Working on a recent blog about project ideas for horses, I was thinking that really this blog could be about any animal. Which got me thinking that any of my blogs could be about something similar…or not similar. That is what authentic teaching and learning is all about.
The point of authentic learning is to present an idea, and see where your learners take you. You are still in the driver’s seat, but you are allowing your learners to navigate how you get there. As long as you get there, that is the point.
So, if your goal is to learn about animal habitats, and you suggest an authentic project about horses, and your learner(s) are more interested in dogs, or cats, or snakes (yuck), then that is fine. And if your learners are only interested in football…and they want to read about football and write about football…the history of football, create a timeline about the sport, design a football stadium. Start pulling in all of your goals into football.
So, we started with horses and now we are on football. Back to animal habitats…how many stadiums are home to wild animals? What kinds of animals? How did they get there? Has a wild animal ever interrupted a game? What happened? That is authentic teaching and learning.