Performance-Based Learning: Aligning Experiential Tasks and Assessment to Increase Learning

"Provides excellent, thorough examples of lessons for classroom use. The lessons follow a user-friendly pattern and include outstanding rubrics that can be adapted easily by the teacher."
―Debra Rose Howell, Teacher
Monte Cristo Elementary, Granite Falls, WA

"Gives educators new to performance learning a broad collection of examples for using this model. The sample lessons are tied to learning standards and incorporate a myriad of different modalities."
―Rachel Moreno, Associate Professional Specialist
University of Notre Dame

Motivate students and increase their achievement with high-interest learning tasks!

Teachers can promote long-lasting learning, build higher-order thinking skills, develop individual student accountability, and increase student achievement by incorporating performance learning tasks into the curriculum. In this second edition of Performance-Based Learning, Sally Berman demonstrates how this model can be modified for learners at different grade and ability levels, and offers an abundance of sample lesson plans that show how to use performance-based learning throughout the content areas.

The updated edition includes an expanded discussion of cooperative learning teams, a new section on how to design effective performance-based learning activities, and a collection of reproducible masters for planning and implementation. Chapters with lesson plans include:

• A performance task to use as is or adapt for specific student groups
• The curriculum standards related to the task
• Reflection guidelines to help students evaluate their learning
• Web resources for planning and implementing performance learning tasks

New and veteran teachers alike will use this detailed resource again and again to plan activities that engage students and inspire them to become invested in their own learning.

Sally Berman specializes in teaching educators how to use practical strategies that expand student teamwork, cognition, metacognition, and self-evaluation skills. She developed and tested many of her ideas during her 30 years of teaching science in a large Chicago-area high school. Berman regularly presents at workshops and conferences and has taught graduate courses for SkyLight Professional Development in conjunction with St. Xavier University and Cumberland University.