Performance Task

I have probably had a couple run-ins with performance tasks throughout my career as a student. The ones that stick out the most are my biology project from 7th grade and a project we had in my government class in high school. For the biology project we were tasked with picking an endangered species and researching it. We found out it's habitat, diet, etc... and made a presentation about how to save this animal. The project itself was very fun to make and something I remember years later. It gave us a chance to combine a lot of what we were learning into one project.
The history project made me think of a law I wanted passed and presenting it to the "government" (i.e. our class). This not only gave me a chance to share something I was passionate about, but also let me use all of my knowledge from class to create something.

What is assessed shows students what we want them to know. What kids see on a test tells them what the teacher thinks is important. If we are just giving tested based on facts and bits of knowledge then our students will assume that's what is important. When you make an assessment based on different facets such as collaboration and analyzation, you show students that those skills are important. As a community, the focus should be on these skills as well as actually knowing facts.

GRASPS

(My transfer goal is Students will independently use their learning to determine what the best method for solving a problem is)

Goal:
Your task is to convince your peers to go to college
The goal is to show your peers that if they go to college, they will make more money
The problem is that most kids think that college is useless and will not help them in the long run

Role:
You are a college recruiter
You have been asked to speak to a group of high school students about attending college
Your job is convince these students to attend your college

Audience:
Your clients are the high schoolers
The target audience is high schoolers that aren't thinking of going to school
You need to convince these high schoolers

Situation:
The context you find yourself in is dealing with rowdy high schoolers
The challenge involves dealing with high schoolers that need very explicit reasons why they should attend college

Product/Performance:
You will create a good representation (in either graph or formula or other way) 

in order to make the students realize that going to college has benefits
You need to develop a good plan to convince them
so that they attend your college

Standards for success:
Your performance needs to last at least 5 minutes and have good reasoning and back up your claim
Your work will be judged by your fellow classmates
A successful result will for at least half the class to raise their hands when asked who will attend college after your speech.