I think designing authentic work helps drive teachers’ planning for learning with the qualities of authentic engagement. However, students can definitely be authentically engaged with learning that’s personally meaningful to them even when its not published outside the classroom.

Again, thanks for your comment and for joing the conversation!

I am thinking aloud here that engagement with process is a bit different than engagement with product, and that both are valuable types of engagement for producing learning. I am thinking that engagement can happen when it is self directed/chosen, but can also happen when it is not. I am also a believer that if we describe engagement as “authentic” then we are talking about the truths of what it feels like, looks like, and sounds like to be engaged-interested-driven-curious and not about the authenticity of the task, which is a different thing, no?

http://authenicengagement.wikispaces.com

This looks to me like the start of a Charter School mission! Or, as your post on The Edurati Review conveyed, should this be the mission of all schools?

While, as you mentioned, many ‘rock star’ teachers already do this in their classrooms, it seems to me like AE should be the norm. I agree with Rob (whose blog I love, by the way) that we often use the word ‘engagement’ when we see students working or ‘looking busy’ in a classroom. The real way to find out the level of engagement, as people have been discussing, is to ask the children about what they are doing.

When trying to make a project or learning experience authentic, I think your point about sharing it outside of the classroom is an important one. If you use the definition of ‘authentic’ as meaning ‘real,’ then how better to make a child’s learning apply to the real world than to put it out there? With the Internet, this is as simple as publishing a piece of work online. This can also be achieved through a student show after school or hosted at a local business or community center.

I agree with Paula that a student’s work must be personally meaningful. After all, authentic can also mean ‘true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character.’

I wonder what people’s thoughts are on making EVERYTHING a student does in the classroom authentic engagement with learning (including memorizing times tables and learning letter sounds)?

Thanks for starting this conversation, and I’ll be looking for the #AE hashtag!

Rob, I understand what you mean about the appearance of engagement as evidenced in many walkthroughs. Sometimes that playfulness is just evidence of a student learning to work with the new procedure or tool. When my kindergarten class gets a hold of the laptops, they want to play with the program. They are less concerned about learning (at least not consciously) as they are about playing. The engagement kicks in when they discover something about the program that is cool. Then they want to share, and show, and explain to everyone who will listen just what they have discovered. A change takes place in the room. Now the students are talking with each other (collaborating,) moving around the room to show and share their new knowledge, and asking to have their work saved. When my class discovered thisissand.com they were thrilled to have a product that could be saved on the website. Many children asked that their parents learn about the site so they could continue exploring at home.
I will continue to follow the conversations here through my reader. Thanks for sharing.

What I have realized in thinking about your post and our previous conversation, is that what most educators call engagement is does not match the definition of Authentic Engagement.

I have participated in countless classroom visits or walkthroughs and have heard many a teacher or administrator say, “The students were so engaged.” But the only part of your definition that would apply is #4 Students work and learn from one another collaboratively and socially.

Most of the time, what they mean when they say the students were engaged, is that the students were paying attention, on task, talking about the subject, or helping each other.

While this is not a bad thing, it does not reach the depth of authentic engagement and does not mean there is understanding in the learning.

When I taught students in a 1:1 laptop situation, students were often very “engaged” in working on their laptop using software of a website. But, when I truly monitored their conversation or work, they were more interested in the “playing” part than the “learning” part. Someone walking into the room would say they were engaged (paying attention, on task, talking to each other) but there was little understanding about the learning goal. I had to readjust my teaching strategies to reach what I thought was true engagement.

Reading your ideas on Authentic Engagement, I realize this is where I was heading. But, I think many still believe that engagement means eyes on the teacher, on the work, or on each other. But that is not does bring understanding in the learning or authenticity in the engagement.