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Performance assessment shells and global issue overviews
The document discusses using performance assessment shells and global issue overviews to create globally-focused educational modules that encourage meaningful learning. It includes activities centered around engaging projects, student-centered tasks, and reflection questions for educators on teaching global issues. The aim is to enhance students' understanding of global competence through structured assessments and relevant global topics.
Performance assessment shells and global issue overviews
- 1. Performance Assessment Shells andGlobal Issue Overviews
- 2. Essential Question How canyou use the Performance Assessment Shells and Global Issues Overviews to develop high-quality, globally-focused modules that support meaningful learning?
- 3. 3 The Four Domainsof Global Competence
- 4. Performance Assessment Shells andGlobal Issues Overviews
- 5. 5 Activity: Engaging Projects Whatwas the project? What made it engaging? How did you get involved in the project?
- 6. 6 Student-centered Authentic Task Globally Significant Exhibitionto a Real Audience Student-centered Authentic Task Globally Significant Exhibition to a Real Audienc Performance Assessments S A G E
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- 9. 9 Taking a CloserLook: Global Issues Overview
- 10. 10 Enduring Understandings &Enduring Questions
- 11. 11 Questions for Reflectionand Discussion What are your past experiences with teaching global issues? How did your students relate to your instruction on global issues? What do you think your students most need to learn in terms of global issues and/or global competence? Are there any upcoming lesson plans that particularly lend themselves to a global issues focus?
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- 13. 13 Taking a CloserLook: Performance Assessment Shell
- 14. 14 Select one ofthe Performance Assessment Shells: Thinking about your students’ prior knowledge, identify the formative tasks you would skip and those you would use. How will you modify various learning activities in this Assessment Shell to meet the needs of your students?
- 15. Activity: Choose YourGlobal Issue and Performance Assessment Shell
- 16. 16 Matching Performance Shellwith Global Issue Students will write a position paper arguing for a policy change connected to water access. Students will write create an infographic to communicate specific data about to several prevalent infectious diseases.
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- 19. 19 Reflection and Discussion Howdoes your GPS module reflect global competence? What are your next steps?
Editor's Notes
- #3 The Essential Question around which this module has been designed is: How can you use the Performance Assessment Shells and Global Issues Overviews to develop high-quality, globally-focused modules that support meaningful learning
- #4 Before we move in to Unit 7, let’s get oriented again and refresh our common GPS language.. In Module 1, you learned about the four disciplines of global competence. These are the big-idea competencies we look for students to demonstrate as they progress in the GPS performance system. Remember, the four disciplines are Investigate the World, Recognize Perspectives, Communicate Ideas, and Take Action. It’s been awhile since we first talked about this, so I just want to pause and see if anyone has any lingering questions about the four disciplines, or have a story they want to share that relates to the four disciplines? Later on, we’ll watch a video featuring another ISSN school that has been working with GPS for several years. You’ll get to see some evidence that the four disciplines are woven into classroom practice and have really become part of the school’s culture. So I want to make sure we have plenty of opportunities to develop your fluency in them.
- #5 Facilitator Notes: In this unit, participants will spend a few moments learning about performance assessment. Then, they will choose a global issue overview and one of the performance assessment shells around which to build their GPS modules. Some participants may express a desire to work with a different issue or type of performance assessment; however in this foundational year, you should strongly encourage them to use the tools provided in order to thoroughly learn the discipline of designing a GPS module, and to be able to focus on how the quality components connect in a module. Assure participants that after they have the experience of designing one GPS module, they will have plenty of opportunity to design custom GPS modules and receive feedback from you and their peers. You can locate participants’ prior experience with performance assessments and teaching global issues after watching the video, then connect the direct instruction with real experience. You may also want to help participants recall what they learned about the difference between a competence and a standard in Module 1. Be sure to make these connections overtly, so participants relate what they are learning in this unit to what they have done in the past. Some questions for discussion could be: How many have worked with performance assessments in the past? What are some observations about the results you got from working with performance assessments? What was difficult or challenging? What was easy or rewarding? What are some questions or concerns you have about performance assessments? What are some of your experiences teaching global issues? Participants will use a storyboard template to record notes and organize their work in designing their GPS modules. There is not enough time in the unit for them to complete their storyboards, or their GPS modules. Activities are designed to show them how to enter information in the storyboard template. You will want to emphasize that designing a GPS module is an iterative process, and they will go through multiple revisions. Show them where to access the template on the Ning, so they can print as many copies as they need. Sometimes, facing the blank template creates a sense of overwhelm, lack of time, or insufficient knowledge. Encourage participants not to try to eat the elephant in one big bite, but to use the storyboard template to break it into smaller, manageable bites. In Unit 7, you are going to be able to do some hands-on work to get your GPS module started! Remember, a GPS module consists of a global issue, a set of outcomes and rubrics, instructional activities and formative tasks, and a summative performance assessment. In this unit, you’ll be given some tools and the time to use those tools to choose your global issue and a performance assessment, and to take the first steps in designing your GPS module.
- #6 Facilitator Notes The goal of this icebreaker is to allow participants to begin defining for themselves what performance assessment is. By thinking of a project they enjoyed, they are recalling a time when they were accountable for their own learning, even if they were guided by a mentor or teacher. They are also recalling that they learned and applied knowledge, skill, and behavior, and that they produced some kind of product. Let people pair with their neighbors for this activity, and give them about five minutes to chat about the questions on the slide. Let them know this is a brief activity, so they should just hit the highlights in telling each other about the project they are remembering. By doing this activity, participants will connect personal experience to what makes project based learning so engaging, and how performance assessments can be so successful. After the pairs conclude, use a whiteboard or flip chart to note some of the commonalities people identified about what made it engaging. As a warm up, I’d like you think about a moment when you were deeply engaged in a project. This can be a work project, something you did as a hobby, or anything else you can think of. Does everyone have a project in mind? Great. Now, turn to a neighbor and tell each other about this project. Offer your thoughts about the questions up on the board. We’ll just take five minutes to do this, so make it a snapshot rather than an analysis! When we come back together, I’ll ask you to identify what you both noticed, and we’ll put those ideas up on the whiteboard. Ready? Go! What was the project? What made it engaging? How did you get involved in the project? Take about 5 minutes for this activity. [CLICK TO ADVANCE AT CONCLUSION OF EXERCISE]
- #7 Let’s be clear about what a performance assessment is. [CLICK TO ANIMATE] It’s student-centered. That means students have choice in at least some areas, so they can work on something that matters to them. Students are also accountable for their own learning; they don’t passively receive knowledge from their teachers, rather they go out and pursue knowledge under the guidance and mentorship of their teachers. [CLICK TO ANIMATE:] It involves an authentic task, something a student could imagine needing to do as a professional in the real world. That means the task is relevant and meaningful to students’ real lives. [CLICK TO ANIMATE:] Globally significant. That means it deals with a real problem that has global impact. Most problems fit this definition, because everything is connected in the modern world. We want students to see those connections and appreciate how their day to day lives are linked with the lives of others. [CLICK TO ANIMATE:] And exhibition to a real audience. When you all did your projects, I heard many of you say you were proud to show them off. It’s motivating to show what you can do. Do these look familiar? Anyone recognize them? Right. [CLICK TO ANIMATE – “S-A-G-E” LIGHT UP IN ORANGE:] It’s the SAGE framework. And one more thing. Performance assessments are about both process and product. The process of learning and improvement is an integral part of performance assessment. There are multiple opportunities to improve and many different ways to show mastery. The product is the exhibition, the thing that students make and show to demonstrate their accumulated mastery.
- #8 Your First GPS Module Over the course of this workshop, and working independently when the workshop ends, you will begin writing your first GPS module. The core of your module will be a performance assessment that will allow your students to learn and practice specific global competencies and then exhibit those competencies to a real audience for evaluation and feedback. As we just discussed, performance assessments work particularly well with global competencies because they give students multiple opportunities to apply their knowledge and skill to a real and relevant global issue. Performance assessments can be used with elementary, middle, and secondary students. For your first GPS module, you’ll be working with one of the four performance assessment shells designed by Asia Society. A shell is a modular framework that gives guidance for working with students on a specific type of performance assessment. Suggested activities are provided, but the shell does not include lesson plans—that is the work you’ll be doing.
- #10 Direct Instruction: Summary of Global Issues As you can see, a wide range of content can be used with these performance assessment shells. For your first GPS module, you will be using one of the four Global Issue Overviews developed by Asia Society. The topics are: Infectious Disease Clean Water Human Population Growth Resource Conservation All of these issues are globally significant because they foster the capacity to connect local issues to global issues, and they are grounded in robust disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge. They also have visible global significance. Students of all ages will be able to recognize the impact of each of these topics on their own lives, and can be encouraged to see the topics as relevant and meaningful. The purpose of these overviews is not to provide a holistic overview of any particular globally significant issue. There is no need for you to be an expert on a global issue in order to build a GPS module around it. Rather, you bring your teaching expertise to the topic in order to adapt it to the subject you are teaching. Each overview provides ideas on how the issue can be taught in various subject areas and grade levels. You will see one ELA, one math, and one science example in each overview. These ideas are starters to help you connect the issue to standards, skills, and knowledge you are already planning to teach. Two important features of the overviews are Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions. These may not be familiar terms to you, and are worth some attention.
- #11 Enduring understandings are big picture ideas and concepts that students will explore and that should remain with them long after they may have forgotten specific details. These are different from learning objectives, which are meant to be measurable and specific. Enduring understandings represent deeper learning that goes beyond standards and memorization and have a permanent impact on a student’s worldview. Essential Questions are the focus of a performance assessment. They are complex, thought-provoking, and open-ended, and they create the space for genuine inquiry. They call for higher-order thinking, such as analysis, evaluation, or prediction, and can’t be answered by simple recall alone. They often give rise to more questions, and responding to them requires support and justification, not simply an answer. Good essential questions can be revisited time and again, because learning more about the topic causes the response to the question to evolve. The Global Issue Overviews provide enduring understandings and essential questions so you can see good examples of them and also use them and experience the results they generate in your students. Using the ones provided allows you to focus this first GPS module design on the design itself. Later, as you design more modules, you may want to delve into designing your own enduring understandings and essential questions.
- #12 Questions for Reflection and Discussion [CLICK TO ANIMATE:] What are your past experiences with teaching global issues? [CLICK TO ANIMATE:] How did your students relate to your instruction on global issues? [CLICK TO ANIMATE:] What do you think your students most need to learn in terms of global issues and/or global competence? [CLICK TO ANIMATE:] Are there any upcoming lesson plans that particularly lend themselves to a global issues focus?
- #13 The four performance assessments to be explored in this unit are: [CLICK TO ANIMATE:] Position Paper: Create and share a paper that takes a strong position on an issue of global significance, using evidence to support one’s position [CLICK TO ANIMATE:] Infographic: Create and share an infographic that takes a strong position and communicates data effectively on an issue of global significance [CLICK TO ANIMATE:] Public Speaking: Write and deliver a speech that communicates a strong position on an issue of global significance [CLICK TO ANIMATE:] Event Planning: Plan (and potentially implement) a social action event that is connected to a global issue Each shell has cross-disciplinary applications, so you can choose the shell that works best for your subject and grade level. The shells provide extensive guidance for teaching each performance assessment, so if this is your first time with performance assessment, or if you have prior experience but have been disappointed with your students’ quality of work, you’ll have plenty of support going forward.
- #14 Identify structure of PAS. Need to include image of one of the PASs
- #15 Thinking about your students’ prior knowledge, identify the formative tasks you will skip and those you will use. For each task, how will you modify the learning activities to meet the needs of your students? To begin answering these questions, use the Code The Text Protocol. Once you have finished Code The Text, you can fill in some of the information in the Formative Task sections beginning on page 2 of the storyboard template. You can also fill in the Enduring Understandings and one Essential Question of your choice on the Storyboard Template. If you get stuck or find the template difficult to use, don’t worry! Ask questions whenever you need to. Do the best you can, make notes, and be assured that in the next unit you will get more practice and become more familiar with how to put the pieces together. Creating a GPS module is an iterative process. It evolves and improves every time you work on it.
- #16 Activity: Choose Your Global Issue and Performance Assessment Shell Get out a copy of the Storyboard Template. Think of this as an organization tool for the decisions you make about your GPS Module. You will go through several drafts, and you can always download a clean copy of the template on the Ning. You’ll do some of the work on this storyboard here in Units 7 and 8, but a lot of it will be drafted outside these sessions. Take about ten minutes now to review the performance assessment shells and the global issue overviews, and choose one of each for your GPS module design. Then go ahead and fill in the first three lines at the top of the Storyboard.
- #17 Include multiple examples with logo for each GIO and PAS chosen. Example: Business Plan + Clean Water. Students will create a business plan addressing the need for clean water
- #19 Reflection and Close Before closing, take some time to reflect on the professional development module you just completed. As a reminder, it started with an essential question and a set of learning objectives.
- #20 Questions for Reflection and Discussion Prepare a short written reflection about this professional development module, focusing on the following question: How does your GPS module reflect global competence? Rejoin the larger group and share some thoughts from your reflection.