Performance-Based Assessment (PBA) Sample Writing Prompts at Benchmark 4 (ACTFL Novice High) Developed at the PBA Workshop August 18-20, 2008 Guy Hill, Franklin HS and Thomas Ruckman, Clark K-8 1. You are Bronlock, an invisible space explorer from the planet Zoombo. You visit various parts of a typical American high school throughout a school day. Describe the places, people and activities that you see, including that which seems strange or surprising, in a written report to your boss, Captain Thorac. 2. You are a travel agent. Write an e-mail of a plan for a family that you know for a visit to a place that you recommend. Describe the place, what the family will do and any other relevant arrangements or details. 3. You will receive an exchange student from a foreign country. Give enough information and details so that the exchange student will be well prepared to come and live with you. 4. Write an e-mail inviting a friend to come to your house to see one of your favorite movies. Tell you friend about your two favorite movies and why you want to share them. Propose to select one and ask your friend to help choose which one. 5. E-mail a friend a proposal to spend an afternoon with other friends at the mall. Suggest, and ask for suggestions, for whom to invite, what to do and where to go. Tonya Mjelde, Lincoln HS and Mike Salmon, Roseway Heights K-8 1. There has been a hurricane that has completely devastated a school in target language country. You are writing a letter to your pen-pal in that country in an effort to learn about them and their lives. You want to start a friendship with them because we are going to be holding a fundraiser for their community. Write a letter introducing yourself and telling him/her about your plans. You want to know more about this person with the hopes of continuing as a pen-pal and perhaps meeting this person someday. 2. You are on a fundraising committee planning a trip to assist the hurricane victims in a target language country. The committee head cannot attend the committee meeting. Your task is to take minutes (notes) of the meeting including information about the fundraising event, travel arrangements, and needs of the victims. 3. You are part of a party planning committee that is throwing a costume party for _holiday/event)_. On your blog, write a detailed summary to your advisor about everything that the committee has planned, including entertainment and activities which may include contests and decorations. Anticipate some questions for your advisor (who is very detail oriented). 4. Your friends have invited you to play a trivia game on Facebook called Who am I? You must provide a detailed description of the day in the life of someone famous (a professional
athlete, celebrity, politician, etc) without naming the person. Include tat least three trivia questions about your person. Gail Swanson-Wright, Bridger & Julie Tomkins Rustan, West Sylvan MS 1. You are a committee member of a planning group whose job it is to write a welcome handbook introducing your school to new students. This is the final meeting and all the ideas are on the table! Your job this meeting is to be the recorder/secretary. Lucky you! After the meeting you have to re-write your sloppy notes into a clear report of what the committee is planning to include in the handbook. You took the only notes from the meeting, so make sure your report is detailed, thorough, and clear. 2. A hidden family secret finally comes to light! While in the military and stationed in another country your grandfather was married and had a family you never knew about. The secret is out and these long lost relatives are determined to connect with you. They re coming to Portland to visit. You re a little nervous about meeting them so you decide to write a letter to introduce yourself, find out as much as you can about them, and prepare them for the kinds of things you ll do in Oregon. 3. You work at the Oregon Humane Society. A variety of animals are now available for adoption. Your job is to create an effective profile for one of the animals that will be posted on the Adopt a Pet section of the webpage. Effective profiles give accurate information about the pet s needs and personality. Your goal is to create the best matches between pets and future owners for happy and successful adoptions. 4. Pretend that you are parents. A temporary job assignment has called you away for an extended period of time. As responsible parents, you have arranged for someone to care for your children in your absence. Leave detailed instructions of how to take care of your children and run your household. 5. All social studies classes in your school are required to complete a community service project. Your class has decided to assist in relief efforts to raise money and collect materials for a small town in the target language recently struck by a natural disaster. You are appealing to people living in your area who are native speakers of that language. You will be given a few minutes on next week s public broadcasting network to announce your project. Write an informative script to be read, to try to generate as much enthusiasm and participation as possible. Kari Rykebosch, Laurelhurst K-8 and Richard Fisher, Sabin/Irvington 1. A Peace Corps volunteer in Village X, Country X has heard that you are a well-known school planner. He/She is collaborating with the village leaders in designing a new school, and would like your input. Write a detailed plan to the Country X school planning committee
describing the elements of an ideal school, and the reasons for your choices. Be sure to include questions about the village that would impact the design of the school. 2. You are a city planner who has received many awards. Country X has heard about your expertise and wants your input for the planning of city X. Write a detailed plan describing the aspects of your ideal city and the reasons for your choices. Be sure to include questions about the country/city demographics and geography that would impact the design of your city. 3. Your second language class is interested in broadening its horizons by pairing up with another second language class in your community. You have been given a pen pal from the other school and you want to get to know more about each other s lives before you meet in person. Be sure to ask and give information about yourselves and your lives. 4. A new student to your school has just arrived from Country X and is very scared about being in the United States. He/She would like you to explain what to expect and how to act in the United States as an adolescent. In your explanation, you would also like to know more about his/her home country and life. Victoria Lewis, Marshall, Tod Grobey, Madison HS, and Lilia Goldman, Franklin HS 1. Web Page You are applying for money from the Sister City Program to bring students to your hometown. You must create a webpage in [target language] to be published on the [target language] Sister City Webpage. The Sister City Organization will be selecting from a group of these web pages to determine who will receive the money and where to send visitors. The Sister City Organization giving the grant prefers to award grants that give many details and descriptions of your location. Write a description of where you live and what life is like there. Give reasons why your hometown should be selected as a sister city. Also write an email to the coordinator to get more details about prospective visiting groups. 2. The American Lifestyle You have been asked to prepare an article in [target language] for the Journal of Cross Cultural Exchanges. The publication is doing an issue on Americans and why to come to America on exchange. Prepare an article that describes the American Life of a typical teenager in the USA. Be sure to establish why you are qualified to write this article. Offer suggestions for teenagers coming to America on exchange. 3. Bad University You are on a scholarship to attend university in another country. You have completed your first 4 weeks of college, and you realize that it is not a good fit for you. Everything about it seems wrong. Write a letter to the Dean of Students of the college telling him/her what life is like. Give him/her many descriptions and reasons why you should not attend this university but rather another. Tell them what kind of college suits you better. Find out what the consequences for changing and the next steps.
Dana Miller, Franklin HS and Danielle Liscia, Wilson HS 1. Au Pair (Nanny) Interview You want to spend a year in a country of the target language as a nanny. Write a letter to a placement agency. Be sure to describe yourself as well as your qualifications for this job. Tell what you are willing or not willing to do as a nanny but also be enthusiastic about why you want to live in that country and work as a nanny. You also want to know what the next steps are and what documents you will need. 2. School Systems Portland Public Schools is in crisis and is looking for input from students. You want to be sure that they see your viewpoint about what makes a school good. Of interest will be comparisons to schools in other countries and what the best aspects are about them. You still have some questions to ask the district regarding the financial feasibility of your suggestions. 3. Your Best Friend. Your best friend has just transferred to your school and you want this person to be as successful and happy in the class as you are. Write a letter of introduction to your teacher, highlighting the skills of your friend as well as the nature of your friendship. 4. Health As part of the Health Week project taking place at your school, you have the opportunity to write to the counselor/trainer who will devise a plan for you. Let the trainer know about you and your needs for improvement in certain areas. The counselor will need to know about your daily routines in order to make recommendations. There are also some specific questions that you would like answered. 5. Sports As part of a contest, you have the opportunity to win an outing, along with your family, with either Michael Phelps or Shawn Johnson. Since you are a big fan, you want to make sure that your letter is chosen as the winner. To do so, you, your family, and your home town will have to look enticing. Robbin Deweese, West Sylvan MS and Eloise Bates, Grant HS 1. Write a letter to an exchange student in a country that speaks your target language. The student will be living with your family and attend school with you. Give the student a complete description of what he will experience, living with your family, attending your school. S/he will be interested in the activities of interest to American teenagers as well as
cultural events taking place during the school year. Of course, the student will need to know what to pack in anticipation of the climate and activities. You also want to know things about the student. Within the body of the letter be sure to ask questions so you will get the answers in the return letter. 2. You are applying for a scholarship to attend a target language immersion school in another city for the next academic year. The application has to be in the target language. As part of the process, one section of the application asks that you write a budget for your clothing and supplies and other needs. You are asked to justify the need for each item. (Note: scoring guide will quantify how many items they are requesting.) 3. You and a foreign exchange student want to go to a concert that is on a school night. You have pledged to communicate only in the student s native language. Write an e-mail to the student to plan your strategy to convince both sets of parents that you should be able to go. You offer solutions to any objections either set of parents would raise. You still have some questions dealing with either the concert or possible strategy that your friend can answer. 4. You want to surprise the exchange student living with you on his/her birthday with a very special gift. Write an e-mail to his/her parents at home in his/her country to tell them what you are planning to do and what and why you are planning to buy a certain item. You want them to select among three or more choices. Encourage the parents to also make some selections.