Key questions to introduce the Performance Task

It might be helpful to ask the following sorts of questions, especially if the student is unsure as to where to start:

  • Have you read the problem carefully?
  • What information in the problem seems particularly important?
  • What mathematics do you see in this task?
  • How will you represent the information? Using numbers, diagrams, algebra …. ?
  • Can you try out any special cases of the numbers and variables to get a feel for the structure of the problem? (for secondary teachers)

Individual Student Response & Reflections

  • Students should be given the time they need to finish the assessment
  • Students may use a variety of appropriate mathematical materials and resources to support their ability to demonstrate and communicate the level of their thinking and understanding around the concepts and competencies of questions and tasks.
  • Students should have choices about how they represent and solve mathematics questions and tasks.

Student Reflections

  • Teachers will need to explain the right hand column of the Individual Student Response sheets.
  • The right hand column is the space for students to provide a description of their thoughts in relation to the items (questions/tasks) of the assessment. It may be helpful for teachers to suggest that students provide brief reflections on … what they felt confident about, what didn’t make sense, how they were able to create their own way of making sense of a task, or to share which question(s) really stretched their thinking.
  • Students do not need to write a reflection for each item of the assessment. They may wish to choose examples of questions which students felt confident with, those that provided particular challenges, and/or those that were interesting and/or engaging.
  • During the piloting of this assessment, teachers may wish to make some of their own reflections on how students respond to the challenges provided, what seemed to create difficulties for several students, or identify any patterns that were surprising while the observed students working through the assessment tasks.