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 |
African American Workers This task asks students to source and corroborate an account by an English traveller describing African American workers in New York City. Question 1 asks students to evaluate whether the excerpt provides enough evidence to draw conclusions about the working conditions facing African Americans in New York City at the time. To answer this question, students must source the document to determine whether the author’s account can be thought of as conclusive evidence. Question 2 asks students to evaluate whether additional documents could be used to corroborate the account. Resources include PDF downloads of the assessment with source materials, and a rubric with benchmark descriptors. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Air in Soil This task (in PALM and in PALS) focuses on the Structure of the Earth System. Students must follow an experiment to calculate the percent of air in a soil sample, and then design another experiment to determine the amount of water in a sample. This task includes: |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Alternate Reality In this task, students will photoshop each others images into their partner schools in order to put themselves in one another's shoes and identify the difficulties they each face. This task includes: |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Alternate Reality In the Alternate Reality task, students create "false memories" by Photoshopping student images into each others' schools. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Am I Matisse or a Picasso? In this task, students will explore how the artists Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso influenced each other's work and how they will allow it to influence their own art piece. This task includes: |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
American Imperialism This task asks students to source and corroborate an editorial from a Nebraska newspaper about overseas expansion. Question 1 asks students to evaluate whether the passage provides enough evidence to draw conclusions about American attitudes about overseas expansion at the time. To answer this question, students must source the document to determine whether the editorial can be thought of as conclusive evidence. Question 2 asks students to evaluate whether additional documents or missing perspectives could be used to corroborate the document. Resources include PDF downloads of the assessment with source materials, and a rubric with benchmark descriptors. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Anarchism and the Haymarket Affair This task assesses students’ ability to source and corroborate a document. Drawing on knowledge gained by sourcing an excerpt from a 1908 Utah newspaper--which makes claims about the influence that the Haymarket Affair had on the growth of anarchist groups in the United States--students then evaluate it in several ways; Question 1 asks students to evaluate whether the excerpt provides enough evidence to draw conclusions the growth of anarchism in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century. To answer this question, students must source the document to determine whether the account can be regarded as conclusive evidence. Question 2 asks students to identify and evaluate whether additional documents or perspectives could be used to corroborate the account. Resources include PDF downloads of the assessment with source materials, and a rubric with benchmark descriptors. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
And the Solution is... In this task, students will act as a legislator and learn how to solve problems by moving through the legislature process. This task includes: |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Apartheid in South Africa This task assesses students' knowledge of the past—but rather than measure rote recall of decontextualized facts, this assessment requires students to make connections across time and construct an argument about how events are connected. Students with a strong sense of the past will be able to explain that the social conditions of apartheid grew out of racial oppression instituted during European colonial rule of South Africa. Strong students will also explain that social conditions like those depicted in the photograph led the United States Congress to impose economic sanctions against South Africa in an effort to bring an end to the policy of apartheid. Resources available for this task include downloadable PDF versions of both the assessment with source materials, as well as the Rubric containing benchmark descriptors. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Appeasement at Munich This task assesses students' knowledge of the past—but rather than measure rote recall of decontextualized facts, this assessment requires students to make connections across time and construct an argument about how events are connected. Students with a strong sense of the past will be able to explain that the Munich Agreement can be seen in part as the result of the sanctions imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. A strong response to the second question will explain that the Munich Agreement emboldened Hitler, which eventually led to the invasion of Poland. Resources available for this task include downloadable PDF versions of both the assessment with source materials, as well as the Rubric containing benchmark descriptors. |
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.
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