Two-Column Notes

Date:
10/25/1
6

Name: Cerina Russo

Class/Subject: EDTL 2760

Five Standards of Authentic Instruction

Newmann,F.M.,&Wehlage,G.G.(1993).Fivestandardsofauthenticinstruction.EducationalLeadership,50(7),
812.
Page #

The Text Says

Notes (key concepts, direct quotes, etc.)

I Say
My notes, commentary

N/A

Instruction can exhibit some degree of

connections when (1) students address
real-world public problems or (2)
students use personal experiences as
context for applying knowledge.

I completely agree and relate to this statement.

When I was taking high school social studies
classes, the information always stuck with me
and had more meaning when my teacher would
relate the content to real- world, relevant
problems or everyday life. I also observed this
in my field study. Mr. Zemanski had students
get into groups and present three different
amendments each. After every group explained
their amendments, he would make sure to give
them a current event or scenario relating to the
amendment, giving it more meaning to the
students.

N/A

The work had no intrinsic meaning or

value beyond achieving success in school.

I am, unfortunately, very familiar with this

unauthentic way of teaching and I am sure
many other students have been subjected to it
as well. This unauthentic style is seen often in
the form of multiple choice tests. This type of
exam forces the students to retrieve facts and
figures. Essays, short answer tests, or group
projects on the other hand, allow for students

to use higher order thinking skills and to give

the information value and meaning by allowing
students to really think about and connect
everything together.
N/A

Many educators insist that there are

appropriate times for traditional, less
authentic instruction as well as teaching
for in-depth understanding.

I have to agree with these educators. Even

though they are very unpopular, standardized
testing exists as well as learning standards and
time constraints. In a perfect world, students
would not be tested this way and teachers
would have more time to cover information
however, that is not the way it works. Because
of this, teachers are forced to teach some
content in a less authentic manner in order to
work with the time crunch and standardized
tests. That being said, it is still very plausible
for teachers to give students a more in-depth
understanding of the most important content
and help students connect and understand a
majority of the content.

Connections:
This reading has a lot of similarities and connections to the first reading and BP 1, Why Kids Hate Social
Studies. This article discusses making the content relative to the students life. In the first blog post, we
discussed how kids feel social studies is the least important subject because it does not relate to their
lives after school. This could not be further from the truth and it is the educators job to convey this to
the students. This reading also connects to what we were discussing last week about higher order
thinking. We discussed that asking essential questions promotes higher order thinking because the
answers to these questions are not simply back or white. In this weeks reading, it is stated that, when
students engage in HOT [higher order thinking], an element of uncertainty is introduced, and
instructional outcomes are not always predictable.