ELA - Common Core Performance Assessment and Weebly

**Credit - The performance assessment referred to in this post was adapted from the original with permission from Gretchen Looney of the Charleston County School District in South Carolina.

This past week, Erika Jordan (@teacha) instructional technology coach, Dr. Barbara Goggans, ELA curriculum coach, and I (@twmcmahon) created a Common Core Performance Assessment for students to complete.  The performance assessment asks students to decide if texting while driving should be banned in South Carolina or not.  There was a bill in the state legislature last term but was not passed.  We will see if it comes up again this term.

The performance assessment asks students to review articles and videos posted in the resource library and take notes about they see and read.  They are also asked to participate in a small group discussion after reviewing the resources.  The final step is to determine their stance on the on the issue, organize their evidence, plan, and write a letter to their state legislator.

I have enjoyed this experience in assistng in creating this performance assessment.  My largest contribution was Erika and I creating the Weebly for the assessment.  For those who have not heard of Weebly, it is a free website builder.  For a free teacher account, you can create 2 websites and have 40 student accounts.  40 student accounts is not a lot but if you group your students this can work.  If you want more student accounts you can purchase 10 at a time for $10.  For high school teachers and some 8th grade teachers, if your students are over 13, they can create their own Weebly's for their use.  This would be great for a student e-portfolio among other uses.

The interface to create a Weebly site is simple.  It has a drop and drag interface with several styles for your webpage.  We use Google's Blogger for this site and the interface for Weebly is much simpler.  There is even a blog feature you can use for a blog or discussion board.

Hope you get a chance to use to check out our Performance Assessment and Weebly.