Project Based Learning-Common Elements/Teacher and Student Roles

In this first week of the Project-Based Learning class, I read 3 articles and viewed 3 videos about different Project-Based Lessons. Some of the design principles that were evident in all three lessons presented included real life problems or situations, development of guiding or essential questions for students to answer in their work, group work or collaboration, integration of other curriculum skills, access to outside experts, and planned assessment.

The teacher’s role as a planner and facilitator is to present a situation, or to help students identify a problem or topic, and then facilitate a discussion that generates a list of questions.   Part of the planning responsibility is to strategically group students.  According to the project materials for the architecture project, Ms. Reeders had pre-identified students as Project Managers.  Each group had to have one Project Manager, but other than that students could arrange their group with 2 to 4 people per group.  This provides students with an opportunity to develop their ability to give and receive feedback, to share labor, and to negotiate ideas in order to produce their best work.

In all three of the projects, there were pre-designed learning tasks that included research, measurement, construction, writing, and data collection.  The teachers’ roles shifted to more of an overseer.  They provided feedback and asked questions throughout the project process.  The teacher is also observing how well the students work with their teammates throughout the project.

I found it most interesting that all of the projects provided access to professional experts from the field of study.  After reading the first article and viewing the video, I thought that it was a wonderful bonus piece, but had not considered that it might be key to the Project-Based Learning approach.  Inviting professionals into the classroom, fieldtrips to a worksite or museum, or in our new world-- online collaboration opportunities can enhance the real-world connection for students.

Assessment was ongoing, but most notably there seemed to be elements of product such as a data collection folder or a model, oral presentation in the form of questioning or group presentation, and reflection about the learning process and what the students ultimately learned.

The role of the teacher is best described as planner, organizer, facilitator or coach.  The role of the student is best described as researcher, builder, designer, collaborator, data collector, analyzer, and presenter. 

I have searched and cannot figure out where I heard it first, but someone quoted someone as saying, “The one doing the talking is the one doing the learning.”  Even though I do not know the source, the comment makes sense to me.  In the videos viewed this week the students were talking together and solving problems together, and designing their own systems for solving those problems.  If the teacher were to engage only in direct lecture and model style instruction the students become passive receptacles for information.  As the students are researching, finding solutions, or manipulating information for themselves, they are learning.  If the students are then asked to organize and present their new information or project, they have another opportunity to rehearse what they have learned, and they may even renegotiate or revise their product at this time. By the time students have a chance to sit back and reflect on the entire project from start to finish, they have had multiple active engagements with the concepts and more authentic and memorable learning experiences. 

Resources:
Armstrong, S. 2002. Geometry Students Angle into Architecture Through Project Learning. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/geometry-real-world-students-architects.

Curtis, D.  2002.  March of the Monarchs: Students Follow the Butterflies’ Migration.  Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/march-monarchs.

Curtis, D.  2001.  More Fun Than a Barrel of . . . Worms?!.  Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/more-fun-barrel-worms.

Google Earth--A Journey of Mythic Proportion

Back in the 1980’s when I went to college right after high school I took a class called Oriental Mythology.  The class was far from the regular old freshman curriculum, and I loved it.  My mom was a professor of World Religions and Philosophies and my dad was a Congregational minister, so I felt like I was pretty well versed in bible stories and mythology.  One of the books for the course was Joseph Campbell’s, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, and while we read about Moses, and mythology like the Gilgamesh Epic and Monkey: Folk Novel of China, I was mesmerized by the overlapping characteristics of all of these stories.  I dreamed my own story of a people huddled together on the supercontinent, Pangaea, separated one day or over the course of years by cataclysmic geologic events like our neighbors in New Zealand and Japan are experiencing.  And these people without the benefit of Wi-Fi and mobile phones, communicated through story, but could not call their grandmother in Florida to ask the order of events or verify the names of people.

Every year I am amazed at how easy it is for kids, and really for all of us, to identify the differences between others and ourselves. We struggle to find that common ground.  My thinking is that these myths and the idea of the archetype of the hero might be a place to start.

By noting what is common in these stories from around the world I hope to provoke group discussion about different cultures and other possible areas of overlap in the ten cultural universals.  I also hope to generate some self-reflection as the students look at their own lives to see if maybe they also have heroic qualities. By studying other cultures and providing activities that help students to personally connect, I can encourage the development of the respectful and ethical minds in my students.

The Massachusetts state standards addressed in this lesson include: Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Frameworks

7.32 Describe the myths and stories of classical Greece; give examples of Greek gods and goddesses, heroes, and events, and where and how we see their names used today. (H)

7.8 Identify polytheism (the belief that there are many gods) as the religious belief of the people in Mesopotamian civilizations. (H)

7.21 Describe the monotheistic religion of the Israelites. (H)
A. the belief that there is one God B. the Ten Commandments C. the emphasis on individual worth and personal responsibility D. the belief that all people must adhere to the same moral obligations, whether ruler or ruled E. the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) as part of the history of early Israel.

 7.32 Describe the myths and stories of classical Greece; give examples of Greek gods and goddesses, heroes, and events, and where and how we see their names used today. (H)

This lesson is not isolated to just one strand of learning.  By using Google Earth a sense of distance and space is modeled, and the students can easily spot geographic features that they have learned about in their text such as the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and the islands that comprise Greece.  Although students will not necessarily choose to present their assignments in a traditional writing format, by using the Read, Write, Think planning tool, students will learn a system for organizing their ideas toward composition and presentation. In addition, students will gain skills working with computers and online tools that can be applied in both the educational and social contexts.

Enjoy The Following Google Earth Virtual Field Trip:
A Journey of Mythic Proportion  
A_Journey_of_Mythic_Proportion.kmz

Developing My Five Minds

Developing My Five Minds for the Future
Gardner, Howard. (2006). Five minds for the future. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Developing the Respectful and Ethical Mind

Julene Reed suggests in her article, Global Collaboration and Learning, that “Digital Storybooks" are one way that “Students can capture the essence of their lives.”   With that in mind, I have been trying to find a way to help my small group of students get interested in using iPads for composing text.  Part of my rational is to get the kids used to the flat touch keyboard of the iPad, so that they can efficiently use this tool to meet writing requirements in the classroom.  The other part of my reasoning is that we have been doing a lot of what I call heavy writing, meaning essay writing or writing in response to assigned reading. They’re not having fun, and I can see the words “I hate writing” creasing into their foreheads as they concentrate on forming letters to meet the demands of their 6th grade curriculum.

I located an iPad app called 99 Words that allows students to co-author a progressive story.  In order to build a relationship with the two fifth graders and three 6th graders attending a rural K-6 school in Trout Creek Montana, my students in Shrewsbury Massachusetts can choose a genre with my support,  and then start a story.  Each of the 5 students participating from my small group class will write a chapter, which can consists of anywhere from 1 to 99 words. When they have finished, they pass the story to their Montana classmate to compose the next chapter of 1 to 99 words.  When 10 chapters have been written, the book is ready to publish and share. 

I would like to have some sort of videoconference, read-aloud session where each student meets their co-author partner via Skype, and then they read their story together chapter by chapter.

I know that Trout Creek, Montana does not seem like a huge stretch when we are talking about “global education” and “global citizenship,” but there is a vast socio-economic and cultural chasm between this small school and community to the one my own students live in.  For example they have a total of five 5th and 6th graders while my current school has close to 1,000.  The number of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch at the Trout Creek Montana School is 61% and at my current school is 10%. Trout Creek’s median household income is $33,724, while Shrewsbury’s is more than double at $81,643.  One possible advantage their school has over ours is that their total per pupil expenditure is $15,845, while ours is $10,235.  

Trout Creek, MT---March 1, 2011

There are many winter days that students cannot get to school because they live so far off the beaten track that it takes days for them to dig themselves out.  They do not have a large peer group to challenge them or to choose from for friends.  Several of the children live off the grid and use combinations of alternative energies to preserve food, warm water, and to stay warm.  There are families that have lived there for 17 or more years without indoor plumbing and on-demand hot water. There is not cell phone service until you are a good 15 miles out of Trout Creek, but there is free Wi-Fi access at the Naughty Pine Saloon (I posted a Moodle discussion for EDIM-501 from the parking lot this summer☺ 

One of the biggest deciding factors for me in wanting to link with students at this school is to widen the social-cultural network for both sets of students. I knew a family that lived in that area.  They were so far back that they could not get their kids into town to go to school, so they homeschooled.  The web tools available to many families who must, or who choose to homeschool today, were not available.  As the children got older, one went away to Missoula to go to college, but quit after 1 year.   The other child enrolled for high school, but could not handle the experience either.  It was not the academics.  They had eaten every book that came their way, they invented and built all kinds of contraptions, and they had amazing number process skills, and they passed their state tests.  It came down to a social disconnect.  Neither young person could relate well in the larger society, and when they did not understand the expectations and had their first real social mishaps, they killed themselves.  They did this within a few years of each other. It was heartbreaking, and I keep wondering if there was something that could have been done in their younger years to better prepare them.

Hopefully after the initial story writing and video-conferencing we can keep the relationships going. I know that my students would benefit from learning about alternative energies, inventing to survive, and they would learn to respect their partners for the individual talents and skills that they have acquired from their parents and their unique experiences.

I would hope though, that we are not the only ones gaining something. I would like to think that our Montana student partners would benefit from using online collaborative tools like 99 Words and Skype, and that they would see this as an opportunity to build relationships outside of their community.  

Maybe by shortening the distance between Montana and Massachusetts, one lasting friendship can be forged and maybe a future business partnership can be built. All of the students will grow in their understanding of people with a safe, virtual step outside of their  own neighborhoods.

Reed, J. (undated). Global collaboration and learning. Retrieved March 27, 2011 from EDTECH Focus on K-12 
        Web site: http://www.edtechmag.com/k12/events/updates/global-collaboration-and-learning.html.