My First New Idea: Worthwhile Wednesday Task

Yay!!! I have completed one of the plethora of ideas that have been filling my "To Do For Next Year" list in my Ideas Notebook....

Why this idea was necessary....
We have been teaching Common Core for two years, and I have created all of our curriculum.... The first year was the hardest, but we just jumped in and pieced it together...  Last summer, I rearranged the entire pacing from the first year and made all new curriculum. Last year,( the second year) went so much better.

The first year, we taught Common Core, but took the CST.  Last year, we opted out of the CST and focused on Common Core.... In the Spring our 8th Graders took the SBAC Practice Test and Field Test... Wow, what an eye opener.So much different than old school testing.

On the upside, it was great to see that we were definitely on the right track with our curriculum, but I also saw that it still needs some tweaks, (which I am working on this summer)...  On the downside, I realized how unprepared the students really were. They completely forgot all of the first semester concepts. When they got to the Performance Task it seemed so overwhelming. So I knew I had to figure how to solve that problem.... I had to figure out a way to make sure they were more prepared....

And that is where my new idea comes in... :o)  Worthwhile Wednesday .... Every Wednesday the students will do a structured performance task containing multiple concepts within the task. The performance tasks will be focused on past concepts to help the students retain what they have learned.  In the beginning the performance tasks will be guided and we will model how to think and work through a performance task. After that the students will complete the tasks independently.

This is the page from my Flipchart that I will display. I made an acronym for TASK....

This is a new idea, and I am excited to try it and I am hoping it works. I will be posting throughout the year about Worthwhile Wednesdays...

My goal is to have the students comfortable with the new way of testing and feel like "I Got This", and not "OMG, What is this?"...