P-1: Create or obtain assessments
Tool: Performance Assessment Examples
Important Note: Creating effective performance-based assessment items is an advanced skill that can be challenging to do, especially for beginning
teachers.
A performance assessment provides a student the opportunity to demonstrate his or her abilities and to apply knowledge and skills. Performance assessments are
designed to be similar to the challenges that adults face every day, requiring students to make judgments, think of innovations, and “do” and “create” rather than
recite, respond, or list.
Grade Level /
Content Area
Grades K-2
Language
Arts
Sample Performance Assessment
Your teacher has announced that you will be having a new desk buddy - a student from Florida. You hear she is sad about moving to Maine
because it is winter and she feels there will be nothing to do outside. Using The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats and your experiences with
winter, come up with some ways you can help your new friend understand about possible winter fun. Be sure to provide reasons why winter is
fun besides those provided in the book.
While rereading the book, you remember how Peter has a dream. Why do you think he dreamt as he did? Have you had similar dreams? Tell
what happened and why.
SOURCE: Educational
Planning, Portland Public
Schools
Grades 3-5
Language
Arts
You will be assessed on your ability to understand the story, your ability to reread for details, your ability to come up with ideas for winter fun,
your ability to make conclusions and your ability to communicate effectively in a variety of ways.
Your friend is going through a difficult time. You have tried talking about the issue but to no avail. After much thought you recall a book you had
read where the character went through a similar experience as your friend. How might the book help your friend deal with the problem? What
other sources of information or resources could you find to help your friend? What might be some strategies your friend could use? Use your
writing skills to compose a letter to your friend as to why he should read the book or resources you have collected. Be sure your letter contains
examples from the readings, your feelings and encouragement.
As a problem solver, devise a plan to meet with your friend to identify possible solutions to the problem after he has read the materials. Be
sure you are considerate of feelings and outline steps you’ll take to make sure your discussion is one of collaboration.
SOURCE: Educational
Planning, Portland Public
Schools
Grades 6-8
Language
Arts
You will be assessed on your ability to make informed decisions, your ability to create a letter with complex sentences, your ability to problem
solve and your ability to work collaboratively with a peer.
Your community has allocated a sum of money to be used to purchase books for the library. Not all in the community are in agreement on how
the funds will be spent. Speculate on what the various interest groups might be in the community and what their respective points of view may
be. Using your knowledge of literature, write letters to various interest groups, the school board and a letter to the editor advocating for a list of
P-1: Create or obtain assessments
books you have developed and why they should be purchased. Be sure to compose your letters to the audience in such a way to elicit their
support.
SOURCE: Educational
Planning, Portland Public
Schools
Grades 9-12
Language
Arts
SOURCE:
Assessing
Student
Outcomes.
McRel, 1993
Grades K-2
Social
Studies
You will be assessed on your ability to create a listing of books to be considered for purchase, your ability to develop letters for various
audiences and purposes, your ability to analyze the perspectives of others, your ability to construct support for your point of view using the
literature books as references and your ability to communicate effectively in a variety of ways.
George Orwell’s 1984 can be described as a work of projective investigation. Working in small groups, your task is to select specific events,
ideas, or trends from the 1940's and show how Orwell projected them into the future. Secondly, each person in your group is to select a field of
study of interest such as fashion, technology, health, sports, the economy, the arts, politics, etc. and analyze how current events, trends, and
ideas are causing disagreements, agreements or confusion in the field. You may want to use books, magazines, research articles, etc. as
resources. Be sure you are aware of the beliefs and biases being presented. Use information and points of view you have collected to develop
a scenario for the future that makes sense and is plausible based on the extension of continued trends, ideas or events.
You will be assessed on your ability to identify and understand basic beliefs in a text, your ability to identify and extend predictions, and your
ability to communicate effectively in a variety of ways.
Have you ever wondered what it was like to live long ago? You’re in luck! A time machine is available to take you back to any time period you
are studying in class.
Before your trip back in time, think about some questions you would like answered about how people may have lived. You might have
questions about what types of food people ate, what they did for work, what school was like or what people did for fun. Use information from
class or other sources to help you answer your questions. As you go back in time, compare how life is different from and the same as life
today, using the questions you developed. Make sure you provide examples. Based on the information you have found, decide if life is easier
or harder today. Use examples to support your point of view.
SOURCE: Educational
Planning, Portland Public
School
Using the information you have collected, design a brochure to help your classmates know what to expect if they go back in time. At the end of
the brochure, write about the most important thing you learned while doing the project and what you would do differently next time. You will be
assessed on your ability to develop questions, your ability to compare and contrast, your ability to make decisions, and your ability to
communicate effectively in a variety of ways.
Grades 3-5
Language
Arts
and
Social
Studies
As you and a partner study conflicts during the Revolutionary war, think about the statement "The pen is mightier than the sword". What does
this statement mean? Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Each time you discuss your views in context to the Revolutionary War,
keep a log of the reasons for or against supporting the statement. With your partner, reach consensus on how to view the statement and then
construct an argument supporting the statement or why you do not agree with it. You must use specific historical examples in your argument.
Be sure you can identify and explain cause and effect in the historical examples.
Is the statement relevant to today’s world? Why or why not? Can you think of some challenge the world faces today that can be remedied by
"the pen"? How might you go about making this change?
P-1: Create or obtain assessments
SOURCE: Educational
Planning, Portland Public
School
Grades 6-8
Language
Arts
and
Social
Studies
You will be assessed on your ability to work collaboratively with a peer, your ability to understand the effects of major conflicts, your
understanding of major written documents in American history, your ability to explain cause and effect, your ability to construct support and
your ability to communicate effectively in a variety of ways.
You are the president of Eco--Create INC., a new company that tries to help regions develop using natural resources. You are trying to obtain
funding for a new project in Maine. To help investors understand your plans, you are creating a presentation that will demonstrate the
relationship between 18th century Maine geography and local, national and global events. Use historical investigation to research how Maine’s
geography affected its development. You may want to consider settlement, industry, farming and other important events.
Using the data collected, make a presentation that would support your point of view that Maine is the keystone of the Atlantic Rim based on
geographic and historical factors. Use this information to justify your request for funding to have Maine become a major international trade
zone. Be sure you can answer any questions or rebuttals from the bankers!
SOURCE:
Paul
MacDowell,
Portland
Public Schools
Grades 9-12
Social
Studies
You will be assessed on your ability to use historical investigation, your ability to use induction to reach conclusions, and your ability to
communicate effectively in a variety of ways.
As a student council member, you are involved with sending a team of five students to represent the city at the International Festival in Boston.
The team is to provide a "snapshot’ of your school and community. Several students suggested as possible candidates are native born
Americans and tension has already started to rise as minority students and recent immigrants claim they are not being adequately
represented. Your job is to develop an equitable, democratic solution to the problem of selecting students.
Based on what you know, set up criteria that would be used to help select students. Your criteria should include a balance between individual
rights and the common good and show equity. Other criteria should constitute ways to provide a true snapshot of your school. Make sure you
consult with groups within your school for points of view. As you work on your plan, come to at least two conclusions about the benefits and
challenges of a multicultural society. Make suggestions for helping the various groups in your building communicate and work together more
efficiently. After you have developed a plan of action, consider what options students might have if they disagree with the selection process.
Make suggestions about possible procedures to over-ride decisions.
SOURCE:
Paul
MacDowell,
Portland
Public Schools
Grades K-2
Mathematics
SOURCE: Exemplars
Grades 3-5
Mathematics
You will be assessed on your ability to make decisions that reflect the balance between individual and group rights, your ability to analyze
perspectives and your ability to work collaboratively.
Scenario: Students will be instructed to measure and record the circumference of their own wrists. They will then record the measurements of
five other students’ wrists. Students will then make a graph of the five wrist measurements. They will use this data to predict the
circumference of that of a peer’s wrist. Students will then ask three more students for their measurement and record them. They will then
compare their prediction to these results.
I am planning on having 5 friends over for a pizza party. I bought three pizzas (all the same size) for the party. One was divided into 4 equal
parts, the second was divided into 6 equal parts and the third pizza was divided into 8 equal parts. Is there any possible way I can show how
P-1: Create or obtain assessments
SOURCE: Exemplars
Grades 6-8
Mathematics
to share these pieces so that each one of us gets the same amount? If not, show how much each person gets.
Be sure to explain your reasoning clearly. Use any fraction pieces that are in the classroom or that you might like to make yourself.
This week’s issue of my local paper contains 8 pages.








Page 1 has all the headline news and no advertisements
Page 2 has one advertisement that takes up 1/2 of the page
Page 3 has ads for 2 local businesses, one takes up 1/2 of the page and the other is the size of 1/6 of the page
Page 4 has a grocery ad that takes up 1/4 of the page
5/12 of page 5 advertises local products
5/6 of page 6 is real estate ads
Page 7 is all sports news
Page 8 has only 1/6 of the page for news and the rest is restaurant and movie ads.
What fractional part of the whole paper is taken up with news and not advertising?
If each page measures 11 inches by 16 inches, what is the area of the entire paper available for printing the week’s news?
SOURCE: Exemplars
Grades 9-12
Mathematics
Bonus: How does this ratio of news to ads compare with that in the typical issue of the Houston Chronicle?
Our Paper, Their Paper: In the United States, we measure quantities with the customary system. A regular sheet of paper measures 8.5 by 11
inches. In other countries, a regular sheet of paper has the size "A4". Below you see some measurements of other paper sizes.
1. Use this table to find out what the dimensions of A4 are.
A0 33" x 46.5"
A1 23" x 33"
A2 16.5" x 23"
SOURCE: Exemplars
Grades K-2
Science
1. Which is larger, a US regular piece of paper or A4?
Dinosaur Bones: Scientists have used the bones of dinosaurs to figure out what they might have looked like, how they moved about, and how
they lived. We are going to be scientists asking the question, “How did the body structures of dinosaurs adapt for their survival?”
In your body, you have different-size bones. The dinosaurs had different sizes and shapes of bones in their bodies, too. In the outline of your
dinosaur, you will draw where you think the large and small bones would be. I also want you to think about how the dinosaur’s skeletal system –
the bones working together – relate to the movements of your dinosaur?
SOURCE: Exemplars
Grades 3-5
Science
At your station you have a collection of rocks that have many differences. Some are smooth, some are very grainy, and some are colored.
These differences are called properties. Some properties are very easy to see, or feel. Other properties are hard to discover and you may need
P-1: Create or obtain assessments
to use the magnifying lenses to look closely to discover the similarities and differences in the rock samples.
Think about a property of the rocks. Then think about the opposite conditions of that property. The first property you will use is size. The
opposite conditions of that property are "large" and "small." Sort your rocks by putting large ones in one pile, and small ones in another pile. The
differences do not need to be very great, but you and your partners have to decide. When you have grouped them, count the number in each
group and enter the number on your Data Sheet.
Your job now is to find other properties of the rock samples that have opposite conditions that you can use to divide, or classify, the rocks into
two groups. To do this, follow these steps.
1. Look at the rocks and decide on a property that has opposite conditions you can use to form groups. Write the name of the property in
the chart on your Data Sheets.
2. Name the opposite conditions of that property, and write them on your Data Sheets.
3. Put the rocks in piles using those conditions. If some rocks do not fit in either group, put them in a third pile.
4. Fill in the data sheet as you did in the first row.
Repeat this process for as many properties as you can, always entering the results on your Data Sheet.
SOURCE: PALS
Grades 6-8
Science
What's the Difference? When walking out in the woods, many people want to know the names of different living things. Often, you may ask, is
that an Oak? What kind of bird is that? These names categorize organisms according to anatomical differences. To truly know what an
organism is, it is essential to know not just its name, but what makes it different from all the other organisms out there.
SOURCE: Exemplars
Our project has two phases to the inquiry task. First, you’ll select a group of similar organisms so that you can observe them in their natural
environment. Then you will use your observations to describe at least two individuals within this group - using both scientific sketches and
descriptions. Your descriptions should show any anatomical differences that you observed.
Grades 9-12
Science
You will remember that Hooke's Law describes the relationship between the force applied to a spring and its elongation (stretch). That is, if a
force stretches a spring, the elongation is directly proportional to the force applied.
F = kx
Where: F = force in newtons
k = spring constant in newtons/meter
x = elongation in meters
SOURCE: PALS
Imagine that you work for a spring manufacturer and your job is to determine whether Sample Spring A will elongate to exactly 0.3 meters when
a force of 15 newtons is applied. Your job is to conduct an experiment which will determine whether Sample Spring A meets this specification.