Task Rotations
Learning Target:
• I can explain how task
rotations help deepen
student’s thinking and
understanding, increase
student engagement, and
gather useful assessment
information.
Mastery
SENSING
(Sensing and Thinking)
Interpersonal
(Sensing and Feeling)
Preferred mental operations include: remembering,
sequencing, and practicing.
Preferred mental operations include: empathizing, relating
personally, and exploring feelings and values.
Mastery questions ask students to:
• Recall
• Describe
• Sequence
• Provide examples
• Summarize
Interpersonal questions ask students to:
• Describe feelings and reactions
• Empathize
• Prioritize according to personal values
• Reflect
• Make decisions
THINKING
The Interpersonal style combines Sensing’s focus on
details with the subjectivity of Feeling.
Understanding
Self-Expressive
(Intuition and Thinking)
(Intuition and Feeling)
FEELING
The Mastery style combines Sensing’s focus on details with
Thinking’s objectivity.
The Understanding style combines the big-picture focus of
Intuition with the objectivity of Thinking.
The Self-Expressive style combines the big-picture
focus of Intuition with the subjectivity of Feeling.
Preferred mental operations include: reasoning,
interpreting, and proving.
Preferred mental operations include: imagining, predicting,
and reorganizing.
Understanding questions ask students to:
•Compare and contrast
•Prove or disprove
•Explain how or why
•Classify
•Infer
Self-Expressive questions ask students to:
•Associate
•Think divergently
•Develop metaphors
•Imagine or hypothesize
•Create or synthesize
INTUITION
KCCT Released Item
KCCT Released Item
The diagram above shows a cell and its organelles. Select FOUR
of its organelles and explain how the structures and functions of
those organelles within the cell are similar to the structures and
functions of different parts of your school.
KCCT Released Item
KCCT Released Item
Who You Gonna Call?
• Skim pgs. 241-246 in The
Strategic Teacher
• What is a task rotation?
• Prove or disprove this
statement: Task rotations are
best used as unit assessments.
• Create another name for “task
rotations” that might be more
appealing to students.
• Examine the “potpourri” of task
rotations on pg. 245. Which
ones do you like best? Why?
What Can Task Rotation Do for
You and Your Students?
Goal #1: Differentiating Teaching and Learning
Goal #2: Deepening Memory and
Comprehension
Goal #3: Increasing Student Engagement
Goal #4: Gathering Meaningful Assessment Data
Goal #5: Improving the Quality of Student
Thinking
Goal #6: Developing Students’ Habits of Mind
9
Goals of Task Rotation:
Depth and Breadth
• To help students master basic factual material by asking
them to recall facts or definitions, use sequences, use
categories, and or use procedures.
• To help students increase understanding by asking them to
compare and contrast, summarize, prove, and/or establish
causal relationships.
• To help students to reorganize content by asking them to
hypothesize, imagine and elaborate, use metaphors, and/or
synthesize.
• To help students relate personally to the content by
describing feelings, empathizing, express a preference, or
make a value judgment or reflect upon decisions and
outcomes.
How Does a Task Get Its Style?
We’ve already begun to explore and answer this
question, but now it’s your turn to use real
classroom tasks to develop a better answer. So
take a close look at the different styles of tasks
in the potpourri. Identify some key “thinking
verbs” or other phrases that help you identify
the style of the task.
Phases of a Task Rotation Lesson
D
E
P
T
H
etermine the standards you want to focus on and use them to clarify
your purpose.
stablish a work plan.
rovide tasks in all four styles.
hink through the criteria for assessment.
elp students reflect on their learning.
Big Idea: Structure and Transformation of Matter (Grade 4)
Program of Studies:
Understandings
Program of Studies: Skills and Concepts
Related Core Content for
Assessment
SC-4-STM-U-1
Students will understand that things
can be done to materials to change
some of their properties, but not all
materials respond the same way to
what is done to them.
SC-4-STM-U-2
Students will understand that when a
new material is made by combining
two or more materials the new material
often has properties that are different
from the original materials.
SC-4-STM-U-3
Students will understand that
properties of materials may change if
the materials become hotter or colder.
SC-4-STM-S-1
Students will identify matter as solids, liquids
and gases
SC-4-STM-S-2
Students will gather information including
temperature, magnetism, hardness and mass
using appropriate tools to identify physical
properties of matter
SC-4-STM-S-4
Students will conduct tests, compare data and
draw conclusions about physical properties of
matter including states of matter, conduction
and buoyancy
SC-4-STM-S-5
Students will predict and describe patterns of
properties in matter, such as how materials will
interact with each other and how they can be
changed
SC-4-STM-S-6
Students will investigate student-generated
questions about the properties of matter and
uses of matter with particular properties
SC-4-STM-S-6
Students will design and build objects that
require different properties of materials
SC-04-1.1.1
Students will explain how matter,
including water, can be changed
from one state to another.
Materials can exist in different
states--solid, liquid and gas. Some
common materials, such as water,
can be changed from one state to
another by heating or cooling.
Resulting cause and effect
relationships should be explored,
described and predicted.
DOK 3
Big Idea: The Earth and The Universe (Grade 4)
Program of Studies: Understandings Program of Studies: Skills and
Concepts
Related Core Content for
Assessment
SC-4-EU-U-1
Students will understand that
classifying Earth materials according to
their properties allows decisions to be
made about their usefulness for various
purposes.
SC-04-2.3.1
Students will:
classify earth materials by the ways
that they are used;
explain how their properties make
them useful for different purposes.
Earth materials provide many of the
resources humans use. The varied
materials have different physical
properties that can be used to
describe, separate, sort and classify
them. Inferences about the unique
properties of the earth materials
yield ideas about their usefulness.
For example, some are useful as
building materials (e.g., stone, clay,
marble), some as sources of fuel
(e.g., petroleum, natural gas), or
some for growing the plants we use
as food.
DOK 2
SC-4-EU-S-1
Students will use the properties of
earth materials to make and support
decisions about using them for
different purposes (e.g., growing
plants, building materials, fuel)
Identify Purposes:
Know:
Attitudes:
•Properties
•States of Matter
•Physical Properties
•Earth Materials Gravel, sand, clay, shells,
parts of plants and trees, liquids (water, oil),
air
•Rocks
•Minerals
•Weathering
•Appreciate that the unique properties of
Earth materials determine their
usefulness and applications.
Understand:
Skills:
•Classify Earth materials according to
their properties allows decisions to be
made about their usefulness for various
purposes.
•Explain how their properties make them
useful for different purposes.
•Classify based on properties
•Use different Earth materials and their
properties to tell a story
What’s Under My Feet?





Mastery Style
Identify solid, liquid, and gaseous
earth materials.
List the properties for each that do
NOT change no matter how much
or how little you have.
List the properties that might
change if the amount of it changes.
Understanding Style
Compare earth materials using their
properties.
Explain how their properties
determine how they are used.

Interpersonal Style
Use earth objects and materials to
tell a story about where they are
found and why they are important
to you.
Self-Expressive Style
Choose one:
How would the earth be different if:
 The soil wasn’t granular.
 Rocks weren’t made of minerals
OR
 Water didn’t exist in all three states.
Criteria
• Look for criteria that unite all four tasks OR
develop criteria for each task.
– Might depend upon your Work Plan.
• Use your deconstruction of the standard to
develop your criteria.
Work Plan
• Students will complete all tasks.
• Students should complete the tasks in the
following order:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Mastery
Understanding
Self-expressive
Interpersonal
What’s Under My Feet?





Mastery Style
Identify solid, liquid, and gaseous
earth materials.
List the properties for each that do
NOT change no matter how much
or how little you have.
List the properties that might
change if the amount of it changes.
Understanding Style
Compare earth materials using their
properties.
Explain how their properties
determine how they are used.

Interpersonal Style
Use earth objects and materials to
tell a story about where they are
found and why they are important
to you.
Self-Expressive Style
Choose one:
How would the earth be different if:
 The soil wasn’t granular.
 Rocks weren’t made of minerals
OR
 Water didn’t exist in all three states.
Mastery tasks
Interpersonal tasks
Demonstration
Definition
Summarizing and Reporting
Diagramming and Labeling
Visual Organizers
Decision Making
Empathizing
Self-Analysis and Goal-Setting
Conflict/Resolution
Exploring Feeling and Personal
Reaction
Understanding Tasks
Self-Expressive
Comparison
Classification
Debugging/Problem Solving
Analysis/Explanation
Argument
Speculation
Metaphor/Simile/Analogy
Design
Divergent Thinking
Artistic Expression
More or Less:
Six Criteria for Assessing Your Task Rotations
Purposeless - Sometimes a Task Rotation suffers from not having a clear
purpose. Students are not clear about the purpose of a particular activity or
the Task Rotation as a whole. The clearer we are about why we are using the
Task Rotation and what we are trying to accomplish, the more successful it
will be.
Style-less – Sometimes a Task Rotation lacks style. It has four activities but
they are not style-based, or there is not a diversity of styles represented, or
the styles are confused. The more we understand the thinking process
associated with each of the styles, the more effective we will be in designing
and selecting style-based tasks.
What’s Under My Feet?





Mastery Style
Identify solid, liquid, and gaseous
earth materials.
List the properties for each that do
NOT change no matter how much
or how little you have.
List the properties that might
change if the amount of it changes.
Understanding Style
Compare earth materials using their
properties.
Explain how their properties
determine how they are used.

Interpersonal Style
Use earth objects and materials to
tell a story about where they are
found and why they are important
to you.
Self-Expressive Style
Choose one:
How would the earth be different if:
 The soil wasn’t granular.
 Rocks weren’t made of minerals
OR
 Water didn’t exist in all three states.
More or Less:
Six Criteria for Assessing Your Task Rotations
Interest-less – Sometimes the tasks in a Task Rotation are not engaging and
do not capture the interest of the students they are intended for. The more
we take student interest into account the more effective our Task Rotation
will be.
Clueless – Sometimes the Task Rotation is plagued by vagueness because the
students do not have a clue about what it is they are supposed to do. The
clearer we are about the specific products the student needs to produce and
how it will be judged, the more effective the Task Rotation will be.
What’s Under My Feet?





Mastery Style
Identify solid, liquid, and gaseous
earth materials.
List the properties for each that do
NOT change no matter how much
or how little you have.
List the properties that might
change if the amount of it changes.
Understanding Style
Compare earth materials using their
properties.
Explain how their properties
determine how they are used.

Interpersonal Style
Use earth objects and materials to
tell a story about where they are
found and why they are important
to you.
Self-Expressive Style
Choose one:
How would the earth be different if:
 The soil wasn’t granular.
 Rocks weren’t made of minerals
OR
 Water didn’t exist in all three states.
More or Less:
Six Criteria for Assessing Your Task Rotations
Balance-less – Sometimes a Task Rotation can be out of balance. This means
that the complexity and time it takes to do one task or the simplicity of a
task is not in line with the other tasks. The more the Task Rotation
activities are balanced according to complexity and the time it takes to
complete each task, the more successful it will be.
Thoughtless - Of all the members of the “Less” family, this one is the most
serious. Sometimes a Task Rotation meets all the effective criteria but has
four tasks that really do not require thought or a level of thinking worthy
of classroom time. The more the Task Rotation engages students in
meaningful thought, the more effective it will be.
What’s Under My Feet?





Mastery Style
Identify solid, liquid, and gaseous
earth materials.
List the properties for each that do
NOT change no matter how much
or how little you have.
List the properties that might
change if the amount of it changes.
Understanding Style
Compare earth materials using their
properties.
Explain how their properties
determine how they are used.

Interpersonal Style
Use earth objects and materials to
tell a story about where they are
found and why they are important
to you.
Self-Expressive Style
Choose one:
How would the earth be different if:
 The soil wasn’t granular.
 Rocks weren’t made of minerals
OR
 Water didn’t exist in all three states.
Revision
• Working with a table
partner, use the six “LESS”
criteria to make further
revisions to the What’s
Under My Feet? task
rotation.
• Compare your revision ideas
with another table pair.
Synthesis
• Quickly, jot down your
personal definition of a task
rotation.
• What did you find easy about
this process and revision?
• What was most difficult for
you?
• What ideas do you have for
using task rotations in your
classroom?
Practice
• Select one of the
following task rotations
to review.
–
–
–
–
Weather
Plants
Animals Adapt
Animal Behavior
• Use the six “Less”
criteria to make
revisions to the task
rotation you selected.
• Jot down notes from
this process that might
be helpful to you as you
design your own task
rotation.
Game Time!
• Select a topic and identify the related
standards.
• Draft a Task Rotation for your selected topic.
• Swap your TR with a tablemate and provide
feedback using the six “Less” criteria.