills? Is the task accessible to ALL students?

After students complete the task, will you know they have:  Learned and applied the content?  Improved complex thinking skills?  Enhanced their life-long learning skills? Criteria to Consider

Designed by Anne F. Maben Science Coach UCLA Science Project © 2004 UCLA All rights reserved