Authentic Learning Opportunities

One of the stickers/badges that are available for teachers here in CSD 17 is the "Authentic Learning Author" sticker. In my opinion, this is one of the easiest and most valuable stickers you can slap on your computer!

A common frustration shared by teachers is that assignments don't get completed by students. Students would likely counter with an explanation that their assignment are dumb. When I translate that, I think that means that the kids have a hard time seeing the value in what they are being asked to do. We see the value and importance, but the kids sometimes struggle with that. An easy way to remedy this is to give kids an authentic learning experience. Authentic learning happens when a connection is created between what students learn in school and the real world (here's an interesting overview of authentic learning). Here are some ways to do that. Hopefully they inspire you to come up with ways that fit in your class! (Or reach out to your friendly Instructional Technology Resource Teacher to help develop an idea!)

Reading a Novel or Short Story

• Have students write letters to the author.
• Have students write Tweets to the author; Tweet them from your teacher account or from a class account.
• Organize a Skype session or Google Hangout with the author.
• Have students create a podcast about the book.
• Have students create an e-book for younger kids based on the novel/story you read then share it with other classes in the district.

Social Studies

• Find pen pals (written, email, or video) for your students.
• Skype or Google Hangouts with classes from other parts of the country or the world.
• Have students bring in photos or videos from places they have visited that are also being studied in class.

Science

• Have students create their own science projects, bring in local experts to assist and answer questions, then host an expo for the school and/or the community.
• Have students take pictures or videos of things they are studying in class (ex. different kinds of trees/plants/rocks/animals).

Physical Education/Art/Music

• Have students create how-to videos and post them on your YouTube channel (ex. how to do different kinds of push ups, how to use different kinds of paint brushes, how to properly hold a violin and bow).
• Allow students to create their own expo (art, exercise routine, music, singing) and invite the school or community.

Math

• Find local opportunities for students to put their math skills into practice (ex. suggestions for how the park district can budget their money to improve local parks/playgrounds).
• Have students assist with planning a school event (ex. planning the Dream lab expo: how to set up the room incorporates geometry, budgeting money for refreshments or setting a schedule of events involves computation).
• Have students collect and analyze data from a school event (ex. Family Fun Night at Pioneer Path -- how many people attended? How many were parents/students at Pioneer Path/students at another CSD school? How many people attended each event? Which were the most popular/least attended?). This data can be graphed and then converted/manipulated (What percentage of attendees were kids? Rank order the events from most well attended to least attended. Have students share this data at a school board meeting.)

Authentic learning experiences can be created by you, the teacher, for the kids. Knowing their work is being seen by someone other than their teacher amps up the engagement in the work. Kids are also less likely to blow it off because they know someone is waiting for that information from them. Want to really kick up that authentic learning a notch? Let the kids generate their own ideas (much like happens in the Dream Lab at the junior high) and you act as a facilitator. Scary but rewarding when you see what the kids can do (much like what happened the one year my 8th graders got fired up after reading Fahrenheit 451 and organized a fundraising effort to create a library in a school in Nepal through Room to Read).

Have you created any authentic learning experiences for your kids? Be sure to share them in the comments! Thus is a great way to inspire other teachers (and to let me know that you need the Authentic Learning Author sticker!).