Authentic performances

Today, students and teachers have the opportunity to create for real audiences. Curriculum designers include this as one of the components of authentic learning environments. The reasoning is that students who perform for "real" audiences are more involved with their work, take greater care in attending to details, and experience the complexities of "real-world" work.

Here is a group of students from the school where I teach (these are high school students-- most are sophomores!) The students are performing a song that was written by the girl who is singing the lead. I contend (as do curriculum experts) that the fact that their performance is now available in the same way that other performances are gives their work renewed relevance.