Phil Harrison Coaching

There’s nothing more frustrating than being asked to complete a task or a product without having a clear sense of what really needs to be done. Unfortunately, this frustration can be a regular part of the classroom experience for many students. In the book Classroom Assessment Essentials, author Susan M. Brookhart shares the following process for designing performance tasks for students (p. 97):

1. Identify the content to be assessed. When you are clear on what is to be assessed, the students will also be clear on what is to be assessed. Work diligently to eliminate ambiguity or excess. 
2. Identify the thinking skills to be assessed. Again, when you are clear on the types of thinking skills that will be assessed, the students will be clear in their demonstration of those thinking skills. Design tasks that elicit deeper and deeper thinking, so that students move toward mastery. 
3. Draft a task with criteria to match the intended learning to be assessed. 
4. Check for a match between the draft task and intended content and thinking skills. When you know what content and thinking are to be assessed, it is easier for you to create a task specific to that content and thinking level. Make sure the drafted task matches the cognitive and developmental levels of the students you serve. 
5. Check that the requirements of the task do not add additional, irrelevant skills. If you want to measure content and thinking skills, make sure your tasks don’t place greater emphasis on presentation mode or colors or use of slides. Those are not as relevant as the content and thinking skills. 
6. Revise the taks. Once you have tried the performance task with a group of students, review responses carefully. If you didn’t get what you were expecting, revise the task. You can even include students and their experiences in the revisions, so that any future tasks will more accurately assess the content and thinking skills identified. 

As you prepare for next week, think about how you might prepare performance tasks that are meaningful for students. You and your students will be glad you did!