Kristi Winslow - Video Selfie Reflection

Identifying what’s Important:  

                At the beginning of class, I had my students identify what was most important for them to include into their children’s storybooks.  The most important detail they were able to identify was that, they were to include cell organelles into a story.  They were not to focus on just the definition of cell organelles, but to use the mini lessons on plot and characterization to create creative stories that identify those organelles in analogy form. 

                The students then created a consensus chart.  First on what they believed was the most important to include in their children’s books and then come together as a group and come up with a consensus to share with the class.

Making Connections:

                I think the most difficult part of this particular project is ensuring my students are making connections between what they have learned about cells and what they have learned about creating a storybook.  With most students, I can observe that they understand that they are not just creating a story, but they are focusing on making connections with cell organelles and their analogies in order to teach young students about how a cell functions, but in a way that is interesting to them.  The reason this has been difficult is that I still have a handful of students that are not making the connections on what they are to include in their stories and are very confused on what they are exactly trying to accomplish.  I have many that, want to give pictures of organelles and their definitions, and are confused on how they can create what they know into a story. 

Incorporating Contextual Knowledge:

                I used what I know about my students and their different ability levels to place them into groups when coming up with a consensus on what they are needing to include in their books.  To ensure students were seeing ideas that they may not have thought about or thought is important to include.  The reason I had them in groups of different abilities for this protocol, is because they were able to choose their partners for the final project and I wanted to ensure each student had a variety of ideas to be the most successful as they could be. 

Next Steps:

                I feel for the first time trying this protocol, I believe my students did quite well.  Once we started and I explained exactly what it was I wanted them to do and gave examples, they were able to grasp the concept of what they were supposed to do.  In the future, I want to strive not to give so much input into what they need to do.  The whole idea of PBL is for them to learn to think and do on their own with teacher guidance.  I do not want to influence their thoughts by giving ideas and make them think that what they think is not important, because there are sometimes that they say things that I did not even think of, and they tend to have some great ideas.