THE COMMON CORE AND ASSESSMENT

Deconstructing Performance –Based Tasks

Presented By: Irina Kushnir

Merrin Rosenberg

CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EFFECTIVE PERFORMANCE

TASK

Are open ended / demonstration

Have more than one way to answer correctly

Require active performance rather than passive reaction

Take longer to do than multiple choice tests

Use complicated grading; need a scoring guide or rubric

They are understanding transformed into action

Student centered /real life situations

Creation of a product

GOOD PERFORMANCE TASKS

Are clear and unambiguous

Set the parameters for what the answer should look like

Measure something important

Are not a simple substitute for a multiple-choice

question

Require reasoning, synthesis, evaluation, higher-

order thinking

WELL CONSTRUCTED VS

FLAWED ITEMS

Standard RI.5.2 (Key Ideas and Details)

TASK: Determine two or more main ideas of a text

and explain how they are supported by key details;

summarize the text.

Summarize the text of To Kill a Mockingbird and

give details that show two main ideas.

WHAT IS WRONG?

The question does not match the standard. The

standard is about informational text; the question is

about literary text.

The question is asked in reverse order. It would be

better to ask for two main ideas first, with

supporting details, and then for a general summary.

A SENSE OF URGENCY…WE MUST TAKE STEPS RIGHT

NOW TO:

Prepare students for the coming exams. Obviously,

there is a big gap between what CCLS will require and

what is being asked today.

Reliance on traditional, simple, multiple-choice items

is going to be replaced with challenging performance

tasks that require students to demonstrate their

knowledge and skills by:• Explaining their thinking - justifying

their responses• Performing research - Integrating

concepts• Synthesizing new information -

Building critical thinking• Mastering real-world applications of new skills

DECONSTRUCTING PERFORMANCE TASKS

A methodology:

Build sets of scaffolds for the more complex tasks so that what goes

into the overall performance is unpacked and made clearer

Define the scaffolds so students see an entry point into the complex

task

Plan how to determine what scaffolds students need in order to be

able to do the complex task and outline the steps to get them to the

higher levels of achievement

Not every student will enter the task at the same place!

TEXT ACTIVITY

Let’s read the text “Beauty and Body Image in the Media.”

ELA TASK:Standard RL.6.1 (Key Ideas and Details)

Cite the textual evidence that most strongly

supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as

inferences drawn from the text

TASK: What is the text about and what inferences can you draw

from “Beauty and Body Image in the Media”? Quote accurately

and explicitly from the text.

ELA SCAFFOLDSEach is a constructed response item in its own right

• Text Structure • For each paragraph, write what the author is saying, using

your own words• Take one of your statements and connect it to another one of

your statements so you see how two paragraphs relate to each other

• Take a third statement and connect it to the first two. How do the three relate to each other?

• Find a paragraph that you think is especially important. Describe why you think it is so important to understanding the meaning of the whole text?

Accuracy of Details; Relation to Concepts• List five big details given in the text and link them to an

inference or set of inferences that they support

FOR STRUGGLING STUDENTS

Each scaffold can be a formative assessment

Model – read each paragraph and have the teacher restate

in their own words. Then have the students try on their own

for paragraph 2.

Determine importance of a specific paragraph because it

connects to the meaning of the entire text

Direct students where in the article/text you want students

to pull the evidence from.

GRADUAL RELEASE MODELSCAFFOLDS FOR ANY READING COMPREHENSION TASK

1. TEACHER MODEL2. BREAK INTO CHUNKS 3. PARAPHRASE 4. THINK ALOUDS5. USE SENTENCE FRAMES (GUIDE STUDENT’S

THOUGHTS)6. NOTING INFORMATION7. PLANNING THE RESPONSE (WRITTEN)

LEN VYGOTSKY

ACTION PLANNING

WHAT DO I NEED TO DO NOW?• DEVELOP A PLAN TO HELP

STUDENTS GET READY FOR THE CCLS AND THE ASSESSMENTS THAT MEASURE THEM.

• QUESTIONS…