For my presentation, I took a different route. Dawn came to my school several times to talk with the science and social studies teachers about PBL, so most of the teachers in my school already have a basis of what makes project based learning. I decided to make my peer presentation more of an open discussion where I could provide support and help to those teachers unsure of using PBL in their classrooms.
At the beginning of my discussion, it became apparent which teachers have already worked with PBL and which were still nervous about undertaking a project. After quickly covering how to make a past project more into a PBL, I gave teachers some time to share their thoughts and questions. I have shared a few of those questions and my thoughts/feelings below.
1) Does PBL have to be in partners?
Because of the huge collaboration component, SOME of the PBL has to be in partners or group-based. In my experience, however, I do not think it is necessarily beneficial or required that the entire project be group-based. One social studies teacher, who had already tried their first PBL, said that their project consisted of 3 "tasks" the students had to complete. Task 1 and 2 were more individual based, where as task 3 was taking the individual work and transforming it into one cohesive project. I personally believe that middle schoolers can only handle 3 or 4 days sitting in the same group. There is a lot of benefit to breaking up a long project, or even adding "tasks" to vary the amount of work.
2) How do I grade each student individually?
This is a question that many teachers had when starting our PBL class in the summer. Through our class time, I've learned that PBL does not mean you do away with those individualized assessments. PBL also doesn't mean that your culminating grade necessarily has to be all group-based. There are a lot of different ways you can grade students to make sure each receives that individualized feedback.
My encouragement at the end of the discussion was for teachers to just try PBL. Most teachers admitted to planning some type of project after our standardized testing. I hope they will take that project and infuse some PBL attributes to that project to make it more real-world and authentic.
At the beginning of my discussion, it became apparent which teachers have already worked with PBL and which were still nervous about undertaking a project. After quickly covering how to make a past project more into a PBL, I gave teachers some time to share their thoughts and questions. I have shared a few of those questions and my thoughts/feelings below.
1) Does PBL have to be in partners?
Because of the huge collaboration component, SOME of the PBL has to be in partners or group-based. In my experience, however, I do not think it is necessarily beneficial or required that the entire project be group-based. One social studies teacher, who had already tried their first PBL, said that their project consisted of 3 "tasks" the students had to complete. Task 1 and 2 were more individual based, where as task 3 was taking the individual work and transforming it into one cohesive project. I personally believe that middle schoolers can only handle 3 or 4 days sitting in the same group. There is a lot of benefit to breaking up a long project, or even adding "tasks" to vary the amount of work.
2) How do I grade each student individually?
This is a question that many teachers had when starting our PBL class in the summer. Through our class time, I've learned that PBL does not mean you do away with those individualized assessments. PBL also doesn't mean that your culminating grade necessarily has to be all group-based. There are a lot of different ways you can grade students to make sure each receives that individualized feedback.
My encouragement at the end of the discussion was for teachers to just try PBL. Most teachers admitted to planning some type of project after our standardized testing. I hope they will take that project and infuse some PBL attributes to that project to make it more real-world and authentic.
Hi Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the open sessions you have scheduled with your colleagues at Gable and I support the advice you gave them. I agree that collaboration has to be balanced with individual application and accountability. As adults we know that if we had to work collaboratively with our peers everyday we would struggle. We need time to construct meaning on our own as well as together and we need time to think and to regroup. Our students benefit from this balance too. You also shared that grading also has to be a balance. This is important because our students have unique needs and abilities and effective educators have to use formative assessments that are individual and collaborative in order to know their students' needs/interests/abilities in respect to the content.
Thank you for the support you provide for pbl to both your students and your colleagues.
Sincerely,
Dawn