Performance Tasks and Unit Planning Kim Eckstein and Carla Tuttle Apex Friendship High School

What is the difference between PBL and Projects?

Where do Performance Tasks fit? Can be used anywhere in a unit Can be individual or group Have a driving or essential question Are embedded in a real-world task Utilize technology Have a real-world audience but are evaluated by the teacher Can be used in a single day or over several days

Formula for Unit Plan Essential Questions + Skills = Assessments Backward Design--what content/skills do we want to teach and assess in a unit?

Assessments for Lord of the Flies Unit Mini test with multiple choice questions that focuses on reading comprehension and application of literary terms Seminar to closely analyze rhetorical elements of the novel Performance-based assessment to measure the 4 C’s

What skills should we measure? Lord of the Flies Unit Skills: Critical reading and annotation, developing claims, using textual evidence, addressing a counterclaim, participating in collaborative discussions

What will our essential or driving question be? Lord of the Flies Essential questions Is there a need to develop structure within an uncontrolled environment? Are human beings inherently good or evil? How does a time period influence a writer’s craft and style? What makes an individual powerful? In the absence of structure, what personal responsibility do individuals have to restore the structure? Does the lack of female roles impact the novel? What is Golding’s purpose in creating a novel with all male characters?

Who needs this question answered? What real-world scenario can we use? Lawyers Judges Police officers The Media Psychologists Teachers/Administrators

How do I write the rationale or scenario? RATIONALE: Often in society tragic incidents occur that make us question the motivation behind them and seemingly why no one intervened to prevent a negative outcome. These situations remind us of what philosophers have debated for thousands of years: given the right circumstance, will individuals revert to a more primal nature, or will their morality win out over evil? SCENARIO: In the past several months, your high school has experienced a high number of incidents involving bullying. The counselors at your school have asked you to participate in a round table discussion with other students with the hope of understanding why the school is having such a problem. The guidance counselor asks you to consider whether bullying is a sign that most students are basically malicious when given the opportunity or if most students are kind and good and these incidents are the result of a few mean-spirited students’ actions.

What should the task look like? Real-world, authentic audience, reliant on textual evidence, product-driven PART I TASK: The counselor asks you and the other students invited to the discussion to prepare by reading over and considering articles, videos, and cartoons that portray people as basically good or basically evil. You decide to create a chart to help you sort through the information you find in the sources. The chart documents whether the source is reliable, portrays people as kind or evil, and what overall inferences you can make about human behavior based on this source. Research questions: After you have studied the sources, answer the following questions: Are people basically good or evil? Based on your answer to the first question, what do you feel are the causes of bullying incidents? Based on your answer to the first question, how can bullying best be prevented?

What do I need to consider when choosing sources? Variety of types of sources--video, text, cartoons, diagrams, maps, etc. Lexile level Source reliability Variety of viewpoints Availability--some sources are blocked or become unavailable

What should the students produce with their research? Authentic product Real audience Research-driven Standards-based

LOTF Example The Task: · You have participated in the round table discussion with your peers, and to follow up, the administration would like for you and two other participants to help create an anti-bullying campaign for the school. Using your sources and the outline provided, make three recommendations to the administration about policies the school could implement to ensure bullying does not occur.

What about the entry event? How should I get students talking/thinking? The entry event should generate discussion about the topic of the PT. Students should ask questions and begin to see that there aren’t always right and wrong answers to questions. LOTF Example: Video describing the Stanford Prison Experiment. After viewing the film, ask students to consider the following questions: Who are the “good guys” in this experiment? Why? Who are the “bad guys” in the experiment? Why? What do you think the experiment revealed about human nature?

When should the PT take place? Beginning of the unit--can introduce key concept and driving questions. Be prepared to scaffold instruction as students complete the PT Middle of the unit--can assess content and skills that have been introduced. Students may need a mini-lesson on skills that are still developing. End of the unit--can assess content and skills that have been practiced. PT can be a summative assessment.

Can Performance Tasks be used for all students, regardless of skill level? Yes. Performance Tasks are written and structured so that any student can be successful. Academic students may require more scaffolding or mini-lessons, but they enjoy the hands-on, real-world nature of PTs.

Could I use both PBL and Performance Task in the same unit? Yes. A performance task could be part of a PBL. PTs could be part of the research portion of a larger PBL AP Lang example

A Quick Review…. Projects: Do not have real-world applications nor real- world, job-embedded scenarios or authentic audiences Generally focus on the acquisition of a single skill or concept Not argumentative in nature; often come after a unit or parallel to a unit as an extension or review activity

Performance Tasks Can be used anywhere within the unit Use authentic scenarios, audiences, tasks Have a driving or essential question Inspire argumentative response

PBLs PBL IS the unit and will drive the unit--it’s how you teach the content and skills Use authentic scenarios, audiences, tasks Have a driving or essential question Inspire argumentative response