⏰ Do Now — Start Here
If you had 5 minutes to prove to a room of teachers that you improved as a designer this year, what real piece of work would you show first?
What is a PBAT?
A Performance-Based Assessment Task (PBAT) is a formal presentation and portfolio defense given to a panel of teachers (and often an outside evaluator), used in place of or alongside a Regents exam at performance-based schools. Start building toward it now -- don't wait until the spring.
🎯 Today's Big Question
- What is a Performance-Based Assessment Task, and how is it different from a written exam?
📈 By the End of Today, You Will Be Able To
- Explain what a PBAT is and why performance-based schools use it.
- Identify the components of a strong PBAT presentation (clear thesis about your growth, specific evidence from real work, confident delivery, ability to answer panel questions).
- Start a personal PBAT outline connecting this year's projects to specific skills grown.
🧰 What You'll Need
- PBAT outline template (paper or Google Doc)
- Printed example PBAT rubric, if available
📋 Your Plan for Today
- Mini-lesson: what a PBAT is, why it exists, and what a strong one looks like (specific evidence, not vague summaries) (15 min).
- Model: walk through a strong vs. weak sample claim ("I got better at design" vs. "my Logo Design critique feedback pushed me to simplify my icon, which taught me that legibility matters more than detail") (10 min).
- Independent start: students begin a personal PBAT outline, listing 3-4 pieces of work from this year they might use as evidence (15 min).
📚 Key Words
- PBAT
- A Performance-Based Assessment Task -- a formal presentation and portfolio defense given to a panel, used at performance-based schools in place of (or alongside) some standardized exams.
- Panel
- The group of teachers/evaluators who watch a PBAT presentation and ask follow-up questions.
- Evidence
- Specific, real work samples used to support a claim about what you learned.
✅ What Your Finished Work Should Include
Draft outline checked for at least 3 specific (not vague) pieces of evidence identified.
Exit Ticket: Name one specific piece of work from this year you're confident you could defend in front of a panel, and why.
📊 Before You Leave
Quick, anonymous class check-in -- takes less than a minute.
🎓 ACP Exam Prep
This lesson connects to the Photoshop Adobe Certified Professional exam: Domain 1: Working in the Design Industry
🔗 Want to Learn More?
- No extra links for this lesson.
🚀 The Extra Mile
Cross-Class Connection: The same formal-presentation-format learning any class covers before a public defense or oral exam.
Career Connection: Presenting your own work under real scrutiny is exact practice for a client pitch in any career on the Careers hub.
Go further -- turn this into a portfolio piece:
- Outline your own PBAT presentation as a real slide deck, applying the layout principles from earlier this year. Start here: list your slide titles down the page — just the headers, no content — before you design a single slide's layout.
- Watch a real professional portfolio review or pitch online and write a short analysis of what made it convincing. Start here: find one specific recorded portfolio review or pitch and watch it all the way through once before taking any notes.