Web Page Creation to Demonstrate Performance Task Proficiency

Overview

This paper displays an example of a lesson plan which follows the ASSURE model (Heinich, Molenda, Russell, and Smalindo, 1999).  The ASSURE model provides a structure for creating lessons that facilitate student learning and help to integrate relevant technology into the learning process.  The culminating task is assigned to students within the last 2 weeks of class and uses authentic tasks, technology, and student creativity to produce a web page for use by K-12 teachers new alternative assessment.   The lesson provides the details for creating a web page in order to demonstrate Performance Task proficiency.  The premise is that if the graduate student can create a Performance Task, load it onto the Internet and link the Performance Task information to a summary, then the Performance Task idea will be better understood and more useful to that pre-service and in-service teacher in his or her classroom.

Grabe and Grabe (2001) discuss this type of Project Based learning.  “The ideal task should confront each student with a problem for which that student has no immediate solution. The task should also be chosen to focus on key concepts from the desired domain of study.” (Grabe and Grabe, 2001, p.72). Every student is asked to join a group which has the opportunity to jointly create a web page of choice.  This means that the Performance Task they create in the pre-assignment will provide the evidence for the definition of a Performance Task and for its uses.  The uploading to the Internet provides the authentic piece necessary to raise the level of anxiety, which can sometimes help the students to focus.  The technology integration piece requires the students to use the World Wide Web to showcase their work.  This technology piece has the power to enhance the demonstration of knowledge and to increase the potential for learning.  

Performance Tasks, according to McTighe and Wiggins (1998), demonstrate some higher order thinking skills, psychomotor skills and affective skills not always demonstrated with paper and pencil tests. This summative assessment task provides students with an opportunity to learn how to create and post a web page, work collaboratively with colleagues, use creative skills to demonstrate knowledge, synthesize Performance Task assessment strategies, and perform tasks to that fall into the category of “Enduring Understanding.”

These “Enduring Understanding(s)” include the following characteristics:

1.    [They] represent a big idea having enduring value beyond the classroom.

2.    [They] reside at the heart of the discipline [and] involve “doing” the subject.

3.    [They] require un-coverage (of abstract or often misunderstood ideas).

4.    [They] offer potential for engaging students.

(McTighe and Wiggins, 1998, p.23)

By using these Facets of Understanding, the use of technology provides a natural connection to Performance Tasks. The creation of a promotional web page to demonstrate the importance of Performance Tasks provides an opportunity for the students to “Explain, Interpret, Apply, use Perspective, use Empathy and use Self-Knowledge” (McTighe and Wiggins, 1998).

According to Dr. Meg Keller-Cogan(1997), a Performance Task is a project or activity completed by students to provide evidence of understanding in ways that are observable and measurable.  A Performance Assessment requires that students both create a product and perform a demonstration. Since these assessments will not yield a single correct answer, the evaluation of student work is based on a scoring guide. Students have an opportunity to showcase their individual promotional pages that is  linked to a summary Performance Task for a K-12 classroom.  The web pages will be made available for critiques on the last day of class.  Each group will have an opportunity to critique the web pages of at least 4 of their classmates.  There will be a self-assessment, peer assessment and then the teacher assessment using the rubric provided.

Create a Web Page Lesson

This is a lesson using the Performance Task lesson based upon the ASSURE Model.

Analyze Learners

       General Characteristics

SUNY Oswego graduate students in education must take an Educational Assessment course.  The assessment course has many requirements, and two of the requirements are to create both a paper and pencil test and also a Performance Task.  Some of the students in the class are full-time teachers and others (approximately half) are professionals in another field hoping to become full-time teachers.  The students who come from the business sector are helpful in helping the in-service teachers make sense out of what it means to create an authentic task. Authentic refers to “creating a task with real-world objectives”.

Entry Characteristics

During the first half of the semester, students learn about assessment in general.  Assessment practices are discussed, critiqued and utilized. The knowledge gleaned from the beginning of the semester provides a backdrop for creating a Performance Assessment towards the end of the course. By the time the assignment is given to create a web page, students have been firmly indoctrinated in performance assessments, and are therefore ready to undertake the final assignment of creating a web page.        

Learning Style

Students are required to work in teams of up to four.  Each student in a team works on a portion of the task, and the entire task is handed in with everyone's name on it.  By working in groups, these students (current and future teachers) will work on their professional conversation skills, connect with teachers in their interest area, and reduce the amount of work that needs to be done by each member on the project.

Students will use what they know about assessment, advertising and web page creation, to promote the use of Performance Tasks.  This project not only gets at the creative energies that students might be able to use in order to learn about Performance Tasks, but also synthesizes what they should know about such tasks and about web page design for use by their students in the future.

Since this is a technology project, students will need to use a word processor, do some research on promotional practices and learn about publishing web pages.

The group dynamics are important, since part of any Performance Task provides students with an opportunity to collaborate with colleagues. 

State the Objectives

Cognitive: State the key aspects of using Performance Tasks in a promotional format. (Alternative: Advertise the important aspects of Performance Tasks by promoting PT on the created web site.)     

Psychomotor: Use Netscape composer, FrontPage, Dream weaver, or another web page software package to create a two-page web site which promotes the use of Performance Tasks and summarizes the created task completed. 

Interpersonal: Work within a team of pre-service and in-service teachers to construct a Performance Task justification web site to be used by other teachers.   
Cognitive: Evaluate when and how to use Performance Tasks in the classroom.    

Cognitive: Synthesize the aspects of good assessment practices, which promote learning into a cohesive web site to be used by beginning level teachers.

Cognitive: Apply the most important aspects of promotional practices to create an eye appealing, useful, web page for teachers.      

Psychomotor: Post the created web site on the SUNY Oswego's server.  

Cognitive: Summarize the important aspects of the created group Performance Task and use it as a link to the promotional web site.          

Psychomotor: In order to practice having professional conversations, critique (with a rubric), classmates’ web pages.

Note:  This project should also be attached to NTASCE standards.  The (National Teacher Accreditation) standards provide structure for the larger goals, which are eventually attached to the objectives listed above.  The next step would be to align the objectives to the standards required under the NTASCE standards.

Select Methods, Media and Materials

Methods

·       Cooperative/Collaborative Learning groups work to create a Performance Task and web page.

·       Use advice from current teachers to collaborate on how to attract teachers to this form of assessment.

·       Work in a computer lab for approximately 1 hour to learn the nuts and bolts of how to create a web page using Netscape Composer.  This starts off with a direct instruction presentation, and ends with a hands-on lab.

Media

·       Use a web authoring package to create a simple professional looking web page

·       Word process the text for the web page

·       Obtain an Oswego account, in order post the site on Oswego's web page

·       Summarize the in-class created web page to showcase the details of an exemplary Performance Task.
    

Materials

·       A promotional packet about what makes for good promotional materials will be handed out during the one-hour direct instruction class.  (Grabe and Grabe, 2001, p. 386-401).

·       Computers are available in another location that will be reserved in advance.  It is possible for each student to have his or her own computer, but is not necessary for this group task. Student will use Netscape composer to create a basic web page.

·       Use articles from professional journals (from completed abstracts done in class previously) to support content on Performance Tasks.

Utilize Materials

Prepare Environment

Students work in a lecture setting for most classes, but are brought to a computer lab for a 1.5-hour period during the class before the assignment is due.  During this class students learn Netscape composer.  The reason Netscape Composer is used is because it can be uploaded from the Internet (for no charge). If a student does have the capacity to purchase a more powerful program, (or even learn HTML) they can complete this assignment too. At least one student in a group of up to 4 students will have some capacity to create the web page. 

The requirements for the lesson are uploaded to the Internet, so that students can preview the lesson before coming to class.  When students come to class, they are given direct instruction on using Netscape Composer.  After the direct instruction, students are assigned to the lab to try out the program by themselves.  They are also instructed to upload a beginning form of the assignment.  After the students demonstrate that they have successfully uploaded a version of the assignment, they are free to go off on their own to work on completing the rest of the assignment.  The main reason for using the computer lab, is to make sure that students understand how to upload a new web page to the website.

The completed assignment will be uploaded to the World Wide Web, so that on the last day of class, critiques can be made using the rubric. Each group needs to critique at least 4 projects. 

Project Audience

Description

The task is to create a web site to promote the use of Performance Tasks. This website will provide a summary of a sample Performance Task and will provide the viewer of the website with the information and instruction needed to convince students, parents, and others that Performance Tasks are everything they are all cracked up to be.  The website will be clear about both the advantages and disadvantages of Performance Tasks. This project serves two purposes.  One purpose is to encourage teachers to use Performance Tasks appropriately.  The other purpose is for teachers to summarize an extended task, so that other teachers have an opportunity to see the important aspects of a few assessment tasks.
Task Prompt¹
You are a web page designer/editor for a publishing company MacGraw-Spill.  As an editor for this major textbook publishing company, you want to promote the use of Performance Tasks, so that you can sell materials. Your task is to create a promotional/instructional website to increase the use of Performance Tasks by educators at all levels. Since your company hires teachers to write Performance Tasks, you will also need to encourage and recruit teachers to write these tasks for display on MacGraw-Spill’s site.    This website, will be accessible from the SUNY Oswego server, encourage teachers to visit and participate in the site, provide a rationale for using and creating Performance Tasks, and provide a basic one page abstract of a sample Performance Task you have created. Think of the website as a promotional brochure, with a link to the one page abstract of an exemplary task.  

In summary, you will create a website that will help new teachers make proper use of Performance Tasks. For example, what would you say to get a new teacher involved in using Performance Tasks? What should a new teacher know about when and how to use Performance Tasks appropriately? What should a new teacher know about the problems of using Performance Tasks? Use these questions to help you decide how to format this website for your company, MacGraw-Spill.
                                                              

The evaluation will be simple.  Since this assignment requires that you create a promotional site and connect it to a summary web page, students are asked to critique at least four other web pages using the rubric² attached.

Require Learner Participation

The participation is built into this assignment.  Since students are required to create a team web page, and upload a summary of a previously created Performance Task, the participation required is by design.

Evaluate and Revise

         This is analytic rubric.  Students receive the rubric up front, and are able to develop a web page with this rubric in mind.

Rubric for technology integration
(http://www.rubistar4teachers.org³)

Summary

Making use of technology to get students to synthesize information is a great way to get teachers to both use new technology, and to demonstrate knowledge of procedural and declarative knowledge about an assessment course.  While “Enduring Understanding” is what is required for any good performance assessment, the technology (use of a web page upload) increases the number of potential viewers, raises the level of anxiety for the assignment completion, and increases the number of viewers of the particular task.  When students realize that someone in another country could read what they have to say, the engagement and participation immediately increases.  This project may increase the possibility that the skills learned could be transferred to other situations and provide evidence of “Enduring Understanding”.

But so what?  So what if students remember the skills from the Performance Task, enhanced by technology.  The so what, is described by Lam (1995), in an ERIC Clearinghouse document.  Performance Tasks, (here, enhanced by technology) provide students with another opportunity to demonstrate what they know.  In fact according to Lam (1995) some students who work in groups, who create a product for use by someone else, and who critique their peers work, are provided with an equal opportunity to demonstrate their skills.  This equal opportunity is important for all students.  If you are from one of the many ethnic backgrounds, cultures, classes, economic status, and ability levels, the opportunity for you to demonstrate what you know from your perspective is now provided. Lam (1995) discusses the use of Performance Tasks to increase equity for students who may or may not perform well on traditional paper and pencil tests.  Also, when students can use their inventiveness to create something of their own, the affective piece of their involvement is increased.  Popham (1999) talks extensively about how the use of affect (through these engaging, creative tasks) can provide the emotional piece, which makes the cognitive aspects work more coherently.

The access, equity, fairness issue reason for using technology and performance assessment is legitimate. Students preparing the task (pre-service and in-service teachers) can use their unique brand of creativity to demonstrate what they know, while working with other members of the class to enhance a positive and productive work environment for everyone.

References: 

Grabe, M. & Grabe, C. (2001). Integrating technology for meaningful learning (Rev.ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Heinich, R., Molenda, M., Russell, J. D., & Smalindo, S. E. (1999). Instructional media and technologies for learning. (7th ed.). New Jersey: Merrill Prentice-Hall.

  Keller-Cogan, M. K.(1997, May). Using the Performance Task Template. Workshop presented at the Oswego County BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services) for the teachers’ In-service day. Mexico, NY.

Lam, T., C.M. (1995). Fairness in performance assessment. Eric digest (Magazine). Greensboro NC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Student Services.

McTighe, J. & Wiggins, G. (1998). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Popham, W. J. (1999). Classroom assessment: What teachers need to know (2 ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Notes:

1.     Task Prompt: A task prompt is a scenario, which provides details about a real life situation. Taken from a presentation by Dr. Meg Keller-Cogan.

2.       Rubric: A rubric is a scoring guide.

3.       Rubistar4Teachers.org: Rubistar4Teachers.com is a website which helps teachers create rubrics from templates in the database. Web site found at http://www.rubistar4teachers.org.

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© Copyright, Marcia Burrell-Ihlow
State University of New York College at Oswego