“There is a substantial body of research confirming that having a concrete problem as the focus for knowledge acquisition helps students retain their learning and comprehend it better.” University of Adelaide
Students are not born with an innate ability to select a format for publishing their learning. They need to see alternatives. They need time to play with those options to find what best fits different themes, genres, and intentions. This is part of the process of learning.
My friend Richard Byrne wrote a great blog post on five different video projects you can do with your classes. Take a look and see what will fit for your classroom. You always have help if you need it to implement any of these ideas.
I got an email from the Bard recently that supports a very strong point we’ve heard in our PBL training with BIE. We should be pulling our lessons and driving questions from real world events. Suzanne shared an email she receives as part of the NY Times Learning Network. Take some time and check the site out. You will find lesson ideas for all subject areas. It is well worth it, and the best part is that it can come to your email with top headlines selected with a focus on classroom, real world learning. Just look for the box in the right sidebar that says “The Learning Network Email Newsletter” and sign up there.
Students select a variety of ways to showcase their knowledge. Sometimes, they even bring in experts from beyond. Consider the amount of time it took to piece this little presentation together.
Consider the guts it took to perform in front of their peers:
Find even more great examples of student presentations here.
There is a lot to be said about how PBL and inquiry based learning allows all students the opportunity to shine. Here is one example of how that is occurring.
If you have had the PBL 101 training from BIE, you’ve seen this video. If you haven’t seen it, then you should. Sir Ken makes great points about the how everyone is “reforming” education.
The video and the summary below shows just how far students can reach in their learning if just given the opportunity to not have to go by the book. Want to learn more when you’re finished with this post? Go to the World Peace Game site.
Summary form the YouTube page:
THE FILM
World Peace…and other 4th-grade achievements interweaves the story of John Hunter, a teacher in Charlottesville, Virginia, with his students’ participation in an exercise called the World Peace Game. The game triggers an eight-week transformation of the children from students of a neighborhood public school to citizens of the world. The film reveals how a wise, loving teacher can unleash students’ full potential.
The film traces how Hunter’s unique teaching career emerges from his own diverse background. An African-American educated in the segregated schools of rural Virginia, where his mother was his 4th grade teacher, he was selected by his community to be one of seven students to integrate a previously all-white middle school. After graduation, he traveled extensively to China, Japan, and India, and his exposure to the Ghandian principles of non-violence led him to ask what he could do as a teacher to work toward a more peaceful world.
Hunter teaches the concept of peace not as a utopian dream but as an attainable goal to strive for, and he provides his students with the tools for this effort. The children learn to collaborate and communicate with each other as they work to resolve the Game’s conflicts. They learn how to compromise while accommodating different perspectives and interests. Most importantly, the students discover that they share a deep and abiding interest in taking care of each other. World Peace….and other 4th-grade achievements will inspire others by documenting the unheralded work of a true peacemaker.
THE GAME
The World Peace Game is a hands-on political simulation that gives players the opportunity to explore the connectedness of the global community through the lens of the economic, social, and environmental crises and the imminent threat of war. The goal of the game is to extricate each country from dangerous circumstances and achieve global prosperity with the least amount of military intervention. As “nation teams,” students will gain greater understanding of the critical impact of information and how it is used.
As their teams venture further into this interactive social setting laced with highly charged philosophical issues, the skills needed to identify ambiguity and bias in the information they receive will be enhanced and more specifically they will rapidly perceive that reactive behavior not only provokes antagonism, it can leave them alone and isolated in the face of powerful enemies. Beliefs and values will evolve or completely unravel as they begin to experience the positive impact and windows of opportunity that emerge through effective collaboration and refined communication.
In essence, as meaning is constructed out of chaos and new creative solutions are proposed, the World Peace Game players will learn to live and work comfortably at the frontiers of the unknown.
Learn more directly directly from John Hunter about why he does what he does:
Wonder how you create a project in a standards based classroom? Wonder what the kids think about such a project? Take a few minutes and enjoy the video where both staff and students from Manor New Tech High School in Manor, TX, share their experiences with you.
Seriously. How much can you assess in just two minutes? How much valuable feedback can you glean in that short a time. Well, quite a bit as it turns out. And, it’s pretty painless to do.
(click on the picture to get a larger version if desired)
There are a number of ways you can pull this off. Create a bulletin board near the exit of the room in the four square pattern and leave stacks of sticky notes all over the room for kids to anonymously fill out and post.
Or…
Paint your door in a high gloss white paint and use dry erase markers to turn it into the four square pattern where kids can place the sticky notes on the way out the door. This allows you to utilize the door for other collaborative, creative, educational uses.
I wish I knew the original source for this (if you know please leave a comment) so I can give full attribution, but it is just another great idea I picked up following the #PBLchat on Twitter on Tuesday nights. I believe the Twitter user I got it form was Andrew Miller of BIE fame.
As you know, Bloom’s was updated a few years back. This nice little poster from Learning Today does a great job or reminding you of the layers of Bloom”s as they get deeper and deeper into true levels of understanding. Where do your assignments fall into this chart?
