Designing and Teaching Authentic Performance Tasks
Module One

Course Instructor: Don Mesibov
dmesibov@twcny.rr.com

(I hope this course proves to be of benefit to you. I want your feedback! Call or contact me anytime.)

INTRODUCTION A good—a necessary—place to start is with how to attract and hold the students’ attention, how to instill in them a commitment to think hard. Without this, there is nothing, just the shell of a school. Two steps are minimally necessary. Teachers must know each student well to capture that young person’s mind and heart. And the “destination,” the place we wish the student to reach, must be clear and compelling. The young person must know when she gets there that she has achieved something that her teachers and her community value (Theodore Sizer, Horace's School, Redesigning the American High School).

  
  • A. Course Objectives:
      a. Be comfortable with the concept that “People are often motivated to engage in the learning process if they feel they are engaged in an authentic task – that is, a task which has meaning beyond the classroom.”
      b. Have a clear, personal definition / understanding of “authentic performance task” as it applies to the learning process.
      c. Design and teach an authentic performance task.
      d. Design a rubric to assess the authentic performance task.
      e. Reflect on the process of creating an authentic performance task.
  • B. Course Tasks:
      a. Module 1:
        i. Define Authentic Task:
          1. Read pages 26- 37, 58, 59, 64, 75, 79, in “Philosophy and Strategies for a Learner-Centered Environment.”
          2. With your students, brainstorm and write a definition of “authentic task.”
          3. Read pages 59-61, in “Philosophy and Strategies for a Learner-Centered Environment.” With your students, define the word “performance.”
          4. Expand your definition to include the word “performance.”
          5. You have now generated a definition of an authentic performance task. Please submit this definition to me.

Please email responses to the following reflective questions to:
dmesibov@twcny.rr.com

With regard to teaching authentic performance tasks in the classroom:

I consider myself a novice
I have some familiarity, but little classroom experience
I have a reasonable amount of proficiency
I have extensive experience using numerous strategies

Please include any additional comments you may have.