California Education Partners
My Librarian is a Camel
A two-part assessment challenges scholars to gather information from reading then write an opinion piece. In part one, learners read, take notes, and answer text-related questions. In part two, participants use their new-found knowledge...
Curated OER
Folding strips of paper
Fifth graders need concrete experiences to introduce a unit on multiplying fractions by fractions. A strip of paper is used to create a number line and represent 5/6. It is folded first in half, and then in quarters. After unfolding,...
EngageNY
Creating Division Stories
Create your own adventure story ... well, not really. The fifth lesson in a 21-part series has pairs create story contexts for division problems. The lesson presents a step-by-step process for pupils to follow in writing such stories.
California Education Partners
Seeing Eye to Eye
A performance task challenges scholars to read an informational text then respond with an explanatory essay. The exam begins with an independent reading of Seeing Eye to Eye by Leslie Hall. A second reading follows with the...
California Education Partners
Telescopes
An assessment challenges scholars to read an informative text then respond with an explanatory essay. The exam begins as participants read a text passage twice then take notes, making sure to jot down key details. Following the...
New York State Education Department
Comprehensive English Examination: January 2016
Poetry and prose often have more in common than it initially appears. A sample comprehensive English exam has test-takers compare and contrast two passages to answer short response questions. The exam, which is part of a larger set of...
Balanced Assessment
Red Dots, Blue Dots
Count the connections between dots. Young mathematicians come up with a method to determine the number of connections between pairs of dots. The assessment leads the class to determine the connections they can make when groups are...
Bowland
Public Transport
"Statistics is the grammar of science" -Karl Pearson. In the assessment task, learners read a claim made by a newspaper and analyze its conclusions. They need to think about the sample and the wording of the given statistics.
Illustrative Mathematics
What’s Missing?
Now you see them, now you don't! This fun peek-a-boo activity engages young mathematicians in developing their ability to compose and decompose numbers. After being presented with a series of counters, children close their eyes while the...
Mathematics Assessment Project
Middle School Mathematics Test 3
Real-life mathematics is not as simple as repeating a set of steps; pupils must mentally go through a process to come to their conclusions. Teach learners to read, analyze, and create a plan for solving a problem situation. The...
EngageNY
Another Computational Model of Solving a Linear System
The process of elimination really works! Use elimination when substitution isn't doing the job. The 29th segment in a series of 33 introduces the elimination method to solving linear systems. Pupils work several exercises to grasp the...
Illustrative Mathematics
Cynthia's Perfect Punch
Using a real-world example, this problem illustrates the thought process that learners need to engage in to understand adding mixed numbers with common denominators. First by looking at estimation, and then by drawing models that...
Bowland
Mobile Phones
Cheaper cell phone bills? Learners compare two different cell phone plans for a specified number of minutes of phone usage each day. They also determine the conditions for which one plan is cheaper than the other.
Inside Mathematics
Number Towers
Number towers use addition or multiplication to ensure each level is equal. While this is common in factoring, it is often not used with algebraic equations. Solving these six questions relies on problem solving skills and being able to...
Bowland
The Z Factor
Young mathematicians determine the number of hours it would take judges of the "Z Factor" television talent show to watch every act. Participants make estimates and assumptions to solve the problem.
Bowland
Three of a Kind
One is chance, two is a coincidence, three's a pattern. Scholars must determine similarities and differences of a regular hexagon undergoing dilation. They look at lengths, angles, areas, and symmetry.
Bowland
Fish Dish
Minimize the time it takes to create a fish dish. Scholars use their knowledge of time to devise an order that accounts for different constraints. Considering jobs that can be done in parallel is essential to solving the problem.
Inside Mathematics
Quadratic (2009)
Functions require an input in order to get an output, which explains why the answer always has at least two parts. After only three multi-part questions, the teacher can analyze pupils' strengths and weaknesses when it comes to...
Bowland
Olympic Cycling
Teach teenagers to think critically about data. Young data analysts must create two questions that can be answered using a provided data set on Olympic cycling times. Of course, they then have to answer their questions using mathematics.
EngageNY
Even and Odd Numbers
Even or not, here I come. Groups investigate the parity of products and sums of whole numbers in the 17th lesson in a series of 21. Using dots to represent numbers, they develop a pattern for the products of two even numbers; two odd...
Bowland
Magic Sum Puzzle
Learners discover the magic in mathematics as they solve numerical puzzles involving magic sums. They then make a conjecture as to why no additional examples are possible based on an analysis of the puzzles.