Offers suggestions for creating performance tasks for math, science, language arts, social studies, performance arts, and interdisciplinary curriculums, including portfolios, exhibitions, and written assignments.

Performance-based assessments allow classroom teachers an alternative to traditional multiple-choice tests. We often use fill-in-the bubble assessments in education to determine the readiness of students. However, in the 21st-century workplace, these types of tests fail to truly prepare students. How many times in the real world are we called upon to take a multiple-choice test? In the real world, we are called upon to prove our merit through performance-based assessments, displaying our 21st-century skills. We should be preparing students for this in the classroom. Performance-Based Assessment for 21st-Century Skills makes the argument that teachers should use performance-based assessments in the classroom. It guides the educator step by step to show how he or she can create performance-based assessments for students, including what they look like, teaching students how to create them, setting the proper classroom environment, and how to evaluate them.

Writing a rubric that can accurately evaluate student work can be tricky. Rather than a single right or wrong answer, rubrics leave room for interpretation and thus subjectivity. How does a teacher who wants to use performance-based assessment in this day and age of educational data and SMART goals find a way to reliably assess student work? The solution is to write clear rubrics that allow the evaluator to objectively assess student work. This book will show classroom teachers not only how to create their own objective rubrics, which can be used to evaluate performance assessments, but also how to develop rubrics that measure hard-to-assess skills, such as leadership and grit, and how to empower their own students to create rubrics that are tailored to their work.

A Teacher’s Guide to Classroom Assessment is a comprehensive guide that shows step-by-step how to effectively integrate assessment into the classroom. Written for both new and seasoned teachers, this important book offers a practical aid for developing assessment skills and strategies, building assessment literacy, and ultimately improving student learning. Based on extensive research, this book is filled with illustrative, down-to-earth examples of how classroom assessment works in classrooms where assessment drives the instruction. The authors present the Classroom Assessment Cycle—Clarifying learning targets, Collecting assessment evidence, Analyzing assessment data, and Modifying instruction based upon assessment data—that demonstrates how one assessment action must flow into the next to be effective. Each chapter details the kinds of assessment evidence that are the most useful for determining student achievement and provides instruction in the analysis of assessment data.

Authentic Assessment combines performance tasks that are relevant to students' lives with the need for accountability. The book explores common mandated language arts expectations and shows teachers how to choose meaningful activities that will guide students toward achieving important learning outcomes. This practical approach to task design includes suggestions for planning through evaluating and generating a mark, as well as sensible ways to use assessment results to improve instructional practice. The book presents: a thorough, constructive background for authentic assessment of student work; clear definitions of terms related to assessment and evaluation; a step-by-step process for developing performance-based tasks; strategies for relating tasks to goals and expectations; numerous activities that can be used as is or adapted for specific needs. Designed for the busy teacher, the book includes ready-to-copy and use planning sheets, rubrics, and student surveys. Excellent samples of student work based on performance tasks complement this timely book.

Aimed at the growing number of educators who are looking to move beyond covering the curriculum, Designing Authentic Performance Tasks and Projects provides a comprehensive guide to ensuring students' deeper learning—in which they can transfer their knowledge, skills, and understandings to the world beyond the classroom. Readers will learn how to * Create authentic tasks and projects to address both academic standards and 21st century skills. * Apply task frames to design performance tasks that allow voice and choice for students. * Design and use criterion-based evaluation tools and rubrics for assessment, including those for students to use in self-assessment and peer assessment. * Incorporate performance-based instructional strategies needed to prepare students for authentic performance. * Differentiate tasks and projects for all students, including those needing additional support or challenge. * Effectively manage the logistics of a performance-based classroom. * Use project management approaches to facilitate successful implementation of tasks and projects. * Develop performance-based curriculum at the program, school, and district levels. Authors Jay McTighe, Kristina J. Doubet, and Eric M. Carbaugh provide examples and resources across all grade levels and subject areas. Teachers can use this practical guidance to transform their classrooms into vibrant centers of learning, where students are motivated and engaged and see relevance in the work they are doing.

Performance-Based Assessment for Middle and High School Physical Education, Second Edition, breaks down the complex topic of assessments and shows you how to develop assessments that will help you and your students work together to enhance the instructional process in physical education. The authors describe the various types of performance-based assessments and show how to integrate assessments into fitness education and physical education, using numerous models that can be adapted to your own situation. The authors provide a wealth of tools for assessing students according to local, state, and NASPE standards while helping students reach their goals. The text is supported by a Web site that includes a test package, a presentation package with PowerPoint slides, an instructor guide, and a CD-ROM that includes additional forms and assessments.