Performance Task Plan Ciarla
Standards
Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.
S:ESS1:8:2.2 Use geological evidence provided to support the idea that Earth’s crust/lithosphere is composed of plates that move.
S:LS3:4:1.2 Provide examples of how an organism’s inherited characteristics can adapt and change over time in response to changes in the environment.
Sources:
Where are we Going? What learning targets are we reaching for?
Strategy 1: Provide a clear and understandable vision of the learning targets.
- What knowledge are students going to use? They will be applying what they will learn about both plate tectonics and animal adaptations. (5th grade science themes)
- What will students do? The students are going to research how they Earth is very different than it was millions of years ago, how it is changing now and will continue to change. They are going to learn that animals have adaptations to adapt to their environment, nothing happens because it looks neat or for no reason.
- What are they to perform or create? They are going to take a present day animal in a present day biome and hypothesize what it will need to adapt to in the future based on the change in climate caused by continental drift. They will create a visual presentation including a presentation board and a 3D model of their future creature.
- What conditions are they to adhere to? Every adaptation and feature must be justified based on its need in the future biome. The animal can not be a combination of two animals but it can take on qualities of present day animals (ex. a monkey gains scales like a snake).
- Will they work alone or with others? All research and work will be done independently. However, the students may want to work together to peer assess and discuss a future biome that both of their creatures may cohabitate.
- Are there time limits for the project? Time management will be the most limiting factor. Students are welcome to supplement the poster board and model with other visuals.
- How much time will they have? My students meet for 30 minutes at a time so the project will take 6-8 weeks to complete where the first week or two will be devoted to research.
- Are there any other conditions students need to be aware of? I am not sure what is meant by this????
- How many tasks will you need in order to sample well? I believe the 3D model, presentation board, outline and checklist will be enough of a sample.
- How should these tasks differ to cover the breadth and depth of what you are assessing? This is a great question, how is the 3D model different from the poster and how are either of them different from the table filled out to reflect and explain the adaptations. Hmm...well I guess the adaptations paper would not allow the students to present the information very well. The 3D model is certainly more hands on for kinesthetic learners and the poster is more linguistic but I am not sold that they are both completely necessary.
By what criteria will you and the students judge the performance or product?
Strategy 1: Use examples and models of strong and weak work. I have video clips of students who have done this in the past. I have one that is very well done and one that is not so good.
Strategy 2: Identify the criteria against which you will assess or judge the students’ work. You should create both a checklist and a rubric to use for assessing the quality of student products or performances. I will use a rubric and a checklist.
Create a learning progression appropriate for teaching and assessing the learning targets. That is…what will you do, say, provide to the students to support their learning of the underlying content and the completion of the performance assessment. I will be using a WebQuest which is an online step by step guide for students to follow.
Strategy 3: What will you and the students do? What resources will you and the students use? Again, I will be using a WebQuest which is an online step by step guide for students to follow.
What Materials will you use? Describe the materials students will need to use to create their product or performance: I provide all the boards and materials needed to create the models. They will have the WebQuest and Chromebooks to do their research. The WebQuest has a list of sites I have selected for them to use.
How will you report assessment outcomes to students? The students will receive a filled out rubric from me as well as peer assessments using Google Docs.
What a fun activity! I have a student very interested in a parallel thread - what life might look like on alien planets. He loves considering the variables (temperatures, availability of sunlight, gravity, and so forth) and writing about the adaptations that would allow life to thrive in strange conditions.
ReplyDeleteThis project really invites students to synthesize what they've learned and apply their knowledge to a cool task. Very nice job