Authentic Instruction and Assessment

Common CoreNational State Standards

Math

Language Arts

Science, Social Studies, and other subject areas.

Two foci: Reading and Writing

Common CoreReading Standards for Science, Social Studies, and other Subject Areas

Key Ideas and Details

1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

Craft and Structure

4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.

8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

9. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

Common CoreWriting Standards for Science, Social Studies, and other Subject Areas

Text Types and Purposes1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid

reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information

clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique,

well-chosen details and well-structured event sequences.

Production and Distribution of Writing4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are

appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a

new approach.6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and

collaborate with others.

Research to Build and Present Knowledge7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions,

demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and

accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Range of Writing10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and

shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Think, Pair, Share1) Write an Answer to the Questions:

What does Authentic Instruction mean to you? What do Authentic Assignments look like? What do Authentic Assessments evaluate?

2) Share your answers with a partner. Try to develop a definition of Authentic Instruction, Authentic Assignments, and Authentic Assessment.

3) Share with the class.

Authentic InstructionBoth teachers and students have responsibility

for what occurs.

Students know what they want to learn, have flexible time parameters, and are responsible for staying on task.  

Teachers use multiple teaching strategies and maintain an environment of ongoing questions and analysis as they learn with their students.

Authentic Instruction

Criteria Construction of Knowledge

Disciplined Inquiry Use Prior Knowledge Base In-Depth Understanding Elaborated Communication

Value Beyond School

Authentic Instruction

Authentic Instruction

Standard 1: Higher Order Thinking

Instruction involves students in manipulating information and ideas by synthesizing,

generalizing, explaining, hypothesizing, or arriving at conclusions that produce new meaning and understandings for them.

Example:

Students could analyze data that shows the average air and water temperatures over the last 100 hundred years, as well as pollution data for countries around the world over the last fifty years, and then hypothesize or make conclusions about global warming drawing from the data.

BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMYCreating

Generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing thingsDesigning, constructing, planning, producing, inventing.

 Evaluating

Justifying a decision or course of actionChecking, hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting, judging

  Analysing

Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships

Comparing, organising, deconstructing, interrogating, finding 

ApplyingUsing information in another familiar situationImplementing, carrying out, using, executing

 Understanding

Explaining ideas or conceptsInterpreting, summarising, paraphrasing, classifying, explaining

 Remembering

Recalling informationRecognising, listing, describing, retrieving, naming, finding

 

Authentic InstructionStandard 2: Deep Knowledge

Instruction addresses central ideas of a topic or discipline with enough thoroughness to

explore connections and relationships and to produce relatively complex understandings.

Example:

Students could learn about what types of pollution contribute to greenhouse gases and how countries have taken steps to limit or control these types of pollution: Regulations, Cap and Trade System, etc…

Science: Using Newton’s Second Law to Build a Roller Coaster

English: Learning the Possessive Case to develop a Personal Narrative

Authentic Instruction

Standard 3: Substantive Conversation

Students engage in extended conversational exchanges with the teacher and/or their peers about

subject matter in a way that builds an improved and shared understanding

of ideas or topics.

Example:

Have a deliberation or discussion over global warming in which students present multiple perspectives on the issue/problem.

Authentic Instruction

Standard 4: Connections to the World Beyond the Classroom

Students make connections between substantive knowledge and either

public problems or personal experiences.

Example:

Have students discuss and then write about how their country, local community, or family contribute to or try to reduce global warming.

Authentic InstructionBrainstorm with a partner or small group:

1) Develop an instructional sequence in your discipline/subject area that is authentic and incorporates all four standards.

1) Higher-Order Thinking2) Deep Knowledge3) Substantive Conversation4) Connection to World Beyond

Classroom

Authentic Assignments

Standard 1: Construction of Knowledge

The assignment asks students to organize and interpret information in

addressing a concept, problem, or issue relevant to the discipline.

Example:

After reading or watching a video about global warming, have students identify the most compelling reasons that global warming exists, and the most compelling reasons for why it may not exist.

Authentic Assignments

Standard 2: Elaborated Written Communication

The assignment asks students to elaborate on their understanding,

explanations, or conclusions through extended writing in the relevant

discipline.

Example:

Have students write and either argue or explain their position on global warming using either the most compelling reasons that global warming exists and/or may not exist.

Authentic Assignments

Standard 3: Connection to Students’ Lives

The assignment asks students to address a concept, problem, or issue in the

relevant discipline that is similar to one that they have encountered or are likely

to encounter in their daily lives outside of school.

Example:

Ask students to write a position statement on whether they would support or not support a cap and trade system to reduce greenhouse gases.

Authentic InstructionBrainstorm with your partner or small group:

1) Develop an assignment that would authentically complement your instruction, and incorporates all three standards.

1) Construction of Knowledge2) Elaborated Written Communication3) Connection to Students’ Lives

Authentic Assessments

Standard 1: Construction of Knowledge (Analysis)

Student performance demonstrates thinking about disciplinary, for example mathematics, content

through organizing, synthesizing, interpreting, hypothesizing,

describing patterns, making models or simulations, constructing

arguments, or considering alternative points of view.

Authentic Assessments

Standard 2: Disciplinary Concepts

Student performance demonstrates understanding of important

disciplinary concepts, for example scientific concepts, central to the

assignment.

Authentic Assessments

Standard 3: Elaborated Written Communication (Discipline Specific)

Student performance demonstrates an elaboration of his or her

understanding or explanations of disciplinary concepts through

extended writing.

Authentic Assessments

Standard 4: Elaborated Written Communication (Writing)

Student performance demonstrates an elaborated, coherent account that draws conclusions or makes generalizations or arguments and supports them with examples, summaries, illustrations, details, or reasons.

Authentic InstructionWith your partner or small group:

1) Think about how you would authentically evaluate your students work related to your instruction and assignment, and also incorporates all four standards.

1) Construction of Knowledge (Analysis)2) Disciplinary Concepts3) Elaborated Written Communication

(Discipline Specific)4) Elaborated Written Communication

(Writing)

Authentic InstructionWith your partner or small group:

Outline your authentic instruction, assignment(s), and assessment on a sheet of paper.

You will present to the rest of the class.

Think about the development process and identify what resources you would need to enrich your authentic instruction.

Debrief

What are the benefits of Authentic Instruction?

What are the challenges of Authentic Instruction?

Where would this fit in your curriculum?

How would this fit in your school and affect students learning in other courses?