A Quality Performance Assessment Is…  Aligned with generalizations/essential understandings  Authentic/Scenario/Simulation based  Designed to offer students options  Evaluated against clear criteria

Assessing Understanding The best way to assess conceptual understanding is by crafting a quality performance task. How does teaching with a performance task in mind differ from simply assessing for facts?

Performance Task Template [What] The Topic: As one of a team of cultural anthropologists, analyze the interactions of the early European settlers and American Indians. [Why] Generalization(s): Interaction between different groups may lead to cultural diffusion. [How] Student Performance: Research one aspect of early Native American Indian and European culture (history, arts, religion, government, daily living, land use...) before and after the interaction between the groups. Drawing from your research, write a case study describing the obvious impacts or influences that these merging cultures have had on each other over time. As one member of the anthropological team, present an insightful and powerful speech to the state historical society, using visuals or multi-media, detailing the positive and negative lessons to be learned from the historical study of merging cultures.

Let’s View A Few Examples Example One Example Two Example Three

Planning The Learning Experiences For A Lesson Learning Experiences:  Are developed after you have designed the performance task  Are the content, understandings and skills that a teacher will need to teach and students will need to learn in order to effectively complete the performance task. Planning With The End In Mind Performance Task Template [What] Topic [Why] Generalization(s) [How] Student Performance The End

A Learning Experience IS …  Work that allows the learner to have direct experience with a specific action, task, or process that will prepare them for the performance task. A Learning Experience IS NOT…  The activity alone A Learning Experience

Questions to Consider Do your learning experiences align back to applicable standards and clarifying objectives? Do the learning experiences allow students to engage in the learning with experiences that would will prepare them to meet the expectations of the ultimate performance?