Tomorrow morning we-The Leslie Intermediate School-embark on a new journey. A journey that is to take us down the road of better education for all. By all I mean the teachers, the parents, and most of all the students. This journey is Project Based Learning.
The how we are going to do this has been presented very vague. Good on one part in that it gives teachers the freedom to create instruction in any way they see fit. They have been given the freedom of breaking out of the hold to create an educational atmosphere that has the student engaged and eager to learn. The freedom to not sit in rows of desks, listen to a lecture, and then work on an assignment. The problem is we are like slaves of the Civil War. We do not know exactly how we are going to deal with this new found freedom. Just how are we going to teach? We are trained to stand in front of the class, teach a lesson, monitor and adjust, and make an assignment. We need direction. We need our chains to old fashioned teaching. We need step by step......
In investigating the world of Project Based Learning I have found some helpful guidelines. Those step by steps we need to get started.
First of all, projects need to connect to the standards. This being 2012-2013 the standards are now the Common Core State Standards adopted by most states in the nation to basically put the education of children on equal playing fields from state to state. In teaching, what CCSS are being assessed? Maybe there are more than one. Decide on the standard/standards and now begin.
Well, ready to begin planning. Planning is important on the teacher's part.
What is expected to be achieved within that standard? What is it that the students are trying to prove that they know? That would be the essential question. The essential question is going to guide the students' learning. Do they need to prove the qualities of a character of a short story? Are they trying to prove that freedom for slaves after the Civil War was wonderful? How can they tell 13 is a prime number? (As you can see, the essential question would drive the length of time needed to do a project.) Also, when thinking about the essential question, think about whether the learning can be cross curricular. Can the project involve teachers from other subjects? Use several teacher friends to develop a project. The buddy system taught in kindergarten doesn't need to be forgotten here.
Think about the essential question. Is this something that can be done in a group or is it a solo project? If it is group work, what role does each student have to have?
Just like in literature circles each individual has to have a job or they can get by without doing the reading. In Project Based Learning, with group work, every individual has to have a job. Consider the make up of the group. Do the groups contain one of those all knowing G/T students in so that every group has a project? Every project is right on task and the teacher can pat themselves on the back for having such wonderful projects. You know what will happen. That all knowing G/T student will do all the work and the group will get an A and no one but the G/T student will have learned anything but the G/T student will have complained the whole time about doing all of the work and an argument will break out yet the G/T student wouldn't let anyone help them because they fear it not being done right. WHEW!!!! but isn't that the way it is? A suggestion from our superintendent is putting the lower achieving students in a group and see if someone doesn't rise to the top of being a leader. Think about how groups are going to be created. Random drawing is one of my favorites. I like for my groups to contain people that would not always choose to be together. It creates new social circles.
If it is decided every individual has to have a project, do not rule out the importance of collaboration. Have the students checking one another's works for material and facts. Peer edit. Peer research. Collaboration is not bad. It is not cheating. It is getting the best ideas from one another. Hey, if collaboration is bad, throw away that Pinterest project you have been working on. Create all your own recipes. UHHH Collaboration not bad. Collaboration Good!
When thinking about the project, give the students options. They do not always have to have the same project as everyone else. Get a variety. There are multiple 2.0 websites that students can work on to create projects. There are also the basic office tools on every computer.
How much time is going to be allowed? Mrs. Ferguson from Fort Smith, Arkansas allows one day less than she thinks they will need. One day less! That way the slackers have to get on the horse and get their project completed and the students that get done quickly aren't sitting around waiting for the others to get done. And by the way, projects do not have to take weeks and weeks. They can involve just a couple of days. They also do not have to be made for the history channel videos.
Now create your rubric. Decide what is important about thier presentation. Is it 100 per cent about achieving the actual goal or does grammar, work ethic, presentation, etc need to be taken into account? (Rubistar creates great rubrics.)
We haven't even started the teaching. The Background planning is important. Project Based Learning takes time in the background planning.
Now you need what we champions of the PET model call an Anticipatory Set. The hook, the ready set, go of the lesson. The getting the learner ready to learn something new. Get them involved and wanting to know more. Present the material. Remember there are more ways than lecture to present what the student needs to learn. There is puzzling, researching, trial and error, videos, interactive lessons, the list can go on and on.
Now present them with that essential question you came up with. Give them some options of how they are going to present. I wouldn't open up the playing field and say "In some way, I want you to answer this question......" No, I would give them a choice. Create a brouchure, Create a power point, Create a Prezi, a Voki....... Have them create something but give them some parameters of what they can use.
Facilitate at this point. Do not become the all knowing answer giver. Do not be the "Sage on the Stage" but rather the "Guide on the Side." Become the one that asks questions to their questions. The PET model would call this monitoring and assessing. Track their progress. Make sure no student is falling behind and that the students are staying on task. Use this time to become involved in the students' products. It may be found that a little more teaching is necessary at this point. By monitoring and assessing, a teacher can see what needs to be done to achieve the goal of the essential question.
Keep in mind just answering the essential question is not enough. There must be proof. Just because the students come up with an answer is not the end. There has to be proof..... So you see even wrong answers can be right (sometimes) if the proof is there.
And finally, how are these going to be presented to the class? Are the parents invited in? Will there be videos made to post to school's website or social media so that the projects can be viewed in the future? Presentation and Publishing are important to the students' accountability. Knowing the magnitude of the audience makes one more aware of how their project needs to look.
Project Based Learning is going to take time and effort. I see a lot of similarities in Project Based Learning and Good Teaching. Good Teachers already made these tasks part of their daily routine. I see the projects taking the place of the worksheets of the past. I see the teaching still there but including discussion and student peformance and investigation. It is going to be difficult to always come up with a project for everything that is taught. Learning by the teachers is going to have to take place. Given time- the teachers will rise to the challenge. I do hope to see Engaging Learning by the students.
Thanks to edutopia.com for their helpful information.
