Performance Task Title: What Is Advocacy?

Performance Tasks to Support English Language Arts

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Overview
Whole Group Activity
Materials for Students
Materials for Teachers
Appendix: Print-friendly Texts, Notes and Scaffolds

Performance Task Title: What Is Advocacy?

Essential Question:

Task Rational

Through this Performance Task, students build on their study of literary and informational texts to explore contemporary opinions on an issue. By integrating their prior knowledge of literary texts with current
research on a debatable topic, students will demonstrate their Common Core Reading and Writing skills through analysis and argumentative response.

Overview for Performance Task Assessment

Task Overview

Course Content Connections

Additional Essential Questions

Scorable Products

Student Task Part I

Student Task Part II

Standards and Task Specifications

Task Specifications
Title:
Course/Grade Level:
Target Standards / Reading Standards:
Writing Standards:
Other Standards / Language Standards:
Speaking and Listening Standards:
DOK: / 2, 3, 4
Total Possible Score Points: / Up to 10
Possible Adjustments for Students with IEPs or 504s / Students with IEPs may need more scaffolding in addition to the modifications providers by their individual plans.
Possible Adjustments for LEP Students / LEP students may need access to translation dictionaries.
Possible Adjustments for Honors, AP, or IB Students / Advanced students may require a rubric that demands a deeper exploration of the issue’s complexity.
Stimuli: / Quantitative Level of Text Complexity(Flesch-Kincaid)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Value of Task / Students must analyze a varied collection of texts in order to develop an argument in favor of immigration reform that makes it tougher to immigrate or leave.

Whole Group Engage Activity

Teacher Directions

Engage Activity Stimuli & Resources

Title / Link / Important to Know

Materials for Students

Stimulus Set of Texts

Student Directions Part I

Your Assignment

Your Task

Steps to Follow

Research Questions

Note Taking Guide (not scored)

Scorable Constructed Response Prompts

Student Directions Part II

Your Assignment

Response Guidelines

To Begin Work

Materials for Teachers

Teacher Directions

Scoring Rubrics

Scorable Constructed Response Part I

Question 1:

2 Point Rubric
Using Evidence (CCSS RI.7, RI.8, W.7, W.9)
2 / The response gives sufficient evidence of the student’s ability to cite evidence to support arguments and/or ideas.
1 / The response gives limited evidence of the student’s ability to cite evidence to support arguments and/or ideas.
0 / The response receives no credit if it provides no evidence of the student’s ability to cite evidence to support arguments and/or ideas.

Question 2:

2 Point Rubric
Evaluating Sources and Information (CCSS RI.8, W.8)
2 / The response gives sufficient evidence of the student’s ability to evaluate the credibility, completeness, relevancy, and/or accuracy of the information and sources.
1 / The response gives limited evidence of the student’s ability to evaluate the credibility, completeness, relevancy, and/or accuracy of the information and sources.
0 / The response receives no credit if it provides no evidence of the student’s ability to evaluate the credibility, completeness, relevancy, and/or accuracy of the information and sources..
4-Point Argumentative Full Response
4 / 3 / 2 / 1 / NS
Statement of
Purpose / The response is fully sustained and consistently and purposefully focused:
 claim is clearly stated, focused, and strongly maintained
 alternate or opposing claims are clearly addressed
 claim is introduced and communicated clearly within the purpose, audience, and task / The response is adequately sustained and generally focused:
 claim is clear and mostly maintained, though some loosely related material may be present
 context provided for the claim is adequate within the purpose, audience, and task / The response is somewhat sustained and may have a minor drift in focus:
 may be clearly focused on the claim but is insufficiently sustained, or
 claim on the issue may be somewhat unclear and/ / The response may be related to the purpose but may provide little or no focus:
 may be very brief
 may have a major drift
 claim may be confusing or ambiguous / Insufficient, illegible, in a language other than English, incoherent, off-topic, or off-purpose writing
Focus and Organization / The response has a
clear and effective
organizational structure
creating a sense of
unity and
completeness:
 consistent use of a
variety of transitional
strategies to clarify
the relationships
between and among
ideas
 logical progression of
ideas from beginning
to end
 effective introduction
and conclusion for
intended audience
and purpose
 strong connections
among ideas, with
some syntactic variety / The response has an
evident organizational
structure and a sense of
completeness, though
there may be minor
flaws and some ideas
may be loosely
connected:
 adequate use of
transitional strategies
with some variety to
clarify the
relationships between
and among ideas
 adequate progression
of ideas from
beginning to end
 adequate
introduction and
conclusion
 adequate, if slightly
inconsistent,
connection among
ideas / The response has an
inconsistent
organizational
structure, and flaws are
evident:
 inconsistent use of
transitional strategies
and/or little variety
 uneven progression
of ideas from
beginning to end
 conclusion and
introduction, if
present, are weak
 weak connection
among ideas / The response has
little or no
discernible
organizational
structure:
 few or no
transitional
strategies are
evident
 frequent
extraneous ideas
may intrude / Insufficient, illegible, in a language other than English, incoherent, off-topic, or off-purpose writing
Evidence and Elaboration / The response provides
thorough and
convincing
support/evidence for
the writer’s claim that
includes the effective
use of sources, facts,
and details. The
response achieves
substantial depth that is
specific and relevant:
 use of evidence from
sources is integrated,
comprehensive,
relevant, and
concrete
 effective use of a
variety of elaborative
techniques / The response provides
adequate
support/evidence for
the writer’s claim that
includes the use of
sources, facts, and
details. The response
achieves some depth
and specificity but is
predominantly general:
 some evidence from
sources is included,
though citations may
be general or
imprecise
 adequate use of
some elaborative
techniques / The response provides
uneven, cursory
support/evidence for
the writer’s claim that
includes partial or
uneven use of sources,
facts, and details. The
response achieves little
depth:
 evidence from
sources is weakly
integrated, and
citations, if present,
are uneven
 weak or uneven use
of elaborative
techniques / The response
provides minimal
support/
evidence
for the writer’s
claim that includes
little or no use of
sources, facts, and
details:
 Use of evidence
from sources is
minimal, absent,
incorrect, or
irrelevant / Insufficient, illegible, in a language other than English, incoherent, off-topic, or off-purpose writing
Effect on Audience / The response clearly
and effectively
expresses ideas, using
precise language:
 use of academic and
domain-specific
vocabulary is clearly
appropriate for the
audience and
purpose / The response adequately expresses ideas, employing a mix of precise with more general language:
use of domain-specific vocabulary is generally appropriate for the audience and purpose / The response expresses ideas unevenly, using simplistic language:
use of domain-specific vocabulary may at times be inappropriate for the audience and purpose / The response’s
expression of ideas
is vague, lacks
clarity, or is
confusing:
 uses limited
language or
domain-specific
vocabulary
 may have little
sense of
audience and
purpose / Insufficient, illegible, in a language other than English, incoherent, off-topic, or off-purpose writing
2- Point Argumentative Full Response
Conventions
2 / 1 / NS
The response demonstrates an adequate command of conventions:

errors in usage and sentence formation may be present, but no systematic pattern of errors is displayed and meaning is not obscured
adequate use of punctuation, capitalization, and spelling

/ The response demonstrates a partial command of conventions:

errors in usage may obscure meaning
inconsistent use of punctuation, capitalization

/ Insufficient, illegible, in a language other than English, incoherent, off-topic, or off-purpose writing

Adapted from Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium Grade 11 Performance Task

Printable Resources & Scaffolds

Aligned to and