What's the best way to learn the elements of the periodic table? The inventions of Thomas Edison? Patience? To prepare for the performance task assessment on how people learn, class members share ideas about ways to learn in a variety of...

You wrote it, now what? Learners take their writing to the next level when they perform it for classmates. They then engage in a self-reflection and assessment of their work to determine how well they hit targets, such as identifying...

Scholars submit their final performance task, a letter to a publisher about an athlete's legacy. As a culminating activity, they share their work with classmates in small groups. 

Prepare, practice, perform. Using the resource, actors first revise their conclusions for their readers theater scripts. Then, groups perform their scripts in front of the class, while peers evaluate each performance using a rubric. 

Leave it to science to get scholars out of a jam. Young scientists use what they've learned about electricity and magnetism in the previous eight lessons in the series to build tools that will allow them to find their way out of the...

Revisit, revise. Scholars receive their position papers returned with feedback from the teacher. They use colored pens to identify feedback related to the first two rows of the rubric and correct their papers based on the comments....

The presentation is the thing. Learners combine all their skills by creating a pitch for their films about the Little Rock Nine. They explain to classmates why they selected the images and songs using self-created prompt cards. The end...

Use texts and dances to teach inequalities and equations. A sixth-grade unit covers using variables in equations and inequalities to solve problems. Learners show what they know at the end of the unit using two performance tasks, one...

Renewable and non-renewable energy sources are the focus of a series of activities that prepare learners for a performance task assessment on energy. Groups identify the various sources of energy and classify these sources as either...

To prepare for the Exploring the World Performance Task, class groups generate a list of places they would like to explore, examine images of seven natural wonders of the world, and consider why these sites are wondrous. A map and images...

Young historians use their planning graphic organizer to prepare a personal narrative draft on expert trades. Since the instructional activity is considered the mid-unit assessment, learners respond to a writing prompt related to the...

Forty percent of food in the US goes uneaten while 14.5 percent of US households lack a secure supply of food. As part of the preparation for a performance task assessment, groups consider statistics such as these about food waste and...

To prepare for a performance task assessment, class members review the stages of the water cycle and then individuals assume the roles of drops of water for a Reader's Theater exercise. The script, a graphic depicting the water...

It's time for the grand finale! Scholars complete the final draft of their newspaper articles for the End of Unit 3 Assessment. They share their article with a classmate for peer critique. After considering all feedback and including a...

What features do scientists use to classify animals into groups? Class groups examine a series of paired images of vertebrates (a bass and a trout, a toad and a newt, a crocodile and a tortoise, an owl and a robin, a tiger and a bear)...

Eighth graders craft a Petrarchan sonnet and respond to a performance assessment to demonstrate what they have learned in this five-lesson plan poetry unit.

A unit introduces 14 double-letter spellings for consonant sounds and seven tricky high-frequency words. Over four weeks, young scholars participate in daily spelling and word reviews, guided practice, and complete skills...

Ready, set, write! Scholars work on the end-of-unit assessment by completing a writing prompt. They then look at the model performance task from instructional activity two to create a rubric for scoring the exercise. Using turn and talk,...

The final performance task for the unit requires class members to utilize what they have learned to create a personal digital scene. Groups work together to develop a scene and then, using top-down design, break the scene into...

Writers align their position papers with the last two rows in the rubric. After looking at the rubric rows for vocabulary and conventions along with feedback on their papers, class members revise their essays. They then look at the...

Think about it. Writers think about their end of unit essays through reflection. They use the End of Unit 3 Assessment, Part 2: Reflection on the Writing Process handout to analyze the writing process they used to create their...

Despite the difficulty of travel, the US expanded significantly between the 1800s and the early 1900s. To prepare for a performance task assessment on the rapid expansion of the US in the 1800s, class members engage in a...

Prepare your class members for the performance task assessment on nutrition with an activity that asks class members to rank images of foods from least nutritious to most. Participants also offer reasons for why they ranked the...

Picture that! Pupils view photographs of the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, discussing what they know and wonder about each image. Then, scholars watch a short video about the historic event and complete a KWL...