Sample Performance Tasks for Informational Texts: History/Social Studies Mathematics and Technical Subjects Grades 9-10
Students compare the similarities and differences in point of view in works by Dee Brown and Evan Connell regarding the Battle of Little Bighorn, analyzing how the authors treat the same event and which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts. [RH.9–10.6]Students analyze the role of African American soldiers in the Civil War by comparing and contrasting primary source materials against secondary syntheses such as Jim Haskins’s Black, Blue and Gray: African Americans in the Civil War. [RH.9–10.9]Students determine the meaning of words such as quadrant, astrolabe, equator, and horizon line in Joan Dash’s The Longitude Prize as well as phrases such as dead reckoning and sailing the parallel that reflect social aspects of history. [RH.9–10.4]Students cite specific textual evidence from Annie J. Cannon’s “Classifying the Stars” to support their analysis of the scientific importance of the discovery that light is composed of many colors. Students include in their analysis precise details from the text (such as Cannon’s repeated use of the image of the rainbow) to buttress their explanation. [RST.9–10.1].Students determine how Jearl Walker clarifies the phenomenon of acceleration in his essay “Amusement Park Physics,” accurately summarizing his conclusions regarding the physics of roller coasters and tracing how supporting details regarding the processes of rotational dynamics and energy conversion are incorporated in his explanation. [RST.9–10.2]Students read in Phillip Hoose’s Race to Save Lord God Bird about the attempts scientists and bird-lovers made to save the ivory-billed woodpecker from extinction and assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence Hoose presents supports his scientific analysis of why protecting this particular species was so challenging. [RST.9–10.8]