Day 1
01 Workshop Opener 02 Committing to Equity 03 Break 04 Unit 7 Context 05 U7L1 Lesson Exploration 06 U7L3-4 Lesson Exploration 07 Lunch 08 Unit 7 Conclusions & Connections 09 Introduction to the Create PT 10 Break 11 Planning for Create PT 12 Wrap Up

Session 9: Introduction to the Create Performance Task

50 minutes

discussion-based

Purpose

While participants have heard about the Create Performance Task at a high level, this session is designed to dig deeper into the task so participants understand what students are working toward during this time.

Objectives

  • Participants understand the structure and requirements of the Create Performance Task.
  • Participants gain familiarity with tasks found in the Create Performance Task Survival guide.

Supplies & Prep

Room Setup:

  • None

Facilitator Supplies:

Participant Materials:

Agenda

What is the Create Performance Task? (10 minutes)

Review the Rubric (10 minutes)

Breaking Down the Requirements (30 minutes)

Facilitation Guide

What is the Create Performance Task? (10 minutes)

(3 minutes) Popcorn: What is the Create Performance Task?

💷 Prompt: What do people remember about the Create Performance Task? Popcorn around the room to collect details.

(7 minutes) 💷 Review Create Performance Task

(2 minutes) Use slide to review the basics of the Create Task, including the following:

Goal:

  • Create a program
  • Identify purpose, process, algorithm and abstraction

Process:

  • Students need twelve in class hours for the task

How it connects to the Exam

  • Is 30% of the final score

What to submit:

  • Video of running program
  • PDF of program code
  • Written Responses to prompts 3A-D

(5 minutes) 💷 Written Response Prompts

Have participants read the written response prompts starting on page 6 of the Student Handouts.

  • Participants should:
    • Jot down questions they have as they read the prompts.
    • Look for prompts that are similar to work students have done in the past in the course.
    • Anticipate which sections students may struggle with understanding.

Remarks

We know that the prompts are only part of the story. Let’s also look at the rubric for the task.

Review the Rubric (10 minutes)

(5 minutes) 💷 Read the Rubric

Have participants read the rubric, also known as the "Scoring Guidelines", focusing on the first two columns, “Reporting Category” or “Scoring Criteria” to start. As they review participants should:

  • Highlight portions of the rubric that were surprising.
  • Identify what questions these materials raise.

(5 minutes) 💷 Discussion: Generate Questions

Remarks

💷 Let’s process this together.

Prompts:

  • What aspects of the rubric or directions were surprising to you?
  • What questions does this raise for you?

Take notes in the slides as participants discuss. Make sure to note any strategies or suggestions that participants have that could be useful for future reference.

Remarks

We hope to address these questions this afternoon and give you more experience with the task in general. To start, we are going to look at the Create Performance Task Survival Guide which is found inside Unit 8. While the College Board documents are the ultimate authority on the Create Performance Task, we have pulled out some areas that students and teachers may find confusing. This may address many of your questions.

Breaking Down the Requirements (30 minutes)

Pass out physical copies of the survival guide if available. If not, have participants access the survival guide and make their own digital copy through the slides.

Remarks

💷 The Survival Guide contains an overview on the first page. The first set of activities focuses on the requirements of the program. The second set of activities help students narrow down their project. We are going to focus on the first set of activities now.

💷 (5 minutes) What is Required of My Program? (Page 2)

Have participants read the summary of the program requirements on page 2. The goal of this section should be to highlight the four takeaways in the Survival Guide.

Remarks

Based on these four takeaways, it's clear that students have a lot of freedom in deciding how to design their program. But students really understand the third requirement about our functions, since that one is the most complicated. That may influence their project choice.

(15 minutes) 💷 Function Requirement Activity 1 - Does It Count? (Pages 3-4)

Ask participants to complete the activity on page 3, using the scoring guidelines on page 4. For each of the provided algorithms they need to decide whether the function would earn each row. Give participants roughly 10 minutes to score each of the functions and then take 5 minutes to discuss their work and the main takeaways from this activity.

Discussion Goal

The main takeaways from this activity should be:

  • Some "complicated" looking functions may still not earn both rows if they are missing a component.
  • Two functions may look very similar but because of small differences one will earn full credit while the other will not.
  • The task only includes 6 total points which are graded quickly by a very specific rubric. Knowing what the graders will be looking for gives students the best chance to demonstrate what they know. Use the Create Performance Task Survival Guide - KEY for commentary on individual algorithms.

Discuss: Have participants share and compare their responses with a partner. Afterwards lead a discussion on the patterns they see.

(10 minutes) 💷 Function Requirements Activity 2 - Two Function Calls (Page 5)

Ask participants to complete the activity on page 5. This activity asks them to think through the different ways students might respond to response 3D. Students should brainstorm two possible arguments that could be used with the provided functions. They should then identify the condition that will run differently in each case and the ways the functions will run differently as a result.

Discussion Goal

This activity is designed to help students anticipate how they'll need to respond to prompt 3D and potentially make some decisions about how to design their functions. Here's some things they may notice:

  • It is much more straightforward to answer the question in the second example since the parameter is being used directly in the conditional statement.
  • In either case students should come up with example arguments that run differently from one another.

Discuss: Have participants share and compare their responses with a partner. Afterwards lead a discussion on the patterns they see.

Remarks

When we come back, we are going to practice grading some example projects together. Now that you better understand different parts of the task, we are going to put it all together to make sense of the entire task.