Stage 4 - Information about Activities
In this website, a range of Stage 4 activities or tasks are presented, and work samples show a range of performance on each activity or task.The majority of Stage 4 activities or tasks are presented as follows:
Description of activity or task
This sets out the requirements of the activity or task providing details of what the students were asked to do. The description also indicates the extent to which the activity or task was structured. In some cases the description presented (which is phrased to students as the audience) was provided to the students in written form. In other cases the activity or task was communicated orally to the students, it really depends on the nature and size of the activity or task as to which communication method is appropriate.
Context
This section summarises previous teaching and learning experiences and how they relate to this activity or task. It also shows where this activity or task fits into the teaching and learning cycle.
Areas for assessment
A list of areas for assessment that are addressed by the activity or task is provided. The areas for assessment for each course are listed with the course performance descriptors. They represent manageable groupings of outcomes that may be used when planning an assessment activity or task or the assessment schedule for a course, or for reporting purposes.
Outcomes
A list of outcomes that are addressed by the activity or task is provided. It is recommended that the outcomes addressed are communicated to the students.
Criteria for assessing learning
Criteria used to assess student performance on the activity or task is provided. Those relate directly to the outcomes addressed by the activity or task. Developing criteria for assessing learning at the same time the activity or task is developed, allows the teacher to be clear on exactly how the activity or task will be assessed. Sharing this criteria with the students allows them to be aware of what to aim for when completing the activity or task and to know exactly what they will be assessed on.
Guidelines for marking
In some cases, guidelines for marking are presented. These show how teachers were able to differentiate, and make consistent judgements about, the quality of student performance in relation to the criteria. In some activities or tasks it may be appropriate to hand these out to the students at the time of the activity or task.
Feedback
The sort of feedback required and the form it will take is described for many activities or tasks. this may be a marksheet, formal report or simple oral feedback to individual students.
Future directions
The future directions section explains how the activity or task could lead to the next step in the teaching and learning cycle.
Resources
Resources that were used with the activity or task are included where appropriate eg. worksheets.