How to Reinvent Project Based Learning to Be More Meaningful By Thom Markham This is a crucial time for education. Every system in every country is in the process of figuring out how to reboot education to teach skills, application, and attitude in addition to recall and understanding. Helping students be able to grapple with increased problem solving and inquiry, be better critical and creative thinkers, show greater independence and engagement, and exhibit skills as presenters and collaborators is the challenge of the moment. That’s why so many educators are using the project based learning (PBL) model. However, it’s also time to reboot PBL. If PBL is to become a powerful, accepted model of instruction in the future, a vocabulary change may be in order — preferably to the term project based inquiry. 1. Infusing inquiry into the curriculum is the goal, so that instruction starts with questions rather than broadcasting content. First, think skills. Think strategically. Use PBL for entrepreneurial inquiry. Differentiate subjects. 2. 3. Reflect. 4.
Blogs as Showcase Portfolios I am a huge advocate of blogs as ongoing, reflective portfolios of student work. After using them with students for the last six years in a variety of formats in three different schools, in my opinion, they are the perfect container for sharing, organizing and reflecting on student learning. For starters, they are so amazingly easy to use. I’ve used blogs with students as young as third grade and it really only takes one lesson for them to understand the basics. In addition to the ease of use, the accessibility of connecting with other learners around the world, since work is online and easy to comment on, makes blogs a straightforward tool for building a global classroom. So I was very happy that YIS had an existing blogging portal, The Learning Hub, (set up by Colin and Brian last year) when I arrived last August. Basically, all I would like students to do is reflect on their goals for the year and share pieces of work that are important to them. Showcase Portfolio Include:
The Difference Between Doing Projects Versus Learning Through Projects The Difference Between Doing Projects Versus Learning Through Projects by Terry Heick We’ve clarified the difference between projects and project-based learning before. Projects are about the product, while project-based learning is about the process. Projects are generally teacher-directed, universal, and tangent to the learning, while project-based learning is student-centered, personal, and the learning pathway itself. Paul Curtis recently shared this excellent visual on twitter that takes a different approach to clarifying the difference, looking at it from the perspective of curriculum planning and instructional design. Note that this is only one approach. Thoughts, comments, or related resources in the comments below. The Difference Between Doing Projects Versus Learning Through Projects
Time to Break the Ice « The Art of Forgetting Tomorrow is the first day of school. As Shakespeare has so eloquently put it there will be “the whining schoolboy with his satchel/and shining morning face, creeping like snail/unwillingly to school.” (Not much has changed in 450 years.) I have had a few students and teachers tell me they aren’t ready to go back quite yet. The first day can be a bit awkward. So in honor of educators everywhere looking to start the year off right, here are some interesting and unique ice breakers you can use in class this week (or in the weeks to come if you’re not starting school quite yet): Octopus Pyramid BuildBuilds: Communication Skills, TeamworkSupplies: String, Rubber Bands, 10 Solo cups per groupThe How: To play, you’ll need to make ‘the octopus’ first. cut six to eight strand of string that are about 6″ each and tie them to a rubber band in a circle. I hope you can find one of these useful. Like this: Like Loading...
PBL Course Development: Collaboration Among Colleagues Author Jayesh Rao collaborates with his AP Biology design team. Photo credit: Bill Palmer At Sammamish High School, we're developing and implementing a comprehensive problem-based learning program for all of our students. Working closely with my peers during this process has become one of the highlights of my career as an educator. Stamina and Momentum Last year, my first experience with a PBL collaborative group was working with six teachers on an integrated biology/chemistry course. This came at a price, however. Attachment and Agreement Another interesting thing about last year's collaboration was the fact that the design group had been formed the previous year (2010-11). But that's the thing about collaboration -- you are never in a place where your ideas are the only ones, so you must be able to contribute without being too attached to the outcome. Little and Big Pictures This year I am a part of a new design team for AP biology.
Why English teachers should care about project-based learning: multiliteracies, assessment for learning and digital technologies. | There is impetus for pedagogical change in the English classroom. Bull and Anstey (2010, p.6) observed that, ‘literacy teaching and learning should respond to the rapid changes in literacy arising from increasing globalization, technology and social diversity.’ This transforming social, cultural and technological landscape necessarily brings with it a new set of opportunities and challenges for secondary English teachers. This study is designed to answer three questions: How are digital technologies used when project-based learning is introduced into the Australian secondary English classroom? The researcher is a practicing educator and this study draws on broader learning theories of constructivism, engagement, assessment and literacy. Founded in Constructivist theory, project-based learning (PBL) “involves completing complex tasks that typically result in a realistic product, event or presentation to an audience” (Barron and Darling-Hammond, 2008, p. 2). Figure 1 Data Collection Figure 2
Project-Based Learning from Start to Finish via Edutopia For this installment of Schools That Work, we chose Manor New Technology High School, a public high school that is part of the New Tech Network of schools. Located just outside of Austin in Manor, Texas, it is an entirely project-based learning school that has consistently achieved outstanding results since opening. We followed a project there for three weeks to find out what makes their model so effective. By Mariko Nobori There is a small town, about 12 miles east of Austin, Texas, where a high school devoted to teaching every subject to every student through project-based learning (PBL) opened five years ago. Related What Makes Project-Based Learning a Success? At one high school in Texas, where every class in every grade is project based, the answer is devotion to a consistent process, belief in relationships, and commitment to relevance… Similar post Apps for Learning Series Gets Interactive In "Collaboration Fluency"
Don’t do inquiry No, I’m not trying reverse psychology here. I really don’t want you to do inquiry in your classroom. Seriously. 10. 9. You’ll get no argument from me here. 8. Then again, they just might… Billy’s in the back of the room on the brink of drowning in his own drool puddle. 7. Neither is America. 6. Drill and kill, worksheets, videos on Friday, giving the same lecture every year, textbooks, pacing guides, etc. are all much easier to do. 5. You’ve got me there! 4. Maybe that says more about college than it does about kids and how they learn? 3. Nope. 2. Can you lose something you never really had in the first place? 1. Neither is work… I must not be doing it right, then. Do inquiry because you want to love teaching. Don’t do it because somebody with a blog said to. Note: this was previously published on my other blog – Wisdom Begins with Wonder Like this: Like Loading...
What Project-Based Learning Is — and What It Isn’t Screenshot/High Tech High The term “project-based learning” gets tossed around a lot in discussions about how to connect students to what they’re learning. Teachers might add projects meant to illustrate what students have learned, but may not realize what they’re doing is actually called “project-oriented learning.” And it’s quite different from project-based learning, according to eighth grade Humanities teacher Azul Terronez. Terronez, who teaches at High Tech Middle, a public charter school in San Diego, Calif says that when an educator teaches a unit of study, then assigns a project, that is not project-based learning because the discovery didn’t arise from the project itself. “If you inspire them to care about it and draw parallels with their world, then they care and remember.” For Terronez, the goal is to always connect classroom learning to its applications in the outside world. When Terronez assigns a writing project, it’s rarely just for a grade. Related