Regularly sanctioned time and structures for learners to engage in authentic work, across disciplines, and with community partners. This may look like blocks of time for interdisciplinary and community-connected projects with multiple educators, design thinking challenges, or days set aside for extensive fieldwork or internships.
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BRIGHT SPOTS
BRIGHT SPOTS
KM Global, a charter school within the Kettle Moraine School District in Wisconsin, stands as a compelling example of real-world learning in action. Designed for students eager to engage with education through purposeful interaction and influence, KM Global emphasizes personalized learning pathways that extend beyond traditional classroom boundaries.
Students participate in internships, job shadows, and field experiences, allowing them to apply academic knowledge in authentic settings and gain valuable insights into potential career paths. This approach fosters academic excellence, cultivates leadership skills, and develops a global perspective, preparing students to navigate and make a positive impact in an increasingly interconnected world. By integrating real-world experiences into its curriculum, KM Global empowers students to take ownership of their learning and equips them with the skills necessary for success beyond high school.
Students at Círculos, a high school in Santa Ana Unified School District, participate in place-based learning. They collaborated with the Segerstrom Center for the Arts to create an art piece for the community as part of the OC Juega Project. Students envisioned what the art piece for the event could look like, made models, and then saw the project through at the event, an authentic exhibition of their learning and work.
A senior at the time reflected on the project, "A lot has changed since Círculos started. Before, I had no interest in school. Growing up in my neighborhood was not easy. You see a lot of students losing opportunities, and that sometimes drives you down. But this place has become a second home, a safe place for a lot of us. Here, I learned about the importance of social capital. We did a project with OC Juega through Segerstrom Center for the Arts, and I connected with the district, businesses, and people I would have never talked to before. With this project, I learned a lot and I felt empowered to take action and to complete something myself."
At High Tech Elementary, Middle, and High Schools in San Diego, students participate in exhibitions of learning where they share their learning with a public audience. See this toolkit to think about implementing this practice.
Muhlenberg County has launched two new classes at their middle schools to explore careers with Paxton-Patterson Labs' career-aligned modules. The modules are designed to give students in grades 4–8 authentic opportunities to explore a wide range of fields. Each module takes 7–10 days to complete and is built to spark curiosity, reveal strengths and interests, and even help them discover what they don’t enjoy.
The School at Columbia University (K-8) has an Integrated Project Week (IPW) where learners spend one week a year participating in one interdisciplinary and multi-grade project of their choice. The projects are designed by educators based on learners’ interests. Learners learn from and collaborate with community partners and dive deeply into a topic. At the end of the week, there is a showcase of learning across the school.
Students at Big Picture Learning High Schools experience Learning Through Internship (LTI). 1-2 days a week are set aside in the schedule for these internships, and students participate in many activities to build their resume and practice interviews to set up their internships. They are then able to participate in other organizations as real members of their team.
At the School for Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability (SEEQS), students experience two-hour work blocks four days a week for interdisciplinary learning where they explore Essential Questions of Sustainability (EQS) through a semester-long, project-based, interdisciplinary course. The time may be spent on student-directed project time, teacher-led tutorials, community outings, guest visits, or internship experiences. Here you can find example student work from EQS projects.
RESOURCES
RESOURCES
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