Making Real-World Connections

Source: Simkins, M., Cole, K., Tavalin, F., & Means, B. (2002). Increasing student learning through multimedia projects. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

For decades, educational writers advised teachers to motivate students by making learning relevant to their personal lives. However, few have spelled out how teachers were to make those connections. Recently, Michael Simkins and his colleagues offered a practical list of ten strategies for making real-world connections that help students grasp the value in what they are learning.

Each of these ten strategies helps students find a reason for actively participating in their assigned classwork.

• Connect through student interests.
  Probably the most obvious tactic is linking content to students' passions, hobbies, and pastimes. For example, kindergarten teachers Candy Ganzel and Jan Stuglik from Towne Meadow Elementary School in Carmel, Indiana, developed a unit on ice cream that included a field trip to a local ice cream parlor. Teams of students researched and reported on such topics as the science of ice cream and how it is made.
• Draw on experiences.
  Design learning activities that incorporate students' real-world experiences, such as travel and summer jobs.
• Connect through significant issues.
  Incorporate issues that stir students' passions. Racism, drug abuse, poverty, peer pressure, and violence are examples of issues that affect many students.
• Improve the real world.
  Unleash students' creativity in tackling authentic problems facing the community. One high school started a small grocery store because the next closest one was 40 miles away.
• Relate to clients.
  Structure relationships in which students serve as consultants or instructors; for example, have students teach adults to design Web pages.
• Interact with assessors.
  Encourage students to interact with local experts on the subject of what standards they use in making decisions. An example is researching the criteria local employers use to select employees.
• Interact with people who know.
  Bring subjects alive by having students interview family members or acquaintances about their personal experiences. Possible subjects include the Depression, World War II, the culture of the 1960s, and the Civil Rights movement.
• Create a body of work.
  Multimedia presentations, models, short stories, and portfolios of artwork, particularly when shared with people outside of class, can be valuable motivators as well as authentic assessment devices.
• Learn adult work and life skills.
  Assign students to gather information for projects by interviewing adults about their work. An example is how technology has affected different careers.
• Create images of the future.
  Allow students to project what some aspect of the future will look like. For example, student teams from Mountlake Terrace High School, in Mountlake Terrace, WA, designed their renditions of a state-of-the-art high school for the year 2050.