SUMMATIVE PERFORMANCE TASK
What Role Does Money Play in Community Problem-Solving?
OUTLINE
*For more detailed instructions, see the full lesson plan.
The students will consider the economic decisions that will contribute to the success of their solution plans. They will create “pitches” for their plans related to cost-benefit analysis.
Specific parameters for this activity can be found here.
No matter where your students are at with their solution plans,they can still do this assessment.
Depending on when this lesson is taught in relation to other lessons (and whether or not your students are even completing the Solution Plan Project), the students may or may not already have solution plans in the works. If they do, they should use their plans for this assessment. If not, they will need to identify a community problem they would like to solve before proceeding.
The final end products for this assessment may include a slideshow presentation, explanatory aids (like posters or handouts), and/or a typed outline of the pitch. You might allow your students to choose how they want to demonstrate their learning, or you may give specific instructions regarding the end product(s) of this assessment.
ASSESSMENT
Using information gathered from their pitches, grade the students based on the following criteria
- Did the student explain why – from an economic standpoint – their solution plan would include lobbying, spreading awareness, and/or fundraising?
- Could the student identify reasonable costs and benefits for their solution plan?
- Could the student accurately and consistently label costs and benefits as direct, indirect, or intangible?
- Did the student come up with a feasible, effective, and detailed market research plan that would help them make better economic decisions related to some aspect of their solution plan?
- Did the student list multiple cost-saving strategies and explain how using them wouldn’t hurt the effectiveness of their plan?
- Did the student come up with a realistic budget (money and/or resources) for their solution plan based on research? In other words, did they identify what they would need to execute their plans and where they could get them?
- Did the student explain at least 2 opportunity cost decisions they made while budgeting their solution plan?
- Did the student do relevant and accurate mathematical calculations as part of their analysis?
- Overall, did the student demonstrate the ability to consistently make wise economic decisions by weighing the pros and cons of different courses of action?
*Note that if you complete the taking informed action activity for this lesson, your students will have a chance to revise their pitches. You may want to hold off formally assessing the students’ pitches until after they have received feedback from yourself and/or their peers.