PERFORMANCE TASKS AND A SAMPLE UNIT

Performance Tasks
     In the past, I've always asked students to include a few SOL-type test items in their unit as a final assessment.  Now, for final assessments, Virginia is moving away from the multiple choice format to the use of performance tasks.  A simple definition for a performance task would be a "...learning activity or assessment that asks students to perform to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and proficiency. Performance tasks yield a tangible product and/or performance that serve as evidence of learning."  Taken from https://www.definedstem.com/blog/what-is-a-performance-task/
     I've had a number of discussions with Stafford Schools folks about performance tasks and it seems that they are almost identical to Design Briefs.  The emphasis is on demonstrating knowledge by producing a product (physical or virtual) or performance.  If you look at some of the design briefs available online - specifically Children's Engineering site http://childrensengineering.org/design-briefs/ you'll see that these are performance tasks.
     If you look at the Unit Guidelines on this site, you'll see that your unit needs to include a Design Brief and a Performance Task.  That means you can meet both these requirements with just one Design Brief.

Sample Unit
     This is a link to a sample unit.  It's not complete (since requirements do change from year to year) but it will give you an idea of how units are organized and formatted.  Note: the links on the block plan don't work since I've moved the files around.