Don't get irrational about rational exponents. A PowerPoint presentation highlights the sample high school questions from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) Claim 1 Target A item specifications. As one part of a larger...

What do writing and dance have in common? They both have a six-trait rubric for assessment. Just like a good story, a good dance must have a hook, beginning, middle, end,  logical sequence, and a climax. Learners use a...

Lemon heads and cherry drops combine for a sweet lesson on positive and negative integers. Following an activity sheet, they use lemon as negative and cherry as positive and follow directions with a partner. An assessment, a rubric, and...

Teach your class to think outside the box. Scholars use the concept of equality to solve a problem in the assessment task. They determine how to use a scale to identify the one box out of a set of nine boxes that is heavier than the others.

Let's play ball! A great springtime activity to learn about ratios. This activity challenges learners to draw stadiums to scale on standard letter paper and also on construction paper. This three-day instructional activity includes a...

Students identify the elements of a story. In this reading and writing instructional activity, pupils read the book, Tyrone the Horrible by Hans Wihelm and then identify the characters, setting, and plot of the story.This instructional...

Are you looking to put the fun back in the fundamentals of chemistry? Why not have groups create their own periodic tables of something (animals, food, music groups, etc.) practicing the organizational strategies used in the periodic...

Math can be a problem in eighth grade. Sample items show how problem solving exists within the eighth grade standards. Part of the Gr. 8 Claim 2 - 4 Item Slide Shows series, the presentation contains eight items to illustrate the...

It's time to put the plan into practice. Using their plans from the previous activity, scholars create multimedia and visual displays for their opinion speeches. Next, they watch videos of speeches and use a presentation rubric to...

Help learners improve multiplication skills by skip counting and creating their own multiplication word problems. They will begin by practicing skip counting and then illustrate word problems using a software program. Pixie is a software...

A series of lessons about dance would be a great addition to your physical education class. Straightforward as well as creative, it teaches the basic skills of dance movement. A rubric helps guide the dancers to let them know what steps...

Your intermediate or advanced thespians choose dramatic scenes to perform in duos, small groups, or solo to demonstrate vocal and physical characterization. Use class time to prepare and rehearse. Detailed rubrics work for peer assessment.

To solve or not to solve that is the problem. A slide presentation of 17 items show different ways that Smarter Balanced assesses Claim 2, problem solving. The items span from sixth and seventh grade concepts to highlight the...

Don't leave learning to chance! Assess your class's understanding of random sampling and making inferences using questions from the experts at Smarter Balanced. As the seventh of nine parts in the Gr. 7 Claim 1 Item Slide Shows...

They claim there are problems on the assessment. The presentation provides 13 questions that demonstrate the problem-solving claim for Smarter Balanced assessments. Teachers use the resource to provide examples of problem-solving...

First and last impressions are important. Using the helpful resource, scholars draft the introductory and concluding paragraphs of their literary analysis essays. Next, they use a writing evaluation rubric to self-assess their work. 

How do you assess whether pupils have mastered certain concepts and skills? Designing a performance task that asks learners to demonstrate their skills and providing writers with a rubric that identifies these skills and provides...

Students create metallic Bas-relief scultures using basic art supplies and the technique of "tooling" in this Art lesson with croos-curricular connections in Social Studies and Math. A scoring rubric is included for assessment and...

Extend scholars' learning experience with a unit consisting of five shape lesson plans, an extension activity, assessment, and rubric. Begin by reading a story about shapes, then conduct an overview and assign pupils' their first...

Let the computer summarize all that data. Pairs work together to learn how to create pivot tables by following directions in the online module. They then utilize the data collected from the beginning of the unit to create their own...

What's the most popular music style in Brazil? What about Cuba? Or the Dominican Republic? An immersive project teaches young learners about the salsa, the samba, and the merengue with research assignments and dance performances.

What is the appropriate model? Sample problems show the extent of the Smarter Balanced assessments Claim 4, Modeling and Data Analysis. Items provide pupils the opportunity to use mathematical modeling to arrive at a reasonable answer....

Does the explanation make sense? Sample items highlight claim three, communicating reason, in the Smarter Balanced assessments. Teachers use the 16 items to help show pupils the importance of communication and reasoning within...

How do writers develop a central idea in a text? How can readers identify this central idea? These are the challenges class members tackle as they continue their analysis of "Letter One" from Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet.