How to Design and Assess a Performance Task

The process of designing performance tasks can be divided into three simple steps.

Step 1.  List the specific skills and knowledge you wish pupils to demonstrate.

Teachers should identify the goals (i.e., types of knowledge and skills) pupils are expected to reach in each teaching unit. This step is quite simple, since the knowledge and skills a pupil needs are the Curriculum’s standards and benchmarks in the various domains. Once this list is compiled, the teaching goals to be assessed through performance tasks (as opposed to other assessment tools) should be selected.

Step 2.  Design a performance task that requires pupils to demonstrate these skills and this knowledge.

Teachers should set tasks that will demonstrate which language knowledge and skills have been developed. The pupils’ performance on these tasks should illustrate what they have learned and the degree to which they have achieved the teaching goals. Performance tasks should be motivating, challenging and appropriate to pupils’ language level and cognitive ability. Foundation level tasks will be simple and structured, and as pupils become more proficient and independent, the tasks will become more complex and less structured. As mentioned above, the tasks should be related to real-life experiences.

Step 3.  Develop explicit performance criteria and expected performance levels measuring pupils’ mastery of skills and knowledge (rubrics).

Determine criteria for successful task mastery. The Curriculum specifies criteria relevant to each domain. (The section on rubrics in “Implementing Competency-Based Teaching and Assessment will clarify this point”.