Imagine a classroom where:

• students explore, discuss, and meaningfully construct concepts and relationships in contexts that involve real-world situations that are relevant to the learner

• learning is focused on connecting what students are taught to real-world issues, problems, and applications

education is more student centered

• learning is an active process

• students are provided opportunities to construct their own knowledge through self-directed inquiry, problem solving, critical thinking, and reflections in real-world contexts

Sounds like an educational utopia, doesn’t it?

Nope, it’s just authentic learning.

Where students are more likely to be interested in what they are learning, more motivated to learn new concepts and skills, and better prepared to succeed in their lives outside of school.

So, why does it seem as if classroom teachers are at odds with school leaders about making authentic learning (i.e.-situated cognition theory) activities a top priority?

Because the struggle is real! And those of us in the trenches face it every day. We live our professional lives in contradiction.

Research and learning theories show that authentic learning activities are much more engaging to students of all ability levels. That raised level of engagement transfers to higher vested interests, resulting in students putting in more effort and coming away with more memorable learning experiences.

Yet, that is the exact opposite of how we teach and assess our students.

Authentic learning activities provide multiple opportunities for students to showcase what they know, in a context they are comfortable with, regardless of where they fall on the ability spectrum. Additionally, as an elementary school teacher, I strongly believe this to be much more developmentally appropriate. And, has longer lasting effects on the students in general.

For example, in the aftermath of hurricane Maria decimating Puerto Rico, my school started collecting (mostly) coin donations for disaster relief, “Pennies for Puerto Rico”.

From within this initiative, our special education teacher found an authentic learning opportunity for her students. Each day, these students would collect canisters of donations from each classroom. With guidance from their teacher, these students would sort all coins into piles. Then, they would count all the money collected for that day. Finally, they kept the running total of all the donations and reported this to the principal so he could share the current collection during the next day’s morning announcements.

Their teacher was so impressed with her students! And the kids were very proud of themselves! They covered a myriad of skills, all within a real-word scenario. The best part was that they didn’t even know they were learning!!! They were having fun being “in charge” of a school fundraiser. I’d imagine this would be one of those activities that they will remember years from now. Guaranteed, they won’t remember what the SBAC test evaluated!