As I completed the readings in Thinking Through Project-Based Learning, I felt more and more deflated. I know that we were warned about how hard the implementation can be, but I feel COMPLETELY frustrated a lot of days with the slow progress (is there even really progress?!) that my students are making as we trudge through my Pieces of Me unit.
Here are some of the things that the chapters brought up for me:
Chapter 2
1. My kids' brains are not all in the same place right now. They've had different experiences and they are in different developmental places. I have some kids who are totally engaged in this process of self-discovery, and other students who are clueless when it comes to a journey into one's self. It could be something as simple as our first assignment to share 10 number facts about yourself (i.e. I have seven pets) and I have kids that are telling us they have 10 fingers. (Duh! Most of us do!) I have to find a way to do a better job of meeting each child where they are, but with 30 kids in a class, that is hard to do!!! As they share with their reflection teams, I am hoping that they are seeing strong examples and learning to be more open, but I also worry that they are not getting enough explicit instruction from me, which leads to me talking WAYYYYYYYY too much.
2. Novelty.... in my quest to create routines in the beginning of the school year, I've forgotten how important novelty is. Yes, it's nice to have a journal routine at the beginning of class, but I can't believe how differently they responded when the prompt was a YouTube video I'd selected. They wrote more and were much more enthusiastic. Need to latch onto that and work in more novelty in my class periods.
3. The struggle with executive function: I have got to provide opportunities and scaffolding for my kids so they can develop the ability to set goals, self-monitor, and manage time. Knowing that many of them are new to this style of learning, I know I have to help them "get on board" and find their way, but I feel like I am so "in charge" right now, and I can't seem to get out of my kids' way. I want to provide the explicit instruction and practice they need, but end up taking over. I think I am worried they are going to be stressed and thus don't allow them any chance to struggle.
Chapter 3:
1. This quote just feels like my project: "The key is engagement early on. We know that if a project is flat at the outset, it's going to be six weeks of dragging them along." They just have not embraced this unit like I thought they would.... :((((
2. Physical Space: This is such a point of frustration for me right now. Because I am floating, I don't have my own classroom to set up in a way I find conducive to learning. Thirty people in a room that I can't really reconfigure is tricky (not to mention, sometimes I arrive to find the room has been randomly rearranged by the teacher who occupies it). Tables are in rows when I need clusters or there isn't room for kids to gather in circles on the floor or in chairs with their reflection teams. We do have open community space, but with that I'm having trouble managing behaviors.... This is totally on me though. Just have to back up the bus and do some more modeling and "fishbowling" of groups who are doing things well and working on the task at hand.
3. Places to display the learning process: lacking this!!!! I have a small section of whiteboard in each classroom I float to where I can write our learning target and have posted our class's core values, but nowhere to hang student work or do our displays that I had been so excited about for our final piece. I may have students just set up their exhibits at their desk for the day and invite teachers and school leaders to come see their exhibits during their block. (And then where do I put everything to assess it?!?!?!) Oh, I guess I could take a photo of each exhibit!
Anyway, I hope this doesn't sound too negative, you guys. I just think it's really hard to jump right into a PBL as my first unit when I didn't know the kids yet (or the school yet). I would have preferred to have had the chance to model and teach more inquiry-style thinking and build collaboration skills with some simpler stuff first, but I won't give up!!!! (Imagine how great my unit will be second semester when I get my new crop of kids and have ironed out the bumps!?!?!) :)
I am with you Rachael! I think in the summer, we have this pie in the sky view of what our class will be like next year. Some of that is because we sent off a class to the next grade level who was ready to move on. What we get in the fall, is a class who is ill-prepared for our class. We have to settle in our brains that the class we have now will be the class we send off once we have taught them everything in the PBL way. And that, this class will eventually be better off than any other class we have had previously because we are learning more about how to encourage independent and group thinking in a more conducive to deeper learning method. Don't get discouraged. We will get them there.
ReplyDeleteHi Rachael,
ReplyDeleteYour post doesn't come across negative at all, rather it has the same honesty and sincerity that have come to define your style as both teacher and writer. I appreciate it. You brought up some obstacles that exist now with your current implementation of your unit that you wouldn't have known prior to the beginning of school...the floating classroom, the academic and social needs of your students, and whether or not the pbl launch would be novel enough to hook them. The good news is the pbl plan is never a linear, fixed plan, but rather an organic, malleable one that can shift and change and adjust to the unique needs of students and the setting of the implementation. Consider what can be changed and then decide on a course of action that will make the most impactful change. That may be adding a mid-unit launch that helps re-establish purpose or it may be figuring out a way to make the floating classroom more effective. Let me know how I can continue to support your work. Perseverance is everything with project based learning. You will finish this unit and you and your students will learn from it. That is success. Sincerely, Dawn