Invitation to participate in the project

The Coast Metro Consortium Science Project invites teachers across the province to
participate in piloting these draft regional standards for performance tasks in Science K-
6 during the 2009-2010 school year.

Teachers are invited to try the tasks in this document with their classes or to develop
other performance tasks. In either case, participating teachers are invited to send the
Project a task write-up and class set of student work. We may use some of these
examples in the final document.

Instructions and contact information

If you choose to participate in the project, here are some instructions for proceeding.

Developing a performance task:

❑ Avoid using copyrighted materials

This project is unlikely to use copyrighted materials as we do not have the
resources to get permissions. At any rate, many published tasks do not have a
good match to the BC curriculum and are not performance tasks. Teachers in our
project are now typically developing better activities than those in many
commercially published materials. If you do use copyrighted materials, please
note that and indicate the source.

❑ Address prescribed learning outcomes for both skills & processes and
content
Focus on the prescribed learning outcomes, not the achievement indicators, etc.
in the IRP. Provincial curriculum is defined as the PLOs and teachers are
required to teach to them; the additional materials are suggestions only and
teachers have professional autonomy.

❑ Ask yourself: Is it a performance task?

You can refer to Characteristics of Performance Tasks in Appendix 1, but if the
task has students applying grade level skills and processes to grade level
content, it’s a good start. We have found that simple tasks are often more
effective than complex “projects”.

❑ Address all or most of the four aspects on the scale – Skills & Processes,
Attitudes & Dispositions, Making Connections, and Knowledge &
Understanding of Science Concepts
Use the draft charts to help you think about how you could collect information
about student performance in relation to each of the four aspects on the scale -
Skills & Processes, Attitudes & Dispositions, Making Connections, and
Knowledge & Understanding of Science Concepts. Some Skills and Processes,
for example, recording, are easily seen in written work, but most require teacher
observation. Attitudes and Dispositions are best ascertained by teacher
 observation and listening. Questions on Making Connections and Knowledge &
Understanding of Science Concepts can be built into the task but teachers can
listen and observe and question to elicit additional information. Please consider
recording observations and/or what students said in conferencing or in response
to questioning and prompts. These can be recorded on post-it notes and
attached to the student samples.

Writing up the task:

❑ Name of Task
Do not agonize over this; we simply need something to call it.

❑ Teacher’s name and contact information

In case we have questions and need to contact you.

❑ Context
Use the form “The class was working on a unit on…” or something similar to
describe the context in the past tense. If there is anything quite extraordinary
about the class, it could also be noted here; e.g., and ESL reception class. In
deciding on the voice and amount of information, remember that your audience is
your teacher colleagues.

❑ Learning outcomes
Use the prescribed learning outcomes verbatim, even if whole outcome does not
apply. Do not revise the outcome, add additional outcomes, or use achievement
indicators.

❑ Process
Use the form “Students were asked to…” to describe the task in the past tense.
Again, remember that your audience is teachers.

Sending student samples:

❑ A highlighted scale
Highlight a draft scale for each student sample and staple the highlighted scale
to the student sample.

❑ Send a signed permission form for each student

The originals of the permission forms should be retained by your school or district
depending on local procedures; copies should be stapled to the student samples
that you send to us.

❑ Mail to the Coast Metro Science Project

The package you send to the Project should include a task write-up, student
samples, each with a permission form and a highlighted draft scale, and your
comments on the draft scale. Mail the package to:

Coast Metro Science Project

c/o Wendy Lim
School District #38 (Richmond)
7811 Granville Avenue
Richmond, BC, V6Y 3E3

Questions: Contact Anita Chapman at anitachapman@shaw.ca

Deadline for submissions: March 15, 2010

Task write-up template

Grade: _____

Name of task: _________________________________________________________

Name of teacher: _______________________________________________________

School/District: ________________________________________________________

Phone and/or e-mail: ___________________________________________________

Context:
e.g., The class was doing a unit on…

Learning Outcomes:
i.e., verbatim from the IRP

Process:
e.g., The students were asked to…