Engaging Students in Learning

As a 5th grade teacher I am constantly trying to find new ways to engage my students in learning.  Through the IT program at George Mason University I have found that one of the best ways to do engage students is by creating authentic problems.  An authentic problem allows students to "try on" different careers.


In order for an authentic problem to work well in the classroom it is important to think about a few things when planning a lesson.  The first is to look at the curriculum and ask what profession would need to know this in the real world.  For example if your students need to learn the parts of the flower your authentic problem could be the students acting as botanist.  Once you've decided on your authentic problem you need to decide what the clear outcome will be, in this case students will be able to label the parts of a flower.   It is also important to determine what thinking skills the students will use through out this lesson. For the botanist lesson students will need to analyze the flower and synthesize the information they have learned.  The last thing you need to think about is what type of software skills the students will require in this lesson.  As in the botanist  lesson students will learn how to use a paint program to diagram their results.   At the end of each authentic problem I make sure that there is an exit strategy.  For the botanist lesson I arranged for students posters to be posted throughout the school to inform other students about the parts of a flower.


Since using authentic problems within my classroom I have noticed an increase in student participation and engagement.  One of my students was overheard saying "Well since we are real scientist, if an experiment fails we have to design another one".  Music to my ears!