The thought of performance based assessments sounded delightful to me until I saw the suggested rubric. I am definitely more of a hands-on, visual person, so I feel like my students would retain the information better that way as well. For instance, the theater boxes from the video we watched; the students were forced to be mentally and physically involved in the process. They learned everything about the segment they were performing from occupations to the furniture people had in their house during the era they were studying. I also think a great way for students to retain the information would be to have them act out the historical scene, compiling their own costumes and scenery.
In regards to rubrics, I understand there needs to be a guide that helps the students understand how they are going to be graded. But why does there need to be so MANY components/guidelines? It tends to take the fun out of performance based assessments.
I wonder how many performance based assessments are too many in a year? When is it best to assign them?