Using Performance Tasks Effectively in the Mathematics Classroom:6 8, Facilitator Handbook

Using Performance Tasks Effectively in the Mathematics Classroom:6–8, Facilitator Handbook

Using Performance Tasks Effectively
in the Mathematics Classroom: 6–8

Professional Development

Facilitator Handbook

-SAMPLER-

Pearson School Achievement Services

Using Performance Tasks Effectively in the Mathematics Classroom: 6–8

Facilitator Handbook

Published by Pearson School Achievement Services, a division of Pearson, Inc.

1900 E. Lake Ave., Glenview, IL 60025

© 2013 Pearson, Inc.

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

ISBN 115488

Facilitator Agenda

Using Performance Tasks Effectively in the Mathematics Classroom: 6–8

Preparation and Background

Workshop Information

Understandings

• There is a fundamental shift inherent in CCSSM assessments that significantly increases the cognitive demand required of students and requires a transfer of skills and knowledge to new and unfamiliar situations.
• Performance tasks will have an impact on how educators, schools, and stakeholders should approach curriculum, instruction, and assessment.
• Providing scaffolded instruction will put all students in a position to be successful.
• Integration of performance-based assessments is unlike traditional test preparation. Rather than focusing simply on test preparation, preparing students for performance-based assessment is inherent in instruction that reflects CCSSM.

Big Questions

• How is assessment changing in response to the CCSSM? (Section 1)
• What are the qualities of an effective performance task? (Section 2)
• How can performance-based assessments provide students with opportunities to demonstrate understanding? (Section 2)
• How will performance tasks help determine teachers’ course of instruction? (Section 3)
• How can teachers scaffold instruction to help students prepare for increasingly complex tasks and develop college and career competencies? (Section 3)
• How can teachers develop performance tasks of appropriate complexity for their students? (Section 4)
• How can teachers use interim performance-based assessments to prepare students for more complex culminating performance tasks? (Section 4)

Outcomes

• Articulate the assessment shift that will come as a result of adopting the CCSSM.
• Distinguish characteristics of effective performance tasks and performance-based assessments.
• Utilize performance tasks as a formative assessment tool to build college and career competencies.

Section 3: Performance Tasks as Formative Assessment Tools for Instruction

(Slides 20–35)

Time: 120 minutes

Big Questions

• How will performance tasks help determine teachers’ course of instruction?
• How can teachers scaffold instruction to help students prepare for increasingly complex tasks and develop college and career competencies?

Training Objectives

• Analyze a performance task to determine what instruction would need to occur for students to be prepared for the task.
• Determine a course of instruction based on a student sample response to a performance task.
• Practice providing meaningful feedback to students based on sample student work (optional activity).

Materials per Section

• TaskstoPlanforInstruction_Section3.pdf(copy one per participant for his or her grade level)
• DatatoPlanforTargetedInstruction_Section3.pdf(copy one per participant for his or her grade level)
• ProvidingEffectiveFeedback_Section3.pdf(copy one per participant for his or her grade level; optional)
• Participant Workbook for each participant

• Display Slide 20.
• Explain to participants that in this section of the workshop, they will discover the answer to the questions on this slide.
• How will performance tasks help determine teachers’ course of instruction?
• How can teachers scaffold instruction to help students prepare for increasingly complex tasks and develop college and career competencies?

• Display Slide 21.
• There are a variety of ways in which teachers can use performance-based assessments in a classroom setting. It is critical that teachers develop instructional plans that embed performance expectations for students. While this section focuses on performance tasks, embedding performance expectations into an instructional plan includes elements such as open-ended questions in addition to formal tasks or assessments.
• The purpose of a performance task as an assessment tool is determined when you administer the task and what you will do with the data.
• Participants will likely be familiar with the concepts of summative and formative, but culminating and interim may be new.

• Display Slide 22.
• Although this section of the workshop focuses on using performance tasks as formative assessment tools, begin by discussing the use of performance tasks as summative assessment.
• When a task is presented to students after instruction, they have the opportunity to take what they know and apply it in unique, unrehearsed situations.
• Teachers can use data from tasks to measure students’ understanding.
• An example of using performance tasks as summative assessment is end-of-year assessments in which the task is unrehearsed and teachers will not use the data to inform or change instruction.

• Display Slide 23.

• Teachers can also use performance tasks as formative assessment.
• Tasks are embedded into the instructional process within a unit of study and likely contain scaffolding to allow students access to the task and to prepare them for more complex tasks.
• Teachers can use data from tasks to adjust and differentiate instruction and provide timely feedback to students.
• Formative assessment can include both interim and culminating performance tasks. Interim performance tasks are embedded in instruction and utilize scaffolding not only to give students access to the task but also to prepare them for culminating unrehearsed tasks. Both interim and culminating tasks provide teachers with valuable information in planning for instruction.

• Display Slide 24.

• Play the video featuring Hugh Burkhardt, Project Director for the Mathematics Assessment Resource Service (MARS), as he describes the importance of using formative assessments to gauge students’ understanding of the content and practices implied by the CCSSM.Ask participants to watch for the following key elements:
• Formative assessments allow the teacher to get a clearer picture ofstudents’ understanding throughout a lesson.
• Responsibility for performance on the task will be with the student, not the teacher.
• The teacher uses a rich task to transfer responsibility to the student.

• How can teachers use classroom assessment to inform the next steps for instruction?

• Display Slides 25–26.

• Two examples are provided to model the activity prior to participants working on their own grade-level tasks. The samples use the two performance tasks) from Section 2.Participants have already brainstormed the skills for the two performance tasks found in Section 2.Review those answers. Ask, and thenchart the answers to the question, What instruction does a teacher need to provide that gives students the opportunity to solve the task?Sample responses are provided below.
• For the rate table example, a teacher would need to provide instruction that gives opportunities for students to
• scale a ratio up and down;
• graph on the coordinate plane;
• use variables to represent quantities;
• develop a mathematical relationship between quantities;
• compare and contrast math models;
• reason abstractly and quantitatively;
• read and interpret word problems; and
• look for and make use of structure.
• For the linear example, a teacher would need to provide instruction that gives opportunities for students to
• find a pattern using a table of values;
• identify a linear relationship from a table and graph;
• use words to describe a pattern;
• graph on the coordinate plane;
• describe rate of change in words and using quantities;
• read and interpret word problems;
• reason abstractly and quantitatively; and
• look for and make use of structure.
• Next, ask participants to work in partners at the same grade level to analyze a grade-specific performance task and determine the instruction that would need to occur for students to be prepared for the task. The tasks are found in the Additional Resources folder (TaskstoPlanforInstruction_Section3.pdf).
• Participants will need to brainstorm all of the skills and strategies students will need to successfully complete the tasks and then think about the instructional experiences students will need to develop those skills and strategies.
• To debrief this activity, first ask partners to meet with another grade-level partnership and compare the responses they recorded in the Participant Workbook.
• Pull participants back together, and lead a whole-group discussion using the following questions as a guide:
• On average, how many skills or strategies were embedded in the performance task that you analyzed?

• How would you describe the experiences, or instruction, students need to have to be prepared for the performance tasks that you just analyzed?

© 2013 Pearson, Inc. All rights reserved.1