Please note that many tasks were constructed prior to Common Core and the task alignments to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were not identified in the task materials. To search for the performance tasks explicitly aligned to the CCSS, Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), or College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards, please go to CCSS, NGSS, and C3 tabs.
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Read Independently The Read Independently performance assessment includes two tasks and will be completed twice, once as a pre-assessment and once as a post-assessment, for a unit on nonfiction reading/information book writing. In Task1, students will read a book and ask and answer their questions about the details that they red in the book. They can do this through writing and/or drawing. Students will then discuss the book and share out some of their questions and answers. In task 2, students will write their own information book to teach the important information they have learned. The last page of their book will include a big idea or observation. This assessment includes a rubric. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Reconstruction Riots This task requires students to weigh the values and limitations of a document as historical evidence on the topic of Reconstruction. Students with a sophisticated understanding of how to source a document will be able to explain that the primary source illustrations (Harper's Weekly, 1866) might be useful because they were contemporary depictions of the riots. They will also observe, however, that the artist may not have been present at the riots- and that this is a rendition drawn either from memory or from others' accounts, making it less useful as evidence of what happened. Resources include PDF downloads of the assessment with source materials, and a rubric with benchmark descriptors. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Resilience Cafe In this task, students will explore what it means to be resilient in life through connecting historical stories of resilience with stories from the comunity or even personal stories. This task includes: |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Riis' Urban Photography This task assesses students’ ability to source, contextualize, and corroborate a document from the Industrial era. Students are asked to consider how contextual information could affect the reliability of Jacob Riis' photography. Then, students must think of other information they would like to know about Riis or the circumstances surrounding the photograph in order to further evaluate their reliability. Resources available for this task include downloadable PDF versions of both the assessment as well as the Rubric with benchmark descriptors |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Risky Business This unit includes an unit overview and 3 subunit overviews with built-in lessons. Unit description from the source: Students will learn about lifestyle and genetic influences on health status and about the health insurance system in the United States. They will imagine a future healthcare environment in which technology has greatly advanced, treatment costs have escalated, and individual lifestyle and medical data are widely available to insurers. In this scenario, insurance companies routinely use this kind of information to create programs aimed at improving health outcomes, set insurance rates, approve or deny applications for health insurance, and reduce healthcare expenses. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Rockefeller This task assesses students’ ability to reason how evidence supports a historical argument. Students must explain how both an excerpt from the influential book of investigative journalist Ida Tarbell critiquing the company practices of Standard Oil Company, as well as a newspaper’s take on the Rockefeller Foundation’s incorporation, both support the conclusion that many Americans were concerned about the growing power of a small number of wealthy businessmen at the dawn of the 20th century. Resources available for this task include downloadable PDF versions of both the assessment with excerpts, as well as the Rubric with benchmark descriptors, and links to the original source materials through the Library of Congress' website. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Safety First This unit includes an unit overview and 3 subunit overviews with built-in lessons. Unit description from the source: This unit focuses on the causes of workplace injuries and the consequences for workers, employers, and society as a whole. Students will investigate the biological and physical basis for injury on the job, regulations governing the work environment in the United States, and how public and government perception of who is responsible for work-related injuries has changed through history. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Schoolyard Habitat Project In this task, students work together to come up with a plan to implement that will create insect and animal habitats for the school. This task includes: |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Second Grade Standards 5 and 8 Assessment The Second Grade Standards 5 and 8 Assessment includes three tasks using Save Water by Kay Barnham. In Task 1, students will use text features to locate information about saving water. In Task 2, students will use text features to locate information about the term "population". In Task 3, students will read a section of the story independently. They will then determine and explain in writing how the reasons the author makes on certain pages supports his main point. This assessment includes a rubric. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Seven Years' War This task assesses whether students can source and contextualize a document. Students must first examine an 1870s image of French General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm and then determine which fact can help them evaluate the reliability of the drawing as evidence of what happened at Fort William Henry. Strong students will be able to explain how prevailing attitudes about Native Americans (Fact 1) could affect how an artist depicts the past. Resources available for this task include downloadable PDF versions of both the assessment as well as the Rubric with benchmark descriptors. |
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