I really enjoyed the visit to Emerald High School. I felt that the trip really helped put PBL into perspective. I realized there is no one correct way to implement PBL. I tend to be very structured at first and feel like I don't have permission to deviate from what I've been told or taught. I realized that PBL regardless of how it looks is occurring if students are engaged in the learning and solving of a real world problem in their content area.
What I really liked was the students involved in discussing the roles of the group members in science. This was a political science lesson within the science classroom. In the computer AP course I was amazed at what the students were doing. I liked that the students were actively engaged in the learning without instruction from the teacher. This was of course an AP course and the students are typically motivated in those classes so what is impressive is that the possibility of student choice in the artifact that they were creating. Students were able to follow the directions and work with one another collaboratively.
The English class was really well developed and Ms. Wells and Snelgroves class was a fantastic model of PBL in practice. I like how she told me they had essentially mini products to produce like the newspaper as well as the larger PBL timeline that goes on the hallway of the school.
The social studies class let me see that I didn't have to have every aspect of PBL student driven. The class used teacher created rubrics for the PBL projects. It made me realize that the implementation of every PBL protocol is not necessary. There is an ideal, but you may not necessarily be able to do that with every PBL.
Like you, I've struggled with attempting to implement every aspect of PBL into every single unit, and that's overwhelming and sometimes sends me in the complete opposite direction. Ms. Wells and the other teachers at Emerald HS demonstrated how "easy" PBL can be to implement it successfully.
ReplyDeleteHi Kim,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your thoughtful reflection of what we observed in our visit to Emerald High School. I am glad that from seeing colleagues in another setting implement various aspects of pbl in multiple disciplines helped confirm that there is no "right way", rather the implementation is a construction of what your students' needs are, what they need to know to be successful in the unit and the effective components of project based learning. The pbl protocols we've learned are all possibilities and are meant to be implemented to build and provide ongoing support. Every pbl I've ever created and/or supported looks a little different. I am thankful for your willingness to try out this structure and adjust it to meet your students and your standards.
Sincerely,
Dawn
It is intimidating trying to make everything student centered. However, our goal is to make one more assignment student centered, not all. That is what keeps my calm.
ReplyDelete