"What grade did you give me?"students often ask teachers, as if teachers randomly assign grades. Too many students do not understand the concept of connecting grades to an earned academic performance. Improving students' understanding of what their teachers expect them to do, how well they should be able to do it, and how they should go about accomplishing it is what this book is all about. The authors lead readers on their own personal journey, sharing what they've learned about developing and effectively assessing powerful performance tasks--ranging from short and specific to lengthy and substantive. Their focus is on the practical, the doable. You can learn from their successes as well as their mistakes. The authors discuss a four-step approach for teaching students how to acquire content knowledge--labeled "Info In"--and examine four "Info Out" modes through which students can make their content understanding explicit for evaluation purposes. Great Performances is filled with highly motivating examples of student projects as well as effective assessment tools that teachers can adapt for their own classrooms. Teaching to and assessing with performance tasks result in understanding--the type of understanding students will need in the world, where they will be expected to produce "Great Performances."