K-12 performance tasks in 

Students will take on the role of a literary critic. Upon hearing that people are reading less for pleasure, the literary critic (student) is moved to take action. The literary critic decides to create an informative podcast to encourage high school students to read. The podcast will focus on the development of a theme in the selected short story, as themes are universal. A peer will need to help by taking on the role of interviewer, but the literary critic will be responsible for writing. The podcast will be recorded and shared with the class on Flip. Every student is responsible for taking on the full role of literary critic. They will help one another as interviewers to make the podcast possible.

Students are being hired as engineers to help build two amusement park rides (rollercoaster and ferris wheel) for a new amusement park in Massachusetts. They have to use what they know about quadratics and polynomial operations, and their graphs to help them create these rides. Students will work in groups of 2 where each student will either design the rollercoaster, or ferris wheel for one rotation.

Students imagine they want to speak only French for the next year, but also want to travel the world. To achieve both of these goals, they make a plan to travel to a different francophone city each month (or season). They pick the cities they will travel to based on the weather in each city at that time of year and the types of activities they could do in that weather. Finally, they present all the information as a brochure, booklet, or poster.

Students will create a receipt that shows the items they purchased at a store or restaurant within a $100 budget. The receipt must include a subtotal, the appropriate tax (either 6.25% sales tax or 6.25% sales tax plus a 0.75% local meal tax), and the final total cost of their outing.

After reading a variety of texts related to reading challenges, students will choose one book to examine. They will create a poster (paper or digital) showing the central message of the text with key details. Students will then share those posters with a mixed group, discuss common central messages, and write a letter to a chosen audience about the overall central message and why it is important. Note: This task is designed to be implemented at the end of EL Education Module 1, Unit 2, but could be replicated with alternative texts.

Students will examine the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and choose 2 rights that they believe have been violated in Esperanza Rising (students should have read at least half of the book prior to the task). Students will select quotes from the text to support their claim, and explain how those rights have been violated. Students can choose the structure of their work (ex: essay, slideshow, poster, video) and will share with peers for feedback. Note: This task is designed to accompany Expeditionary Learning (2025) Grade 5, Module 1, Unit 1 with the text Esperanza Rising, but could be adapted to connect to any grade level text that depicts human rights violations.

Students read reviews of restaurants on the French version of TripAdvisor. Then, they write a review for a restaurant they've been to, explaining what they like or don't like about it and why.

Archimedes wanted to know how many grains of sand there were in the universe, so he researched and calculated the answer. While performing his calculations, he devised a new system of writing numbers - scientific notation. We use scientific notation to represent and calculate with very large or very small numbers, which has a variety of applications in the real world. In this task, students will emulate Archimedes, but with a twist! They will work with a partner to choose a topic with very large or very small numbers that would warrant using scientific notation. They will then write two questions about the topic, research and calculate the answer to the questions, and complete a comparative analysis of the calculations.

Students act as business owners who will be opening their own restaurant in Milford, MA serving their favorite foods. The restaurant will be open from 7 am to 9 pm and serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Students' task is to create a name for their restaurant, decide where it is going to be located in their hometown, what food it is going to serve, what kind of restaurant it is going to be, and justify their choices. They will need to create a menu of three options for each meal, including apps, main meal, dessert, and beverage. They will also need to create a recipe for one meal, including the amount of each ingredient and how to prepare the recipe. Finally, they will act as restaurant owners and present their restaurant to potential investors.

Students manage a budget to spend on games, rides, and snacks at the fair. Each item has a specific cost, and students must decide how to spend their money wisely while keeping track of their purchases. They will apply math skills to plan their purchases, keep track of costs, and stay within budget. In addition, they must choose what coins to use for some of their choices. The activity provides a real-world scenario that engages students in practical money management and reinforces addition and subtraction fluency.