The Performance Assessment Task

Template for Designing a Performance Assessment Task

Learning Outcomes

These statements:

  • ensure that there is a direct connection between the task and the intended outcomes;
  • describe behaviors that the student will be able to perform;
  • are for the teacher.

The following statements :

  • are for the student;
  • are written in language appropriate for the student.

The Task

These statements:

  • describe a product or performance that may be used in the real world;
  • describe a task that is engaging;
  • require students to use knowledge creatively.

Audience

These statements:

  • identify the person or group for whom the product or performance is intended.

Procedure

These statements:

  • lay out a step-by-step method for achieving the task;
  • require students to use processes that may be similar to those used in the real world.

Criteria

These statements:

  • communicate the standards for the product or performance;
  • are derived from the stated learning outcomes;
  • link curriculum and assessment;
  • provide for student self--assessment.

(Adapted from a template supplied by Bambi Betts)

This performance assessment task was designed for and implemented in a grade 10 English class:

Model for a Performance Assessment Task

Literature: Farewell to Manzanar  by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston & James Houston Writing an Imaginary Conversation For Two Characters Grade 10

Learning Outcomes: Students will be able to:-

  1. Write an imaginary conversation for two speakers that has an introduction which introduces the speakers and setting, a body that reveals character and plot in the dialogue, and a conclusion that shows the significance of the conversation.
  2. Use research on the internment camp experiences as background for writing.
  3. Predict with logic and accuracy how her experiences affected the narrator of the excerpt "from Farewell to Manzanar".(Responding to Literature, Blue Level, McDougal & Littell, 1992)
  4. Correctly paragraph and punctuate dialogue.
  5. Use precise, vivid verbs in dialogue tag lines that show the speaker's emotion and state of mind.

Background:

Imagine that it is many years later. Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston hasleft her experiences in Manzanar behind her. She is now a grown woman who has married and has a child. One day, her child asks Jeanne abouther experiences in the relocation camp. Imagine what Jeanne might say about her life there.

Task:

Your task is to write an imaginary conversation between Jeanne and her child in which Jeanne explains her experiences in the camp and explains how they affected her. Create questions from your background research that a child might ask as the conversation develops. Your conversation is to be framed with an introduction that introduces the speakers and the setting; and an ending that will make conclusions about the significance of the conversation. Your presentation will include one visual and musical accompaniment which are in harmony with the mood and tone of the conversation.

Audience:

Another English 10 class that has not read "Farewell to Manzanar"and does not know about the relocation camps for Japanese Americans during the Second World War.

Purpose: To explain and inform.

Procedure:

  1. Review your notes from the presentations and your reading of the excerpt. What will the audience need to know about the camps? Select which are examples that illustrate Jeanne's experiences.
  2. Plan your story. If you wish, brainstorm ideas with a partner for questions that the child will ask Jeanne about Manzanar.
  3. Write your first draft. With a partner, read, listen to, and respond to each other's drafts. Consult with the teacher at any time.
  4. Revise and edit. Obtain another peer and/or teacher response if needed.
  5. Publish.
  6. Find/create a visual and musical accompaniments.
  7. Practice reading the conversation piece with visual and music. Music and visual should be in harmony with the mood of the piece.
  8. The performance should last at least 3 but not more than 5 minutes.
  9. Make your presentation to the class on Friday, September 12.
  10. Be prepared to answer any questions from the audience.

Assessment Criteria

Standards

4

3

2

1

1.You relate an imaginary conversation between Jeanne and her child using background information that is paraphrased in your own words in order to explain and create questions.

2. You show the significance of the experience to Jeanne and her child.

3. Your writing has a clear ordering of events: a beginning, middle, and ending.

4. You use precise, vivid verbs to convey emotion in the tag lines.

5. You punctuate and paragraph dialogue correctly.

6. Your presentation is accompanied by a visual and music that are appropriate to the mood of the conversation.

7. Your presentation begins with a brief introduction that sets the stage for the enactment of the conversation.

8. Your voice is clearly understandable, well-modulated, and shows expressiveness at appropriate moments in the reading. 

  4 = Exceptional  3 = Good  2 = Fair  1 = Needs Improving

Return to Designing Performance Assessments: Challenges for the Three-Story Intellect


Jo Anne Wangsatorntanakhun

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Updated:  November 18, 2007
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