RR #4

Reflection #4

Overcoming Pitfalls 1. Long on activity, short on learning outcomes: A project should be the right size, meaning that students should not do projects that are busy and long if they can accomplish everything that is necessary through a lecture or reading. The project is a waste of the students’ time and the teacher’s. 2. Technology layered over traditional practice: good projects focus on the learning outcomes and being able to reach them. Students should not be only making use of technology for the heck of it. Use technology if it is essential to your students reaching the final goal of the project. 3. Trivial thematic units: classrooms and teachers can choose to have a theme for an extended amount of time or even the entire year. This will allow students to in-depth explore one topic through many different lenses and ideas. It is important to look for a theme that elevates and connects the learning in the classroom. 4. Overly scripted with many, many steps: when creating and doing a project, teachers need to be careful of finding projects for their students that have many detailed steps that all of the students will be following. It is more beneficial to have students in charge of their own learning paths, meaning that the end projects will look different because each student was able to do what they wanted.
 
The Best Projects share important Features
• Have the possibility of different learning paths
• The students can construct meaning because they are general
• Structured for inquiry • Have real life complex and compelling experiences
• Realistic
• Students learn with and from each other
• 21st century skills and literacies
• Include persistence, risk-taking, confidence, resilience, self-reflection, and cooperation
• Students learn by doing I think it is very important to remember what aspects of a project make a good meaningful project for students to do.

  One reason I like PBL is because it involves students’ thinking, the community, and can involve inquiry. These things are important to students and make them feel as though their ideas and actions matter. Projects can come from anywhere and because our students and future students are so technology oriented, using technology is a great way to get them interested and wanting to learn more in order to create a project. One thing that is important though, is if the students feel as though they are in charge of what they are doing and researching. This gives them the sense of control over their learning and their project. With the unit we are doing with students, it gives them most of the control and a lot of freedom. Many things are introduced during our unit, but with these many things, the students will have a lot of freedom to what they want with it, while learning a lot.