Why I Love Authentic Performance Tasks

Hey everyone! It's Heather from 2 Brainy Apples, and I am so excited to be blogging on PC today! I wanted to share with you all one of my favorite activities to do in my classroom ---> authentic performance tasks. I think sometimes the idea of performance tasks can get a little cloudy, so I wrote an entire blog post about why I love them, what they are, example ideas, and example photos.

I love using the GRASPS model, and I include a link to a helpful site if you are interested in using it, too. In short, the G is for goal for the student, R is the role of the student, A is the audience of the student, S is the scenario that is real world, P is the product or performance the student will create or product, and S is the scoring rubric you give to students before hand so they know your expectations.

Here are a couple of pics from one of my performance tasks so you can get an idea of how unique the products are, and you can imagine how engaged students were! Same performance task. Totally different outcome. Want to know what their task was? Head on over to my blog post! These are great for allowing students to express their creativity and get away from mindless worksheets ---> "Worksheets don't grow dendrites." -Marcia Tate. One of my favorite sayings!

I hope you will hop on over to my blog and share some of your ideas and thoughts!

Heather

         

Getting Your Students to Not Dread Testing!

We've all been there….standardized testing. Yuck! Who likes it? Certainly not me nor my students. But it is a necessary evil. A while back I wrote a blog post on how to help your students not dread standardized testing and actually even look forward to it a little bit. I thought it would be timely to revisit this blog post because I know that glorious stressful time of year is quickly approaching. If you want to find out how I help my students wake up ready to roll on those testing days, head on over to my blog at 2 Brainy Apples and maybe my trick will help you and your students!

Until next time!

Heather

Advent Calendar Day 2 from 2 Brainy Apples!

Hey hey hey! It's Heather from 2 Brainy Apples, and I just have to ask….."Are y'all ready for Day #2 of The Primary Chalkboard's Advent calendar?????"

Who doesn't love goodies? Today I am stoked to be bringing you one of my favorite writing RAFT tasks for the month of December FREE, but ONLY for today! My students absolutely love love love this task. It's my Candy Cane Taste Tester prompt.

All you have to provide is a small assortment of candy cane flavors. Students take on the role of taste testers to decide which of 2 flavors they think the owner of a candy cane factory should produce this season. My students are always so engaged with this writing project (which takes about a week), that I don't even have to remind them to stay on track. Engaged students means less stress for you! And who doesn't love a little peace and quite during the school day?

My other goodie for you is that I am offering one of my most popular seasonal products HALF off today, but ONLY for today! It's my Geo Journey New Year's Celebrations Around the World Interactive Notebook. You can snag it for only $2.25! But hurry because tomorrow it goes back to its regular price!

Most of my students had studied different winter holidays around the world, but I found out that the majority hadn't studied New Year's celebrations. Oh My Sweetness! My students are always so enthralled with these celebrations because some of them are SO different from ours. Not only will they learn about the celebrations, they will also be practicing geography skills, Close Reads, writing, and more! This product has it all for a cross-curricular unit! No fluff here. Just good old learning, with a lot of student interest. Perfect for keeping the natives under control until winter break.

I really hope you enjoy these items. I wanted to show my appreciation for each of you! Be sure to come back here tomorrow to find out which Chalkie is sharing next!

Until next time!

Heather

**Please excuse any typos as I don't have the super power of being perfect :)

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