Information Technology

 

Performance Assessment Tasks

 

Version 3.0

 

based on

 

Vermont Information Technology

Grade Expectations

 

Vermont Department of Education

Table of Contents

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction……………………………………………………  pages 3-7

 

 

Grades 1-2 Performance Tasks ………………………………   pages 8-11

 

 

Grades 3-4 Performance Tasks ………………………………   pages 12-19

 

 

Grades 5-6 Performance Tasks ………………………………   pages 20-33

 

 

Grades 7-8 Performance Tasks ……………………………....   pages 34-43

 

 

Grades 9-12 Performance Tasks ……………………………..   pages 44-52

 

 

 

 


 

History

 

The Information Technology Performance Tasks contained in this document were originally created in 2002 by a group of teachers in northwestern Vermont with the support from the Vermont Information Technology Association for the Advancement of Learning (VITA-Learn). Through leadership provided by the Vermont Department of Education, these tasks became the basis of the Information Technology Grade Expectations (GEs). After several meetings were held throughout the state where over a hundred Vermont educators gave their feedback, the final document was redrafted and published. Although the original Performance Tasks provided the basis, significant and substantial changes were made based on the input of Vermont educators who attended those meetings. Finally, led by the Department of Education, the revised Performance Tasks in this document were aligned to the new Technology Grade Expectations.

 

Why Assess Information Technology?

 

Many educators have long held that assessing students’ information technology knowledge and skills should be a part of what every educator does on a regular basis. They believe in the new digital world it is simply the right thing to do. We owe it to our students to be certain they have the digital skills to succeed in the 21st century.  With the advent of No Child Left Behind Act, the need to assess our students became even more clear.

 

‘‘(A) To assist every student in crossing the digital divide by ensuring that every student is technologically literate by the time the student finishes the eighth grade, regardless of the student’s race, ethnicity, gender, family income, geographic location, or disability.

Part D—Enhancing Education Through Technology - SEC. 2402. Purpose and Goals.. Page 404

 

‘‘(1) … to improve the capacity of all teachers teaching in schools served by the local educational agency to integrate technology effectively into curricula and instruction.

            Part D—Enhancing Education Through Technology - SEC. 2414. Local Applications. Page 414

 

In Vermont we are also driven by Act 60 and later Act 68 which states that all standards identified in the Vermont Framework must be assessed annually in each of the framework grade clusters. There are several information technology skills identified in the Vermont Framework.

 

 

Assessing Technology Grade Expectations

 

There are multiple ways of assessing the Information Technology Grade Expectations.  These include traditional methods of testing such as paper and pencil tests (which we don’t recommend), portfolios, purposeful and structured observation, surveys, and Performance Tasks.  This document is about Performance Assessment Tasks.

 

About Performance Tasks

 

Performance Tasks are ones which require students to demonstrate that they have mastered specific skills and competencies by performing or producing something.   This type of assessment provides teachers with information on how a child understands and applies knowledge. In a performance, students construct rather than select responses. Teachers should share scoring criteria for the assessment task with students prior to working on the task

 

There are several different ways to record results of performance-based assessment (Airasian, 1991; Stiggins, 1994)

 

·        Checklist Approach – When using this you only have to indicate whether or not certain elements are present in the performances.

·        Narrative/Anecdotal Approach – When teachers use this, they write narrative reports of what was done during the performance. From these reports, teachers can determine how well their students met the standards.

·        Rating Scale Approach – When teachers use this, they indicate to what degree the standards were met. Usually teachers will use a numeric scale. For instance, one teacher may rate each criterion on a scale of one to five with one meaning “skill barely present” and five meaning “skill extremely well executed.”

·        Memory Approach – When teachers use this, they observe students performing the task without taking any notes. They use the information from their memory to determine whether or not the students were successful. (Please note that this approach is not recommended.)

 

Flexibility of Tasks

 

The Tasks contained in this document are intended to be flexible.  That is, teachers, schools and districts are encouraged to use them in ways that best meet their needs.  They may be used as they are, broken apart and revised or simply used as examples. Some expectations are covered in more than one task.  If all tasks are implemented, all Grade Expectations will be assessed.

 

 

Content Neutral Tasks

 

The Tasks are content neutral.  They may be integrated into multiple content areas.  We strongly encourage teachers to embed them into content in an integrated fashion. The intention is that they will make the curriculum stronger, easier to teach and learn, expand learning opportunities in the present curriculum, and create entirely new opportunities for learning within the content areas that were previously not possible. As we move forward, it is our hope that content-rich examples and benchmarks will be published and made available to all Vermont educators.

 

Task Integration into Content Areas

 

We strongly recommend that these tasks be purposefully tied to curriculum. Schools and districts must embed these tasks throughout the curriculum development cycle, departments, grade level or team meetings

 

Formative or Summative Assessment

 

There is often a fine line between instruction and assessment. Teachers must provide students multiple opportunities to develop the skills noted in the Grade Expectations prior to formal assessment. We suggest that these assessment tasks become the basis for the development of instructional tasks that teachers develop in order to prepare their students for evaluation.

 

There are two types of assessment: Formative and Summative.  Formative assessment often occurs almost simultaneously with instruction.  Its purpose is to provide students with immediate and useful feedback about what they are supposed to know and be able to do. They are often informal and may be embedded directly in the learning experience.

Summative assessments provide a summary of what the student has learned. They usually occur at the end of a lesson or unit of study.  Generally, they are not used to give feedback to students but rather to determine how the individual or group stands up against predefined criteria. The Information Technology Performance Assessment Tasks in this document are intended to be Summative.

 

 

Performance Tasks in the Early Grades

 

There are very few expectations to be assessed in PreK-K.  Consequently, we have not developed Tasks for this level. Primary teachers must look at subsequent grade expectations to have a greater understanding of the learning opportunities they must provide for their students in order to prepare them for assessments in the subsequent grades.

 

 

Referencing the Grade Expectations

 

In the previous edition of the Technology Performance Assessment Tasks, the tasks were followed by a rubric.  It is these rubrics that became the basis for the current Grade Expectations.  The revised Performance Tasks in this document are followed by the actual Grade Expectations that will be assessed in that particular task.  As you will see, they are not in rubric format.  If a school/district wishes to put them in a rubric format, they may want to use the format that was used in the original Performance Task document.  There were three levels to the rubric in that document. Level 1- if a student did not meet the expectation it was noted that they needed assistance to complete that part of the task, Level 2 – if a student met the expectation independently, and Level 3 if a student exceeded the expectation to a degree at or better then the next grade (cluster) level. There are a few places in the Grade Expectations document where the authors of this document have attempted to clarify the expectation. When that is the case it will be italicized and start with… Note.

 

 

Time for Full Implementation

 

Implementation of a successful assessment program does not happen overnight.  Schools/districts should develop an implementation strategy and timeline.  Normally, we should not expect students who have never had instruction using a complicated piece of software to master it and be assessed in the period of one instructional unit… or even in one academic year. Nor can we expect that teachers will extend their units of instruction over long periods of time so that their students are at the mastery level.

 

 

Instructional Guide

 

Students must be given multiple opportunities to develop their “expertise” using technology equipment and applications. Consequently, if students are going to be assessed in a specific grade using certain functions of a software application, the concepts must be introduced and reinforced in previous years. How do we determine what needs to be introduced and reinforced and when this should occur?  Clearly, districts can do this for themselves.  It is our hope to develop a sample Instructional Guide and make it available to all districts in the near future.

 


Tools and Procedures for Collecting, Recording, Managing and Reporting

 


Teachers, schools, and districts must develop tools and procedures for assessing the Technology Grade Expectations. How assessment occurs, using what tools, how the results will be recorded and finally reported are all questions that will need careful consideration. The more standardized the assessments and tools, the greater the chances that your results will be valid and reliable.

 

 

Final Note

 

Not all knowledge and skills in the Grade Expectations are easily assessed in a performance task.  Some are best assessed over time. Consequently, some of the Grade Expectations are not specifically referenced in the performance tasks.  For your convenience, these are listed after the last task in each grade cluster in a table called On-going. Please note that even though these tasks must be assessed over time, it is important to be purposeful about the assessment and document results as you normally would for a performance task.

 


 

 

 

 

 


Technology Performance Assessment Tasks

 

 

 

Grades 1-2

Grade Cluster  1-2     Task # 1

The Grade Cluster & Task #:                        Grade Cluster 1-2, Task # 1

The Product/Performance:                               A Poster

The Components:                                                Visual Organizer, Paint Program

The Task:

Students will create a poster that demonstrates their understanding of a curricular concept that involves more than one stage of development. Once a topic is selected/assigned, students will use a teacher created visual organizer template to organize what they have learned about the topic.

When the initial learning and organizing phase is complete, students will use a Paint program to visually illustrate a progression from one stage of development to the next. Once the “painting” phase is complete, students will add text to their poster. They will use different font sizes and demonstrate their ability to bold face, italicize, and underline.

 

The Rationale: 

It is helpful for students to visualize existing and new ideas and organize them into a form that makes sense.  They can easily adjust this form based on adult input.  Students will use a paint program to create the first visualization of the concept they are trying to demonstrate. Students will build on the initial visualization to create further stages of development.  Changing font sizes, bold facing, etc. can be effectively used in posters to bring emphasis to different aspects of information.

IT1 - Basic Operations & Concepts

Not Assessed in this task

IT2 - Social, Ethical & Human Issues

Not Assessed in this task

IT3 - Productivity Tools

·         Entering, selecting, deleting text

·         Manipulating styles (e.g., bold face, italicize and underline).

·         Illustrating a simple concept using a paint application.

Note: It is suggested you look specifically at students’ ability to effectively use common paint tools such as the line, oval, rectangle, paint brush, text, selection, spray can/air brush, and eraser.

·         Entering information into a teacher created template (e.g. concept map).

Note: Students should demonstrate their ability to add text, change symbols (block to oval, etc.), change color of symbol backgrounds, increase/decrease font sizes, add symbols, add connecting lines to symbols, and manipulate connecting lines between symbols.

IT4 – Communication

Not Assessed in this task

IT5 - Research, Problem Solving & Decision Making

Not Assessed in this task

Glossary:       

Visual Organizer: a software program that is designed to allow students to create and manipulate text (or graphics) through a visual representation of some concept or relationships. They are often referred to mind-maps, cluster maps, etc.

Paint:  A computer application that allows students to sketch directly onto a background palette. The use of pens or brushes and erasers are typical tools in a Paint program.

 

Resources:

Visual Organizers

http://www.bucks.edu/~specpop/visual-org.htm

http://www.nss-nrs.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/NSS.woa/wa/Seminars/detail?id=1000334

http://wwwadmin.cl.uh.edu/itc/course/INST/6031/html/organizers.html

 

Grade Cluster  1-2     Task # 2

The Grade Cluster & Task #:                        Grade Cluster 1-2, Task # 2

The Product/Performance:                               Written sequence of steps

The Components:                                                Word Processing, Basic Operations

 

The Task:                            

Students will create a written sequence of steps using a word processing program.

Students will launch a Word Processing application.  Students will list the steps of a simple procedure. Entering the steps of the (given) procedure students will demonstrate their ability enter and edit text. They will use the proper keys to format and punctuate the text. They will add basic formatting (increase font size and bold face) and alignment (center title using the centering alignment tool). Once approved by their teacher, students will save and print the document. Using their mouse, students use cut/copy/paste (using right-click or click/hold) to rearrange the procedure (out of order), Students switch computers with a partner who will put the procedure in the correct order without using the keyboard.

 

The Rationale:

Ordering or sequencing information can be time consuming and tedious.  The use of electronic tools enables students to manipulate text (in this case) in an efficient manner and allows them to concentrate more fully on the literacy components.

 

IT1 - Basic Operations & Concepts

·         Differentiating between right and left mouse click [Windows] or click, hold, and drag [Mac/Windows], recognizing and using keys: letters, numbers, and space bar, shift, return/enter, punctuation, delete/backspace keys)

·         Launching a program from the desktop using a shortcut or alias.

·         Creating, opening, saving, and printing a document.

·        Cutting, copying, and pasting within a document.

IT2 - Social, Ethical & Human Issues

Not Assessed in this task

IT3 - Productivity Tools

·         Entering, selecting, deleting text

·         Manipulating styles (e.g., bold face, italicize and underline).

IT4 – Communication

Not Assessed in this task

IT5 - Research, Problem Solving & Decision Making

Not Assessed in this task

 

 

Grade Cluster  1-2       On-going

The Grade Cluster & Task #:                        Grade Cluster 1-2, On-going

The Product/Performance:                               No Product/Performance

The Components:                                                Basic Operations, Social, Ethical & Human Issues, Communications

The Task:                                                             No Task

Rationale:                                                            

 

The following Grade Expectations could be assessed over time.  We suggest that you assess these purposefully at various points during the grade cluster and record the results each time. You may find that some are easily embedded into another task.

 

IT1 - Basic Operations & Concepts

·         Using removable media (e.g., floppy disk, CD, DVD)

·         Minimizing applications

·         Logging in and out of a computer.

 

IT2 - Social, Ethical & Human Issues

·         Describing and practicing responsible use of technology (e.g., taking turns using technology equipment)

 

IT3 - Productivity Tools

 

IT4 - Communication

·         Identifying components of multi-media presentations (e.g., title, transitions, sound effects, animation, text and graphics).

 

IT5 - Research, Problem Solving & Decision Making

 

 

Glossary

 

Removable Media: Transportable drives or disks that can be moved easily from one computer to another.

 

 

 

 

 

Technology Performance Assessment Tasks

 

 

 

Grades 3-4

 


 

 


Grade Cluster  3-4     Task # 1

The Grade Cluster & Task #:                        Grade Cluster 3-4, Task # 1

The Product/Performance:                               A Research Presentation

The Components:                                                Basic Operations, Online Research, Multimedia Presentation

The Task:                                            

Students will make a multimedia presentation to class on an assigned or self-selected topic. 

 

Students will research a given or self-selected topic using the school library electronic card catalog, as well as other online and electronic resources including removable media.

 

Students will locate and open a web browser from the desktop. Using the navigation functions of the web browser, students will move to various pre-selected sites to gather information from the Internet. 

 

Rationale:            

Locating relevant information has always been an important skill for students. In the past, their access to information has been limited by local print and oral resources.  Today, students can locate a greater wealth of information in a much more timely fashion using electronic tools. Using the World Wide Web links and addresses provided by their teacher, students can locate pertinent, reliable and safe Internet sites. To enhance the performance, multimedia tools will be used to support the student presentations.

 

IT1 - Basic Operations & Concepts

·         Launching a program from the desktop

IT2 - Social, Ethical & Human Issues

Not assessed in this task

IT3 - Productivity Tools

Not assessed in this task

IT4 - Communication             

·         Creating a slide presentation including title slide, graphics, text, voice, sound related to topic and documentation of sources.

IT5 - Research, Problem Solving & Decision Making

·         Using multiple resources including:

o        Library catalog

o        Electronic resources

o        Internet web pages

·         Navigating to various websites by typing a URL into a browser or using a list of links identified by the teacher.

·         Navigating using forward, back, home, and refresh.

·         Using hyperlinks to navigate the world wide web.

 

Glossary

URL – Universal Resource Locator – a web address

 

Resources

Multimedia –

http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/activities/multimedia/presentations.asp

                http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink/rub.pres.html

                http://www.actden.com/pp/

 

Grade Cluster  3-4     Task # 2

The Grade Cluster & Task #:                        Grade Cluster 3-4, Task # 2

The Product/Performan