An "Aha!" moment came today after talking with Dawn about what makes the project I am creating this week different from other projects. With my particular project, it would be easy to give my students all the information about immigration in the early 1900s, explain what is happening with immigration today, then have them write a persuasive letter and create a piece of art as a culminating project. The difference, though, is that with "main course" PBL, the students are creating WHILE they are learning, instead of afterward. Our conversations today and this article really helped me understand the difference between traditional projects and PBL. If my students are finding information themselves, discussing with each other, and developing opinions based on what they research rather than what I tell them, their letters are going to be more meaningful and authentic. If I keep this in mind and apply this mindset to other units, my classroom will definitely be a place where PBL is the main course.
Two years ago, I gave my students a writing assignment (westward expansion journal) AFTER I taught them all the information they needed to know. They did well, and I was pleased with their products, but the journals all sounded basically the same. Last year, we wrote the journals while we were learning about westward expansion, and they were tasked with finding the majority of the information they needed for it on their own. I was amazed at the interesting facts they found and included in their journals, and they were so much more interesting to read than the year before! Yes, I did have to stop for some mini-lessons to make sure that all standards were being addressed, but their personal touches made the writing more meaningful to them, and they enjoyed the process so much more.
I am fortunate to have administrators that are supportive of PBL and encouraging us to try it in our classrooms. In fact, I was given permission to fail, as long as I try! I feel more confident trying something new and scary knowing that I will have my principal's support no matter the outcome. I want my students to have this same confidence as we work through our PBL units this year, and I want them to know that I (and their classmates) will be there to pick them up and guide them in a new direction if needed. It is also encouraging that 2 other teachers in different grade levels are participating in this course as well, so we will have PBL being implemented from K5-5th grade! I truly feel that our faculty will be willing to come and observe, ask questions, and try PBL in their classrooms as well, so I am not anxious, but excited about the future of Bobo!
I think learning to shift from the "dessert" model to the "main course" model is hard because I think most of us were taught with the dessert model. It's everywhere, even in a lot of professional development and in professional learning I've done outside the district (I'm thinking about workshops I've taken). I've been doing at least some form of PBL for 7 years and I can see how I need to change a lot of what I do after just two days of the class, because it doesn't get the idea of the product and it's real-world implications in their minds soon enough.
ReplyDeleteJessica! I wanted to hug you when I read this post last night! I love your journey story of moving from a linear model that culminates in a project towards a project based learning model where students are applying what they are learning into their project as they go. Your western expansion journals are great examples of this! I am excited about how this understanding of sustained inquiry will be applied in your current pbl you are designing and how this understanding will be used to help support your colleagues at Bobo with their pbl creation as well.
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