PERFORMANCE TASKS
We believe, as educators, that it is imperative to teach students to become "deep thinkers," help them read carefully and closely and make certain that they develop perseverance in completing tasks. If students can develop critical thinking and effective problem-solving skills, they will be successful in a post-secondary setting and/or the workplace. We have used performance task to develop these skills. What is a performance task? It is a real-life scenario with a problem to solve or position to take and the student assumes a role in solving the problem or articulating a position. A document library is provided for students to use that will include distractors. Students must discriminate between useful documents and those which have no use in the task. The outcome is an authentic written product that uses facts/evidence from the document library to solve the problem or substantiate the position and not resort to personal opinion.
Developing critical thinking skills is not an easy task. We have found in some cases, students are not ready to complete a full-blown performance task. In those instances, we have used scaffolding to bring students up to the level ready for the challenge of a performance task. Included in the links below are both performance tasks and scaffolding projects.
We believe, as educators, that it is imperative to teach students to become "deep thinkers," help them read carefully and closely and make certain that they develop perseverance in completing tasks. If students can develop critical thinking and effective problem-solving skills, they will be successful in a post-secondary setting and/or the workplace. We have used performance task to develop these skills. What is a performance task? It is a real-life scenario with a problem to solve or position to take and the student assumes a role in solving the problem or articulating a position. A document library is provided for students to use that will include distractors. Students must discriminate between useful documents and those which have no use in the task. The outcome is an authentic written product that uses facts/evidence from the document library to solve the problem or substantiate the position and not resort to personal opinion.
Developing critical thinking skills is not an easy task. We have found in some cases, students are not ready to complete a full-blown performance task. In those instances, we have used scaffolding to bring students up to the level ready for the challenge of a performance task. Included in the links below are both performance tasks and scaffolding projects.
- AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY PERFORMANCE TASK - This performance task was created by Automotive Technology instructor, Jim Wrede, and English teacher, Jennifer Stairs. In this performance task, students are asked to review repair orders and invoices to determine if there have been any inconsistencies and wrongdoing on the part of a technician in the dealership. Students produce an incident report, detailing their findings, as well as write a formal business letter to the dealership's manager, explaining their conclusions regarding the behavior of the technician.
- BUSINESS CAREERS PERFORMANCE TASK - "Hattie's House" is a performance task used in the Business Careers program and developed by Business Careers instructor, Julie Gauthier and Curriculum Supervisor, Mary Smith. The main themes of this task are forensic accounting and internal control procedures. Students are required to do a little "sleuthing" to detect any financial wrong doing at a local teen homeless shelter, "Hattie's House." They use a Weebly website created for "Hattie's House" and are able to search through a "Hattie's House" office desk, including the trash, to look for evidence.
- CULINARY ARTS PERFORMANCE TASK - This project was created and developed by mathematics instructor, Karen Shoskey, and Culinary Arts instructor, Daryl Collins. In this Performance task, students assume the role as members of a management team for a restaurant and are asked by the restaurant's owner to make suggestions for improving the menu. The team members are asked to provide input on what menu items should be discontinued, as well as to provide a suggestion for a new entrée. They are asked to analyze menu items by creating a popularity index, as well as to analyze peak time data to determine if staffing is adequate. A new soup recipe, based on the owner's grandmother's favorite soup recipe, will also be added. The team members will need to scale the recipe to accommodate 125 servings, cost the recipe, and determine the sales price for this new menu item. The team's final product will be a formal presentation that includes charts, graphs, details on menu selections, recipe conversion, serving size, cost, and pricing. This formal presentation will be delivered in both a written and oral format.
- SKILLED TRADES PERFORMANCE TASK -This performance task was developed by Skilled Trades instructor, Randy Kitzman, and mathematics instructor, Karen Shoskey. In this performance task, students assume the role of a roofing company owner. The students are asked to develop a bid that will cover the costs of installing a new membrane roof on a specific section of our Center's roof. The final project requires a complete bid that reflects all associated material, and personnel costs, as well as making certain that the project drawing has been rendered to scale.
- WEB AND GAME PROGRAMMING PERFORMANCE TASK - This Performance Task was created by Web and Game Programming instructor, Bruce Provencher, and ELA Teacher, Jennifer Stairs. Students assume the role of a web designer who is asked to create a website for a non-tech savvy small business owner. Based on the needs of the client, students write a proposal, develop a home page, and present the proposal to the client.
- ALGEBRA II AND GEOMETRY SCAFFOLDING PROJECT -"Parking Lot Paving Project" was developed by mathematics instructors, Joel Carpenter, Deb Menchaca and Karen Shoskey. It was used in the Constructions Trades, Electrical Occupations, and Skilled Trades programs. Students are given a scenario in which they assumed the role of job estimators for an asphalt company. They are asked to submit both a proposal and bid for creating 50 additional parking spaces for the south-end of our Center's parking lot. The proposal needs to include a cost estimate, appropriate materials, and a proper print, drawn at 1/32 scale, that indicates the layout and location of the new parking lot.
- GRAPHICS ARTS SCAFFOLDING PROJECT - This was a scaffolding project created by ELA instructor, Todd Manns, mathematics instructor, Karen Shoskey and Graphic Arts instructor, Julie Orr. Students are asked to develop a newspaper print advertisement for a Valentine's Day sale. Mathematics is utilized by students when computing sales discounts for items listed in the ad, as well as properly measuring a 4 column x 10" space to design the display material. Students are also evaluated on design elements used, media and digital specifications, writing style needed in product advertisements, and writing mechanics - encompassing the ELA and Graphics Arts standards that are integrated in the curricula in the program.
- HATTIE'S HOUSE RUBRIC - This rubric is used to evaluate the student's written product. Except for a few minor adaptations to fit the Hattie's House Performance Task, it mirrors the rubric used in the Smarter Balanced Assessments for Performance Tasks.
- COMPLETED PERFORMANCE TASK TEMPLATE FOR HATTIE'S HOUSE - This is the completed planning template that Julie Gauthier, Business Careers instructor, and Mary Smith, Curriculum Supervisor, used in fashioning the Performance Task used with students. It contains all the necessary elements used to create a Performance Task and is based on a similar template that was provided at an in-service, focused on Performance Tasks, that was attended by six TBAISD Career-Tech Center staff members.
- BLANK PERFORMANCE TASK PLANNING TEMPLATE - This editable Performance Task planning template can be used to help in the planning and creation of Performance Tasks, assuring that the necessary elements are included.