Reading Reflection 11

One thing that occurs as a result of project based learning is that the classroom changes as a whole. Teachers begin to look at what is actually happening inside the classroom among the students instead of just feeding the curriculum to the students. Students also begin to grow up a little more by understanding project management, big picture thinking, meeting deadlines and the importance of being professional. 

Some ways to “bring your project home” is create a project library where you can access other projects, turn your projects into online archives where other teachers can see what kinds of projects you did within your classroom, enter a contest to get exposure for your project as well as constructive criticism from outside colleagues.

I am going to use these concepts in my project by making sure the students actually receive from benefits of it. I am going to make sure the students have a good results coming out of it. I also will allow other colleagues to look at my project and receive criticism and allow them to use it as well. 

Shelly Henderson - EDT 3470 - Reading Reflection #11

     Many great things occur as a result of using the PBL approach.  A project doesn’t just simply come to an end.  It opens doors and creates connections for future projects.  Teachers and students both have something to celebrate and many memories to look back on.  They may also have “souvenirs and artifacts” that they have collected along the way that will serve as reminders of where they have been.   As we learned in the previous chapter, reflecting back on the project not only helps the students, but it also helps the teacher learn what worked, what can be improved, and what can be implemented the next time around.  Students are filled with ideas and thoughts, and have new skills that will prepare them for the future in the real-world.

     Teachers can (and should!) “bring it home” in regards to their projects.  They can look back on their journeys and look for activities where the students were thoroughly engaged, then use these activities on a future project with different learning goals.  They can look for a theme that emerged from the projects and maybe use it on another project to connect the learning.  Teachers should talk with their colleagues and do a “project debrief” where they can work together to see where improvements need to be made.  Talking with colleagues could also include reviewing students’ products to see what the level of student understanding was.  Teachers could also “bring it home” by sharing with other teachers.  Sharing projects will help someone else learn, just like you did when you began.  A great way to do this is through an online database or by starting a project library for your school or district.  Teachers should and can be a resource for each other. 

     This chapter relates to our project because we are wrapping things up and “bringing it home.”  I think we are doing that through the creation of our website.  Through this website we are showcasing all of our project ideas and reflecting in the process.  We are seeing what has worked, what needs some tweaking and what we would do differently in the future.  We are taking all the new skills we have acquired and are putting them to work on something that we can share with other teachers, and even add to our own project library.  We are coming away with new 21^st-century skills and a sense of what it means to collaborate.  We have a good idea of what a PBL project is like and can share that knowledge with our future students.  

Final Concept Map

Shelly Henderson - EDT 3470 - Reading Reflection #10

     Setting time aside for reflection is a very important piece of a PBL project.  Students need to be given time to reflect back on where they were at the beginning of the project and where they ended up.  They need the chance to look at themselves as learners and think about what they learned, their growth, and even what they want to learn in future projects.  With good questions, you can have meaningful conversations with your students and help them gain some deeper insight into themselves as learners.  You can help them see how they improve in specific skills and also in specific content areas.  I think that reflecting on your learning journey should also include celebrating.  It is important for them to look at their positive experiences, see how they have gained confidence, look at the moments that surprised them, and even better see what their strengths are.  

     Students should also be encouraged to elaborate with their reflecting and look to the future.  They should think about what they want to learn, where they want to head next, and how they want to get there.  Helping them elaborate will help them think big and they may even come up with a project that is greater than one you could come up with. Reflection is good for anyone, and is an especially important part of a 21^st Century project. 

     Schools where students work on PBL projects have a chance to share something great with their school and their community.  They become a part of a tradition of excellence that can be passed down.  The community around them offers support and becomes genuinely interested in what they are doing.  As the students become more aware of this, they are encouraged to work even harder to serve that community and being role models for younger students.  When a class becomes project-oriented and shares their work, everyone is inspired and wants to keep the tradition going. 

     I believe whole-heartedly in celebrating my students and their work!  I think it is really important for them to “show-off” what they have accomplished.  I think it is a great idea to hold a student expo where students not only display their project, but also talk about it.  Students deserve the opportunity to feel pride in their work and the chance to share it.  Celebrating with them is a wonderful way for you to learn what your students remember and what they value. 

     When reading this chapter, I was reminded that it is important to have a strong beginning and a strong end to my project.  I need to think more thoroughly about how to wrap things up at the end and have an appropriate celebration of sorts.  

Reading Reflection 10

Setting aside time for reflection because students need time to see all the accomplishments and skills they have gained through their journey of the projects. Students get to actually create their own meaning of the project and not just the idea that you as their teacher may have had in mind.  

Students need time to reflect and elaborate because students need the opportunity to see how their project skills have grown throughout the entire project. Students also will see how well they can give and receive critical feedback, and how they hold themselves to standards that are set by themselves and others. Students also need the opportunity to see what challenges they have overcome and realize that they worked hard and accomplished things that they believed were impossible. This will help show students what they did to actually make the project move forward. Lastly students need time to reflect on positive experiences that make them more confident and cause them to look for more. 

Schools build tradition and identity through being proud of something that their school is good at. Some schools are really good at sports and the community rallies around the team, other schools are great at school symphonies and have concerts held year round and other schools are good really proud of science competitions and have medals displayed from years of winnings. Within your classroom set a tradition so students will be excited to come into your classroom and want to participate in the tradition. 

Celebrating students work is awesome to allow your students to actually care about the amount of effort they put into the project. Put on an event, create a blog, hang up the art work through displays or cabinets where your school’s identity will be built up as place of learning through projects. 

I will use these concepts in my project because I will try to show the entire school or at least our pen pals in showing our weather reports. I will also have the students reflect on the type of work that they did and how much they have learned and accomplished throughout the project. 

Shelly Henderson - EDT 3470 - Reading Reflection #9

Understanding your students’ prior knowledge is important when beginning a PBL project.  You need to know where they are each starting in terms of what they bring to the class.  Everyone will likely come with a different set of skills and have varying ideas about the subject.  A great way to find out about your students’ prior knowledge is to do an activity like a K-W-L chart, a small group or whole class brainstorming, or some sort of pre-assessment.  Completing an “anchor” activity like these will help you see where your students are starting and how far they will need to go to meet the learning goals you have set for them.  I think it is good for students to see where they began as they finish their projects.  It can be rewarding to see your own personal growth along the way.  Also, establishing anchors will help you, the teacher, provide learning opportunities for all your students and will help you help all learners to be successful.  We have learned how important it is to have milestones set up along the way in a PBL project to help with assessment, and I think an anchor activity would provide a solid beginning for each student. 

In your classroom, it is important to pick your assessments carefully.  You want to be sure you are successfully assessing the learning and looking at whether the learning goals you established for your students were met.  Using rubrics that you develop according to the goals is a great idea.  This way, students can see so much more than just a letter grade.  When creating a rubric, collaborating with your students is even better.  They get much more meaningful feedback this way.  Online grade books also are a great tool for assessing.  These help teachers communicate with students and parents so everyone can see what is going on all along the way.  Good conversations can happen when the data is readily available.  Being able to measure student understanding goes beyond the traditional tests that we have all suffered through.  As a teacher, it is important that you set up assessments that truly reflect what learning happens, what learning goals were met, and what the student’s level of understanding is.  Your assessments should be meaningful!

This chapter encouraged me to think about my project and look at where I would assess along the way.  I thought about what I would do at the end for assessment so that I can get a good idea of what the level of understanding was compared to what it was at the beginning.  Also, I thought about what I could do at the beginning to gauge where my students are in terms of prior knowledge.  I think I have more work to do in the overall outline of my project and need to look more closely at how and when I assess.

Reading Reflection 9

One method of understanding students’ prior knowledge is to do some type of activity that you can use to determine how much a students has learned either inside another classroom or out in the world. One activity that you can do with your students to get their prior knowledge is K-W-L which stands for know, want to know and what you learned. This will show you not only how much they already but what they have some ideas about and what they do not. 

The importance of establishing anchors for a project is to have a sense of a starting point for students and how far that they have to work in order to meet their learning goal. It is important to realize that each student will have different anchors, for example one student who may be dyslexic needs to have an anchor of taking maybe 2 hours to type a paper where as a general ed student may take thirty minutes to type the paper. 

One way to asses your students on what they learned during projects is to have the students create a comic book where they use specific quotes and descriptions from a specific book they are reading. Another is having your students create their own book using specific idioms that they had been blogging about, then have the students share these books with one another. One other way to asses your students is have them put together a portfolio about what they are learning and explain to them that experts in these fields will be looking over their portfolios. Then have the experts help you grade them and give the students feedback on how they could improve. The last example in this book is to enter the students work for publication. This will encourage the students to do a better job, therefore making their stories reflect more of what they learned. 

One way that I am going to use these concepts in my project is to have the students fill out a K-W-L explaining what they already know about weather, some different things that they want to know and when finished have the students share what they actually learned from the project. Another concept I am going to use is the different ways to asses students on what they learned. I am going to asses the students based on their weather channel, which will include things that they learned like how to tell temperature/predict the temperature, how to give the report itself and how to read a weather map.