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.
Brainstorming: More Questions Than Answers | Product Talk There’s been a lot of confusion around brainstorming these days. First, there was the New Yorker article by Jonah Lehrer claiming that brainstorming doesn’t work. Scott Berkun wrote a rebuttal arguing Lehrer’s logic was flawed. Twitter exploded with comments. I’m going to try to make sense of it all. What is brainstorming? The term was introduced by Alex Faickney Osborn in his books, Your Creative Power and Applied Imagination , from the late 1940s / early 1950s. Osborn argued in order for brainstorming to work, people had to overcome social inhibitions and focus on generating a large number of ideas. * Focus on quantity. * Withhold criticism. * Welcome unusual ideas. * Combine and improve ideas. Some of these might sound familiar, the first two in particular, as these are what we typically associate with brainstorming. Why brainstorming might not work? , Leherer’s book, does. To be clear, this is not the same study that Berkun criticizes in his rebuttal. This study is well designed. . . .
Ten Things I've Learned in Going Project-Based It's a few days before Christmas and I expect a challenge. Students will be checked-out or hyper. However, to my surprise, they are fully engaged in a project that combines reading, writing, global awareness and critical thinking. I've mentioned before that this year has been challenging. However, I am realizing that my students excel when I approach a subject with a project-based framework. Here are some things I've learned over the last few years as I've transitioned toward a more project-based approach: Students need to be a part of the planning process.
Say What? 5 Ways to Get Students to Listen Ah, listening, the neglected literacy skill. I know when I was a high school English teacher this was not necessarily a primary focus; I was too busy honing the more measurable literacy skills -- reading, writing, and speaking. But when we think about career and college readiness, listening skills are just as important. This is evidenced by the listening standards found in the Common Core and also the integral role listening plays in collaboration and communication, two of the four Cs of 21st century learning. So how do we help kids become better listeners? Strategy #1: Say it Once Repeating ourselves in the classroom will produce lazy listening in our students. Of course you don't want to leave distracted students in the dust so for those few who forgot to listen, you can advise them to, "ask three, then ask me." Strategy #2: Turn and Talk One way to inspire active listening in your students is to give them a listening task. Strategy #3: Student Hand Signals Motivating Words
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.
The dumbest generation? No, Twitter is making kids smarter Part of an occasional series about the way digital culture affects the way we think, learn and live. Sara: Haha there was a weird comercial for computers that had flying sumo wrestlers John: Hahaha saweeeeet I’m still tryin to picture how that works Sarah: Haha yeah so am I this opening ceremony is so weird John: It must be Sarah K: Now there’s little kids doing karate This is a typical teenage text exchange captured by an academic. Add five hours or so a day spent online, where the most common activity is yet more typing away on social networks. This outpouring often produces an anguished outcry, particularly in September as kids head back to school and screen time starts competing with homework: Technology, pundits warn, is zombifying our young and wrecking their ability to communicate clearly. But is this actually “the dumbest generation”? In fact, there’s powerful evidence that digital tools are helping young people write and think far better than in the past. Literate? It hadn’t.
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"
Stop trying to figure out if screentime is good for students You may have read the recent New York Times story No Child Left Untableted. Like others before it (Seeing no progress, some schools drop laptops), these stories have the wrong focus. They narrow in on the tool itself, and draw apocalyptic conclusions -- Technology May Be Destroying Children! Conducting device-focused research makes as little sense as doing research on pens, papers, folders, book-binding, and three-ring notebooks. To put it in perspective, think of it this way... We don’t research the effectiveness of paper in relation to learning to read…instead, we focus research on strategies that support reading i.e. phonicsWe don’t research the effectiveness of pens in relation to learning to write…instead, we focus research on strategies that support writing i.e. writers workshop What we need to do is scratch beneath the doom and gloom predictions of what these devices might mean to students. Unfortunately, we are not focusing on this. But is this what we’re talking about?
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
A Very Academic Problem The Teachers vs The Greeks Teachers: Please stop using the word ‘academic’. You don’t know what it means. What’s worse is that you perpetuate the problems in education every time you misuse the word. No doubt, the more alert among you will point me towards the dictionary to defend yourselves. We need to go back to the Greek root of the word if we are going to get to the hidden heart of it: Akademos comes from the Greek for “healing the people” as is most famously associated with ‘The Academy’ in Athens and some of the greatest minds in Western philosophy. So already, we have associations with healing, peace, tranquility, thinking, holistic growth and wisdom. Let’s look to The Academy for more: The Academy is most famously associated with Plato. The Academics of The Academy There was a strong tradition of skepticism and questioning.There was often no easy distinction between teacher and student.Knowledge was acquired primarily by means of the Socratic method. And so on… Postscript: Postscript
Getting Started with Project-Based Learning (Hint: Don't Go Crazy) Andrew Miller, Educational Consultant and Online Educator AUGUST 6, 2012 www.edutopia.org Before the start of the school year, many of us want to use the remaining weeks of summer to learn some new skills — such as project-based learning (PBL). One of the things we stress for new PBL practitioners is, as I say, "don't go crazy." It's easy to go "too big" when you first start PBL. I have heard from many teachers new to PBL that a large, eight-week integrated project was a mistake. So how do you start PBL in ways that will ensure your success as a learner and teacher? Start Small As I said, "Don't go crazy!" Plan Now One of the challenges of PBL, but also one of the joys, is the planning process. Limited Technology We love technology, but sometimes we get too "tech happy." Know the Difference Between PBL and Projects This is the big one! We are all learners, and when we start something new, we start small. Related
5 Powerful Questions Teachers Can Ask Students My first year teaching a literacy coach came to observe my classroom. After the students left, she commented on how I asked the whole class a question, would wait just a few seconds, and then answer it myself. "It's cute," she added. Um, I don't think she thought it was so cute. So that day, I learned about wait/think time. Many would agree that for inquiry to be alive and well in a classroom that, amongst other things, the teacher needs to be expert at asking strategic questions, and not only asking well-designed ones, but ones that will also lead students to questions of their own. Keeping It Simple I also learned over the years that asking straightforward, simply-worded questions can be just as effective as those intricate ones. #1. This question interrupts us from telling too much. #2. After students share what they think, this follow-up question pushes them to provide reasoning for their thinking. #3. #4. #5. How do you ask questions in your classroom?