Savannah Reeves, Mary Ball, Ashley Bologna, Lindsey Johnson, Ejana Bennett

Unit/Lesson Topic: Life Processes/Life Cycle of a Frog Stage 2 Performance Task

(Make sure your performance task is authentic and real world based.) GRASPS. The goal states the purpose of the task; the role explains student involvement in the scenario; the audience identifies the people the students address; the situation explains the scenario; the product is the tangible evidence of student understanding; and the standards/criteria describes how students can complete the task successfully.

The student will understand (1) Living organisms have certain characteristics that distinguish them from nonliving objects including growth, movement, response to the environment, having offspring, and the need for food, air, and water (2) all living things grow, breathe, reproduce, excrete, respond to stimuli, and have similar basic needs like nourishment (3) animals change as they grow by observing the lifecycle of a frog Scientist/researcher, caretaker, park ranger

Visitors to a local nature park Students become scientists as they observe the life cycle of a real frog. They then take on the role of a park ranger as they publish a pamphlet explaining their findings. Students will write/draw in their research diary once per week. Every Friday a pair of two students will be responsible for making an illustration for the week which will be hung on the board to remind them of the changes the frogs have gone through. Finally, at the end of the unit students will make a pamphlet based on their findings which they will publish give to a local nature park to pass out to children who are the same age and want to learn about frogs. The student will be responsible for taking care of the tadpole as it grows into a frog, making a biweekly journal with their observations, and helping to create a pamphlet detailing the lifecycle of a frog.

Performance Task Narrative:

(A park ranger from a local nature park will come visit the class and talk about the job they do and the animals that they take care of. Lifecycles have been previously introduced. The students have already read and discussed a non-fiction book about the lifecycle of a frog during large group story time.) Teacher: We have been talking about the different lifecycles of plants and animals. Now we know a lot about how a tadpole grows and changes into a frog, but other people might not know as much as you. They are depending on you to become scientists and tell them about how frogs grow! We will observe tadpoles turning into frogs in our classroom this year. You will write in a research diary every week. You can draw pictures and write about what you see. You will also be taking care of the tadpoles as they grow. There is a job chart on the board and when it is your week, you will feed the tadpole. Check the job chart. When it is your turn, you and a partner will make a picture about what you see that week to hang up on the board. Then you will tell the class what you learned. When our tadpoles have become frogs, you will have to think like a park ranger, just like the one who visited our class! Together we will make a pamphlet about the life cycle of a frog to give to the local nature park so kids just like you can learn about how frogs grow! Additionally (and throughout) Do you have any questions? Please raise your hand if you did not understand anything. Can someone repeat the directions back to me? During the first week, the teacher will model taking care of the tadpoles, writing in his or her research diary, and creating a picture based on the findings for the week. The teacher will put his or her name card in the caretaker pocket and model feeding the tadpoles. This week it is my turn to take care of the tadpoles. I will feed the tadpoles by just taking a tiny pinch of food. I dont want to give them too much or their tank will get dirty! The teacher will model writing in a research diary. Now I need to observe the tadpoles. Wow, they are really tiny! They look like black dots, so I can draw that in my research diary. And underneath my picture I will try to write black dot. The teacher will put his or her name card in the author pocket. Now it is my turn to make a picture about what we observed this week. I can look back on what I wrote in my research diary this week. If I had a partner, I would talk to my friend about what we should do. I will very neatly and carefully copy what I wrote in my research diary on this paper. Now it is finally time to make the pamphlet. Student partners will each illustrate one part of the lifecycle that they observed. They will write their observations below the picture. The teacher will scan the illustrations and type the corrected student writing below the pictures. The teacher will use the computer to put it all together as a pamphlet. The pamphlet will be distributed to the nature center, and the students will end the unit with a field trip to the nature center where they will become park rangers (You are the park rangers now!) and introduce/hand out the finished pamphlet to visitors.

(The students will be observing tadpoles grow into frogs as they learn about the lifecycles of living things. The research diaries are not meant to take much time each week, and are instead a tool so that the students will remember what they observed. The weekly illustration/explanation of what the students learned should also take minimal time. The illustrations will be put up on the board in so the students can look at them and have a daily reminder of what is happening. This is also practice for the pamphlet illustrations. Once they finally make their pamphlet, they will have a lot of information to look back on.)

Facets of Understanding Use of Facets in this Unit / Lesson (discussion of how the students will be able meet the 6 facets through your performance task) Facets of Understanding Use of Facets in this Unit / Lesson (discussion of how the students will be able meet the 6 facets through your performance task)

Explanation- theories which provide justifiable accounts of events, actions, and ideas

The students will explain the necessary elements a tadpole needs to live and grow.

Interpretation Interpretations, narratives, and translations that provide meaning

The students will analyze why/why not the tadpole grew that week.

Application Ability to use knowledge effectively in new situations and diverse contexts

The student will apply their knowledge of frogs life cycle and changes to the task of creating a pamphlet that illustrates these stages.

Perspective Critical and insightful points of view

The student will work from the perspective of a scientist/park ranger to gather information about the life cycle of a frog and work to inform their peers about the basic needs of frogs.

Empathy The ability to get inside another persons feelings and worldview

The students will discuss the consequences that follow if the tadpoles basic needs are not met daily.

Self-knowledge The wisdom to know ones ignorance and how ones patterns of thought and action inform as well as prejudice understanding

The student will reflect on their journal entries by revising their entries to make sure all observed information is correct and neatly written.

Continuum for Assessing Student Products/Performances

Beginning Developing Accomplished Exemplary Score

Research Diary

Writing random symbols/markin gs Illustration scribble, not much attention to neatness, could be a random drawing

Writing all letters, print represents ideas, a few words Illustration close to being on topic, represents specific objects/animals

Caretaking Jobs/Reporting to the class

Completes job inconsistently Very uncomfortable speaking in front of peers, needs to be prompted with

Completes job most of the time More comfortable speaking in front of peers, needs to be prompted with a few questions by the teacher, answers with

Writing sentence fragment or short sentence accurately completes the sentence prompt/answers the questions Illustration - realistic colors, realistic presentation of subject (size, physical characteristics), corresponds to the sentence prompt/questions Completes all assigned jobs Comfortable speaking in front of peers, needs very few prompting questions from the teacher, speaks in phrases or short

Writing longer sentence, provides details, gives more than a simple response Illustration provides details, gives more than a simple response to the sentence prompt/questions

Completes all assigned jobs with special attention, completes other jobs if students forget Very comfortable/natural speaking in front of

many questions by the teacher, answers with one or two words or just by shaking/noddin g head Pamphlet Writing print corresponds to 2-3 stages of the life cycle Illustration represents 2-3 stages of the life cycle

a few words

sentences, uses some subject-specific vocabulary

peers, reports independently without assistance from the teacher, speaks in longer sentences, uses many subject-specific vocabulary words, Writing print describes all stages of the life cycle and includes details Illustration represents all stages of the life cycle and includes details

Writing print corresponds to 3-4 stages of the life cycle Illustration represent 3-4 stages of the life cycle

Writing print describes all stages of the life cycle accurately Illustration represents all stages of the life cycle accurately

*The chart above is to be used as more of a continuum rather than a rubric. For example, a single product may fall into one category based on writing and one category based on reading, so a continuum provides the flexibility of assessing components of a product differently.

Other assessments: (observations, quizzes, reflections) (1) Living things/not living things sort The student will cut out the pictures at the bottom of the page and glue them onto the paper, sorting all things that are living on one side of the table, and all things that are not living on the other. This will illustrate that the student understands what constitutes a living thing as opposed to a nonliving thing. (2) Matching adult living things to their offspring

The student will color the animals and insects on the worksheet. After the student has finished coloring the animals, he or she can cut out the boxes and on a separate sheet of paper, glue the mother animal next to the baby animal. The animals on the worksheet include a tadpole and frog, caterpillar and butterfly, piglet and pig, and a cub and lion. In this way, the student will demonstrate knowledge that offspring often look different but similar to their parents. (3) Parts of a plant The student will demonstrate their knowledge of plants by labeling the parts of the plant on the worksheet and by coloring in the parts of the plant as the teacher gives oral instructions of which part to make which color. To show their understanding, the student will then orally describe to the teacher how each part of the plant corresponds to something the plant needs to survive (nutrients, sunlight, etc).