Authentic Learning

Planning an authentic learning experience for assignment 3

Authentic Tasks	Topic Stages
1.     Authentic tasks have real-world relevance.	It has become a discipline problem in school where the students have found it fun to vandalise.  The task is to solve this problem.
2.     Authentic tasks are ill-defined, requiring students to define the tasks and sub-tasks needed to complete the activity.	We can discuss how we can prevent this behaviour.  The students definitely are artistic as the works of vandalism are actually creative.  We put in place behaviour management and they talk about what and why they have done the deed.
3.     Authentic tasks comprise complex tasks to be investigated by students over a sustained period of time.	They will brainstorm what sort of “graffiti” to put on the school walls, research the types of street art that has been done, learning from the masters.  Also choosing a relevant site for the mural wall project.
4.     Authentic tasks provide the opportunity for students to examine the task from different perspectives, using a variety of resources.	They will be introduced to Banksy as a starting point, however will have to search for different source online on their own.  They could use photo applications like twitter, flickr or tumblr to view different images, photographs taken of street art.  They could research the origins of graffiti and the different styles.  Theory and practical sides of street art, vandalism and graffiti.
5.     Authentic tasks provide the opportunity to collaborate.	They will work in groups to brainstorm ideas, then the final product will be the effort of the whole year 7 cohort.  They could even find the opportunity to engage with professional artists who have done similar projects.
6.     Authentic tasks provide the opportunity to reflect.	Things they might think about during the project.  Social media and its influence, artists who display their work publically, the meaning behind street art, why do people vandalise, what their mural wall would stand for in the school, etc.
7.     Authentic tasks can b e integrated and applied across different subject areas and lead beyond domain-specific outcomes.	They might in the end, decide not to do a mural wall, but work on a sculpture, installation art piece instead, and it would be fine.  Through collaboration, they would work on communication skills and literacy skills.  Trying to manage the whole group of over 50 students would involve a lot of planning skills as well.  They would use much of technology to help achieve their final product.
8.     Authentic tasks are seamlessly integrated with assessment.	The final assessment would not only be the visual impact of the end product, but also what it stands for.  The process in which led to the end product would also be accessed.
9.     Authentic tasks create polished products valuable in their own right rather than as preparation for something else.	We will expect a meaningful, visually appealing, finished work out art at the end of the task.
10.  Authentic tasks allow competing solutions and diversity of outcomes.	Because the task will be student driven, it will be the work of the year 7 group of students and the possibilities to the end product is endless.

References:

http://www.authentictasks.uow.edu.au/framework.html