I was finished posting my weekly Saturday blog when I started to scroll down and look at all of the posts on my blog. I was thinking that perhaps I should refine my menu, and file the posts under whether they focused on reading, writing, math, science, social studies…
Then I realized that is exactly what you want to avoid in authentic teaching and learning. Projects start with a driving question or a prompt, and then they go from there. One of the most important parts of authentic teaching is to listen to your students, pay attention to what they are saying, and give some gentle guidance and suggestions as to what path they might follow to accomplish their goals. (And also accomplish your own goals as well.) A good project often includes all academic skills – certainly reading for research, writing notes and/or presentations, math calculations/graphs…
There was not one project that I worked on with students, that I wasn’t surprised at the end, at how many academic goals we were able to accomplish within the project. And I was also surprised, as I evaluated what we had accomplished, at how much coffee I had consumed to keep up with our students as they authentically explored and grew as learners. It was impressive!
The Educational Journey 