Findings

How does student the use of authentic assessment in my Ancient Western Civilization class impact student learning? Using this guiding question over the course of a semester I conducted research, did interviews, gathered information, reduced that information, studied my results, and I am finally able to say that the use of authentic assessment had a dramatic effect on my classroom, on student learning, the overall learning environment, and me as a teacher. As the semester progressed students understood how this class worked. They figured out how to create effective projects that represented the required material. And even better they enjoyed creating the projects which made learning fun for them and teaching fun for me. When students began to feel success they became more involved in the class and the material, and again this dramatically improved my classroom environment. The largest, and probably most important, area that was impacted was that of student learning. Student learning increased for students at all levels. It didn’t matter if they were a straight A student who was highly motivated or one who has been just trying to get by, they all saw an increase in learning and more importantly retention of material. Once everyone relearned how to be creative and free with their thinking, projects became very good, and the students really related to what they were producing. The end result was the information was addressed in several different ways by the students and then processed and store in a way that made sense to them. This information would then stay as learned and could be drawn upon later for either discussion, a comparable in another project, or to help; answer questions in a more traditional style. Students needed to be able to create a project that they were interested in and in a way that related to them for this to happen. Initially it didn’t work that way, but it didn’t take long for students to break out of the routine of traditional assessment and the thinking hat goes along with it. Once this happened the results were very impressive. With actual student learning and retention of knowledge happening in my classroom, it really changed the atmosphere of the class and how I as a teacher felt about teaching. Students began to ask very good insightful questions. Now that they were able to understand and process all the basics, we were able to progress past that first level of learning and really start to dive into come larger concepts and ideas. With this probably came more student interest as this increased their understanding of the content. I really feel that the use of authentic assessment freed me as a teacher. I no longer felt it was my responsibility to give the students all the information they needed. By the middle of the semester I could give them a decent foundation and I knew they were going to do the added research on their own while doing their project. They wanted to do well, they wanted to understand the material, and they wanted to create something that made sense to them, as a result they searched out the material that I might not have given them and still learned it as well. Overall the use of authentic assessment allowed me to no longer think that some students are just unmotivated and that I needed to force student learning. It allowed me to challenge students of every level with the same curriculum. Authentic assessment allowed me to create a classroom where learning was an active, engaging, and relevant process. Students enjoyed learning, and they were able to apply what they learned in a variety of ways. The most motivated students challenged themselves even more and the unmotivated found a reason to do work as now all of the sudden they had a reason to. In conclusion, the use of authentic assessment in my Ancient Western Civilization course had a profoundly positive impact on student learning.
 * Findings:**

When I first settled on this question I thought authentic assessment would have some impact, but I wasn’t really sure how much or if it would impact al types of learners. I figured that if I could get the students to have fun with the projects that they would produce very nice ones. I thought there would be some temporary learning, but I was pretty skeptical about long-term retention of information and the ability to take what was learned in a project and apply it to forms of traditional assessment. I was very wrong. There was a lot of retention of information and once that information was learned it could be applied in a variety of ways outside of the way it was first learned. Upon further reflection, this makes perfect sense. If you are interested in what you are doing, you are going to be more motivated to complete it and do a good job with it. Also, if you are interested and motivated you are going to learn the material and it will stay with you. The whole idea of actually learning something means you understand it and can therefore apply it in a variety of ways. I was caught off guard by this, but it does make prefect sense. While I was initially skeptical of the use of authentic assessment, I could not be happier with the results.
 * How do my finding relate to my expectations?**

The implications of this research in my classroom are simple; I am going to keep using authentic assessment in this class and eventually try and apply it to other classes I teach. I have seen how positive this process can be for both the students and myself, why wouldn’t I want to keep using it and try to have more students experience it also. I was so impressed with how much students actually retained and how much they actually liked learning, it made me enjoy teaching even more. It was really great to see students who have been traditionally unmotivated or lower level learners experience the same success as the students who are at the top of the class. As I continue to develop my curriculum I hope I will find a way to further reduce the amount of traditional instruction and assessment that is still present in my class. I have become a firm believer in authentic assessment and I don’t know that it can be overused. The more ownership students take in their learning it seems the more they retain the information and the more motivated that are to continue learning. This research helped me to change my view of authentic assessment and projects. I used to look at projects as a way for me to take a short break from being in front of the class dictating instruction and a way to end a unit without having to correct a test. I didn’t really see it as a viable way to enhance learning or even a way to substitute instruction. I still see it as a way for me to get out of the front of the classroom, but for a completely different reason. I see it as a way for students to keep learning and probably learn more than they would if I was still instructing. Just because I am not teaching does not mean learning has stopped. I still think it is a great way to end a unit, but now it is because I know this is a great way to actually have the students retain the information that is important. Just because it makes my teaching easier and the students learning more enjoyable doesn’t mean it I am not still teaching and they are not still learning. On the contrary, it seems that just the opposite is happening, I am teaching even more and my students are learning even more.
 * Implications:**

My final thought on this research I have been conducting is just that is has been an incredibly positive process. It has really changed the way I look at my instruction and how students learn. It has given me a lot more confidence in the ability of my students to take ownership in their learning. And has helped to dispel the myth that some students just don’t want to learn and are unmotivated, I now know that they simply need to find way to connect to the material and they will succeed just as much as any other student. I really want to keep developing my use of authentic assessment. I see so many positives associated with it and really no draw backs. I am hoping my experiences with this process will have a very long lasting impact on my teaching.
 * Final Thoughts:**