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.
| Source | Task |
|---|---|
|
Source Subject Grade Level |
Pen Friends In the Pen Friends task, students will exchange letters with students in Japan. They will learn and understand about the culture, school life and so forth both their own country and others’. They also learn the skill of language and possibly make a life long friend. |
|
Source Subject Grade Level |
Pendulums In this task, students will design their own pendulums and explore the variables which change the rate at which they swing. This task includes: |
|
Source Subject Grade Level |
Photographs of Working Children This task assesses students’ ability to source, contextualize, and corroborate a document. Students are asked to consider how the contextual information affects the reliability of Lewis Hine's photography. They then must consider how the content of the photograph could affect its reliability. Finally, students must think of other information they would like to know about the photographer or the circumstances surrounding the photograph to further evaluate its reliability. Resources available for this task include downloadable PDF versions of both the assessment as well as the Rubric with benchmark descriptors. |
|
Source Subject Grade Level |
Photojournalism The Photojournalism task is a digital media project supporting young people around the world to share images about issues and stories from their communities. In 2012 - 2013, the project focused on the theme of 'Images of Social Change.' In 2013 - 2014, the project is focusing on the theme of 'Heritage, Hunger, and Food Security.' |
|
Source Subject Grade Level |
Pickett's Charge This task measures students’ ability to source a document. This assessment gauges whether students understand an important aspect of sourcing: the time elapsed between when a document was produced and the event that it depicts- and how reliability may be affected. Students who understand the importance of when a document was produced will see that the painting is of little use to historians who wish to understand the immediate circumstances around Pickett's Charge because it was produced over 30 years after the event. The task includes a range of supplementary materials, all accessible and available for download with the creation of a free account through the site:
|
|
Source Subject Grade Level |
Pond-water Populations This task (in PALM and in PALS) focuses on the Balance of Populations in Ecosystems. Students must design and complete an experiment to show how variables affect the growth of organisms in an aquarium or pond setting. This task includes: |
|
Source Subject Grade Level |
Portrait of an Iroquois Leader This task assesses whether students can source and contextualize a document. Students must first examine a painting of an Iroquois man by a British artist, then determine which facts can help them evaluate the painting's historical reliability. Strong students will be able to explain how the false impression that Hendrick was an emperor (Fact 1) and the alliance between the British and the Iroquois against the French (Fact 3) may have fostered the regal and flattering nature of the painting. Resources available for this task include downloadable PDF versions of both the assessment as well as the Rubric with benchmark descriptors. |
|
Source Subject Grade Level |
Post-Civil War South This task assesses whether students can source and contextualize a document. Students must first examine an interview about the slaves freed from a plantation, then determine which facts can help them evaluate the interview's reliability. Strong students should be able to explain how the time elapsed between the interview and the events described (Fact 1) might affect the accuracy of his account. They should also be able to explain how Carter's family's allegiance to the Confederacy during the Civil War (Fact 2) could have influenced his perspective and affected the information he chose to include. Resources available for this task include downloadable PDF versions of both the assessment as well as the Rubric with benchmark descriptors. |
|
Source Subject Grade Level |
Powder In this task, students will examine unidentified substances and propose uses for them. This task includes: |
|
Source Subject Grade Level |
Predator/Prey Relationship This task (in PALM and in PALS) focuses on the Populations of Ecosystems. Students must analyze given population data and write a paragraph demonstrating their underatandings, and then write a proposal to reduce one animal's population. This task includes: |
If you would like to recommend additional open-sourced performance task banks to be included in the database, or if you would like to report a broken link, please email Pai-rou Chen.
© Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305
