One of the most important things to me in education is teaching lessons that are authentic. Lessons that are authentic are easily applied outside of the classroom and have much purpose behind them. Authenticity is motivating because the students know that what they are learning is necessary for their lives outside of the school building. Authenticity is beyond memorization or circling the correct answers on a multiple choice test. Authenticity has meaningful application that will follow the student where ever they go.
One of my favorite things about high school special education is that I get to teach service learning. I can't think of a better way to have authentic assessment. One classroom I spend a lot of time in was a perfect example to me what authentic assessment looks like. Each week the students had a cooking class. They would follow recipes, safety precautions, health precautions, and make their food. On Friday they would make chocolate chip cookies to sell at the school. They would make advertisements to hang up around the school. They would sell cookies during lunch periods. They were responsible for keeping up with the money, making correct change, and counting the money. It was great! I hope that I can be authentic in all of my teaching.
This schools idea of authentic assessment is really neat.
No comments:
Post a Comment