Rich Task Blueprints

Providing new Rich Tasks for students. Building task design expertise in teachers.

Download the Blueprints and sample Blueprint tasks

Blueprints are being developed in response to teacher demand for more Rich Tasks, more flexibility in implementing Rich Tasks, and a continuation of standards validation. They are available for any Education Queensland school to choose to implement.

Rich Task Blueprints are innovative curriculum, assessment and pedagogical frames. Like a Rich Task, they have

a selection of New Basics referents (i.e. groups of core, essential sets of practices that young Queenslanders need to survive and flourish in new economic, social and cultural conditions)
a set of targeted repertoires of practice (i.e. the cognitive and cultural, linguistic and social skills needed to be acquired developmentally in order to complete a task derived from the Blueprint)
a set of desirable features (i.e. what high-quality performance in a task derived from the Blueprint will look like)
a Grading Master.

The Grading Master is intended to allow student performances in widely different interpretations of the Blueprint to be graded according to statewide standards.

Blueprints are less prescriptive than the original Rich Tasks in that they require teachers to make choices about the medium of assessable products and usually allow for an even greater range of curriculum content than the original Rich Tasks. Importantly, they are not Rich Tasks in themselves but require teachers to use their expert knowledge (and sensitivity to their students' needs and interests) to build relevant and intellectually challenging tasks.

Many schools are already pursuing diverse ways of using the Blueprints:

as a lead-in task for other Rich Tasks
as a way of teaching curriculum elements that would previously have been taught in Rich Tasks that the school no longer offers
as a way of enabling teachers to further their skills in developing quality assessment tasks
as a training ground for teachers who have little experience in the alignment of curriculum, assessment and pedagogy
as a way of involving other regional schools in the process of moderation and standards validation.

Seven Blueprints are currently available for download:

I Didn't Expect That! (Lower primary) (new window) 164k
Damage and Danger to the Natural World (Lower primary) (new window) 168k
Themes in Performance (Lower primary) (new window) 107k
When Things Go Wrong (Upper primary) (new window) 174k
The Publishing House (Upper primary) (new window) 109k
Science and Us (Lower secondary) (new window) 122k
Pictures at an Exhibition (Lower secondary) (new window) 127k

More Blueprints will be added as they become available.

Two sample tasks based on "When Things Go Wrong" are also available, to give schools an indication of what their own tasks may look like. Other formats and approaches are certainly possible.

Sample task 1: Disease and Medical Conditions (new window) 80k

Sample task 2: Natural Disasters (new window) 75k

Also available is a set of Frequently Asked Questions about Blueprints. (new window) 36k

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