Two weeks ago, a group of teachers from my school were able to go tour Fisher Middle School in Greenville. After observing several of their teachers in the middle of a PBL, I was amazed at what they were accomplishing. Another aspect that really struck me was how accessible their projects were for students. Even with the amazing facilities and materials, every project I observed was something that I could easily adapt for my classroom. Just like our J.L. Mann visit, this really gave me insight into the day-to-day workings of a PBL classroom.
One of my biggest areas of growth and also something I noticed a lot at Fisher Middle was the teaching of soft skills within a project. Every project had some type of presentation component to it. Some projects were presented inside the classroom. Other projects were presented to other classes or groups. One class in particular filmed their presentations and showed them on their morning news report. This impressed me because it showed students that the "thing" they were creating was not the end of the project. The final culminating presentation was the end of the project.
I'm already planning a mini-PBL for after testing. This PBL will still have the same components of a traditional PBL, but more focus will be placed on the presentation and the use of soft skills. The culminating presentation will be for student groups to stand up and persuade/argue their research to the class. In previous PBLs, more emphasis was placed on the "product" and not the "presentation". I want to use this mini-PBL to help me develop my skills teaching and grading soft skills. I also want the students to take these lessons and apply them to the rest of their academic careers.
One of my biggest areas of growth and also something I noticed a lot at Fisher Middle was the teaching of soft skills within a project. Every project had some type of presentation component to it. Some projects were presented inside the classroom. Other projects were presented to other classes or groups. One class in particular filmed their presentations and showed them on their morning news report. This impressed me because it showed students that the "thing" they were creating was not the end of the project. The final culminating presentation was the end of the project.
I'm already planning a mini-PBL for after testing. This PBL will still have the same components of a traditional PBL, but more focus will be placed on the presentation and the use of soft skills. The culminating presentation will be for student groups to stand up and persuade/argue their research to the class. In previous PBLs, more emphasis was placed on the "product" and not the "presentation". I want to use this mini-PBL to help me develop my skills teaching and grading soft skills. I also want the students to take these lessons and apply them to the rest of their academic careers.
Hi Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing what you learned from your pbl visit to Fisher Middle with your colleagues from Gable. I am glad that you were able to go and took away some helpful tips for practical application of pbl components. I liked the idea of students presenting their projects during the morning news reports via videos. This is a great way to give students an authentic audience using the morning show structure that is already in place. I loved hearing that you are already planning your next pbl for your students on soft skills. This is a great idea and I am looking forward to hearing more about it at our next meeting.
Sincerely,
Dawn
My son goes to Fisher, so I wonder if you observed him in any of your classes. I would actually love to go visit Fisher and see how they incorporate PBL. I know that this type of learning really fits my son's learning style. Most of the time, I don't think it feels like traditional "learning". My son has told me about doing in class presentations, and I am hoping it will become something that is "second nature" to him so that he develops his soft skills more before he gets to high school. I love that Fisher is on A/B block and I love the way their school is designed for PBL-style learning.
ReplyDeleteSoft skills is another area I'm trying to incorporate into my curriculum as well. This school year is the first year I've added mandatory presentations in all levels (because of this class) and they hate it, but I do see results from them having to stand beside their work and present it in front of a group of their peers. I'm curious to see how some of them that presented last semester in level 1 do this semester in level 2, as it was obvious to all who observed that some of them didn't work as hard as they should on their presentations in the fall. I'm curious to see if that translates to better projects/presentations this spring.
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