Artifact #4: WWI Primary Document Packet (Field)

Goals: 2, 3
Standards: 1, 2, 3, 4
Based upon the information presented to me at a professional development conference I attended at Oakland
Schools, I was influenced to create a performance task for my students. The task is entitled WWI Primary
Document Analysis Packet and it requires students to read and analyze several primary sources from the time
period, answer several reading comprehension questions about their understanding of the material, respond to
several short answer questions (again designed to check for their understanding and reading comprehension)
and the task culminates with the students writing a formal essay on the topic. These types of student
performance tasks also allow the teacher to identify shortcomings on the part of the student along the way. By
monitoring the students responses to the reading comprehension questions the classroom teacher can identify
and intervene when they notice a particular student does not understand the text. I have my students click-in
their answers to the reading comprehension so that I can quickly gauge their comprehension. Having these types
of checks for understanding built-in improves the students chances of success in learning the material.
These student performance tasks also represent how I have changed my approach to teaching literacy within my
content. Teaching my students how to analyze primary sources has always been a part of my classroom
instruction but these particular tasks show how I have refined and expanded this aspect of my curriculum
development and instruction. I also model how to read and analyze these primary sources for my students using
a lot of the effective reading comprehension strategies I learned while taking TE846. These types of student
performance tasks are explained in greater detail in my synthesis paper.