Miranda Poloncak 11/10/16

Stage 2 Determine Acceptable Evidence

Performance tasks:

How are the atmospheric conditions-wind, heat energy, air pressure, and moisture in the air-
connected to weather phenomena? (Explanation)
Prepare for a Storm Books
o The goal: The Kindergarten teachers are about to teach their weather unit to the
kids but realize that they dont have any quality weather books that tell students
about what causes storms. Our class is going to help them by researching different
weather phenomena to create cause and affect weather books.
o The role: you will be doing research on a type of weather phenomena to be the
author and illustrator of your own book which you will present to the
kindergarteners.
o The audience: The kindergarten class
o The product or performance: I will be looking to see if they include all of the
different factors that cause their assigned weather phenomena and that they
describe what that phenomena is. I will also look to see that they have put
thought, research, and accuracy with their pictures and information.

What do weather patterns reveal about our world? (Interpretation)

A Weatherly Journal
o The goal: The national weather station wants to know the typical weather one
would see in your area for the month of February. You and your classmates will
make daily journals of the weather outside using a variety of weather instruments
and observations which your will document and chart. At the end of the month
you will determine the average weather one would see in the month of February
in your county.
o The role: Meteorologists
o The audience: The National Weather station
o The product or performance: I will be assessing your ability to correctly document
a variety of weather using the correct instruments, measurements, and data
collection strategies. The instruments you will use include a thermometer, weather

Adapted from Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd.ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Miranda Poloncak 11/10/16

vane, anemometer, and rain gauge. I will be looking at the units used and that the
measurements make sense.

How can we use weather instruments and weather maps to predict and reveal patterns about our
weather? (Application)
PBE: Now Back to You Bob
o The goal: You have are a new meteorologist and its the first day on the job. One
of the meteorologists quit with no notice and now they dont have anyone to make
the weather map for the 5oclock news. They have asked you to take all of the
weather data they have received and make an accurate and neat weather map of
the United States.
o The role: You are a meteorologists drawing a weather map of the country
o The audience: Viewers watching the evening news
o The product or performance: The weather map is an accurate representation of the
weather data they are provided with and a key.

Other evidence:
(tests, quizzes, prompts, work samples, observations):
Sorting cards: I will do a variety of sorting card activities throughout the week in pairs and
individually. I will have them match the pictures of instruments to units of measurement and
what they are measuring. I will be going around and checking if they got it right on the first time
on a checklist. I will also have cause and effect scenario cards for to match throughout in the
different areas of

Drawing Definitions: Throughout the unit I will be asking them to draw picture clues of terms
we discuss in class. They need to add enough details in their picture that another classmate can
tell what their term/concept is without knowing what the word is. I will have them complete five
each week, and will give they will have the choice to complete it on their own during morning
work or they can do it for homework. Their drawings can have labels to help describe their
picture but they cannot write the word itself. On Friday I will assign a grab and swap where kids
have to write down what they think each drawing is of and why.

Adapted from Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd.ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Miranda Poloncak 11/10/16

Who Am I: Another homework/ warm up assignment where they will write clues of the assigned
vocabulary words that are helpful hints about their term. They will be required to come up with
4-8 clues and will help students figure out what their term is and a key for the teacher. Again,
they will turn these in at the end of the week and we will do a grab and swap where kids have to
write down what they think each Who Am I is about.

Cloud Mobiles: Students will research cumulus, stratus, cirrus, altocumulus, and cumulonimbus.
They will find: what they are made of (water molecules, ice crystals, or water molecules and ice
crystals); what level of the atmosphere you would find it (higher levels, middle levels, or lower
levels); weather associated with it; what the name means; and characteristics of the cloud. They
will write this information for each cloud on one side of a piece of construction paper, and draw
a picture of that cloud and its name on the other side. The final part is that each cloud card will
be hole punched, and they will string them to a coat hanger. The length of the strings will
indicate what level cloud type they are.

Quizzes: students will take several small quizzes to assess their recognition of key terms and
concepts.

Poetry: They will write poems where they are weather in a storm front of their choosing. This
will tie into poetry and adjective units where they will write about the emotions and experiences
as a storm clashing with another air mass. I will use their descriptive terms and what is going on
to see if they have correctly expressed the effect of this type of front.

Student work samples: I will collect the questions that I give them during activities and do quick
checks that they are coming to accurate conclusions throughout experiments and their
understandings on the topics at hand.

Metacognition:
How will you have students think about the content throughout the unit and after the pbes? (self-
reflection)

Adapted from Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd.ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Miranda Poloncak 11/10/16

Throughout the unit we will be making a scrapbook of what they are learning. So to check on
their understandings before we move on to the next topic they will draw a picture(s) of what they
did and write a journal entry on the topic which includes:
What did you learn?
How did you learn about______?
What did you do well on and what was challenging?
What are your feelings towards _______?

They will also answer prompt questions after each PBE which are:
PBE1: What have you learned about storms and how they flow of start to finish? What are
influences on the types of weather we get?
PBE 2:How did the weather instruments you used help you understand the typical weather of
your environment? What is the average weather this time of year? How can graphing data help
us understand our environment?
PBE 3:How do we get data to make weather maps? What do the patterns from weather maps tell
us? How to weather maps help us predict weather?

How will you have students think about themselves as learners throughout the unit and after the
pbes? (self-assessment)

I will do exit tickets after lessons where I will ask them to circle the emoji that shows how they
feel about the topic we covered in the lesson. And any questions they have.
What questions do you still have from todays lesson (self assessment)
1 thing you feel confident enough to teach a friend today? (self assessment)
What did you find that was most interesting? (self reflection)

They will turn in a 3-2-1 with their PBEs where they will write three things that they did well,
two things that they struggled with/ challenging, and one thing they would change if they had
more time or work on?

Adapted from Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd.ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Miranda Poloncak 11/10/16

At the beginning and the end of their unit they will make Weather Concept Webs. I will show
them an example of one I made on Space (which was their last unit) in how I organize it into
categories, subcategories and details. These will be drawn/written creatively and I will encourage
them to draw pictures if they want to and relate any of their experiences and knowledge on
Weather. To prompt them to start I will write the words air pressure, weather instruments, storms,
meteorology I will do this as a pre assessment at the beginning to see which areas they have a
lot of knowledge on. At the end of the unit they will make another one on what they have learned
now. Finally I will have them place both maps next to each other to compare how much they
have grown. I will have them write down: What areas does the map have a lot more
stems/details? What are some new topics on your final map that wasnt there before? What areas
do you still not have a lot on? What areas do they want to learn more about?

Adapted from Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd.ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.