Get an in-depth understanding of how to create fun, engaging, and challenging performance assessments that require students to elaborate on content and demonstrate mastery of skills. This update of an ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) classic includes new scoring methods, reading assessments, and insights on navigating one's way through Response to Intervention. Using real classroom experiences, the authors describe dozens of inventive assessment tasks, including: (1) Visual representations such as graphic organizers, time lines, comic strips, and electronic slide shows; (2) Written assignments such as persuasive letters, RAFTS, and informational brochures; (3) Oral presentations such as round-robin mini-speeches, press conferences, and debates; and (4) Large-scale products and performances such as prototypes, museum exhibits, and achievement conventions. Step-by-step guidelines and scoring methods for each project help you adapt these tasks to one's classroom right away. Following a preface, the following chapters are contained in this book: (1) Great Performances: Our Journey Begins; (2) Info in: How Students Learn New Content Information; (3) Info Out: Assessing Students' Understanding with Visual Representations; (4) Info Out: Assessing Students' Understanding Using the Written Mode; (5) Info Out: Assessing Students' Understanding through Oral Presentations; (6) Info Out: Assessing Students' Understanding Through Large-Scale Projects or Performances; (7) A Scenic Tour of Reading Assessment; and (8) Sparkles and Blemishes; and (8) A Study Guide for Great Performances: Creating Classroom-Based Assessment Tasks, 2nd Edition. [For the first edition, "Great Performances: Creating Classroom-Based Assessment Tasks," see ED428109.]