Seven essentials for project-based learning

From the Curriculum Leadership electronic journal "for leaders in education":
http://cmslive.curriculum.edu.au/leader/default.asp?id=58&issueID=12255

Seven essentials for project-based learning

Educational Leadership Volume 68 Number 1, September 2010; Pages 34–37

John Larmer, John R Mergendoller

Abstract :
Unless projects are meaningful, engaging and challenging for students they may become just another form of 'busy work'. Good quality project work displays seven features.

1. Firstly it inspires students with a need to know about the topic. Interest can be stimulated through an 'entry event' such as a video, lively discussion or field trip. In contrast, students tend not to be motivated by exhortations of the value of the topic to their future studies, careers or test papers.
   
2. Secondly, a driving question encapsulates the projects' purpose in a clear and compelling way. The question may be abstract, eg 'when is war justified?', or concrete.
   
3. The third element is to give students voice and choice, ie options on how to how to pursue the project. The level of choice should be tailored to the particular group of students as well as to the teacher's style. A wide degree of freedom would allow students to decide on the products they create, the resources they need, how they organise their time and even the topic itself.
   
4. Fourthly, the project should call on students to apply 21st century skills of collaboration, communication and critical thinking, perhaps with supports such as rubrics to measure their group's progress in these skills, and through training in public speaking, perhaps through the development of podcasts or videos.
   
5. Fifthly, real inquiry and innovation should be required. Rather than reproducing knowledge from books and websites students should have to develop their own questions, search for resources to answer them, test ideas and pose further questions and draw their own conclusions.
   
6. The sixth component is feedback and revision. Students come to learn that these are typically required for high quality work. Feedback from external experts is particularly valuable. They also learn to critique each other's work.
   
7. The seventh element is public presentation of the completed work. Presentation to a real audience underlines the work's importance to the student.

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Disasters unit Year 5/6

Here is a post from LM_NET by Barbara Braxton, a teacher librarian in Australia, which is a collation of ideas / approaches to the perennial “disasters” unit :

1. Be a government official making a public service announcement
2. A first person narrative about it-- from the point of view of the disaster? Eg: "I was born when the continental plates at longitude ____ and latitude ___ shifted, and hot magma burst out of the old quiet volcano know as_______. I poured out for _____ destroying _______ for ____days and nights." or "Like other tornadoes, I came about quickly during a spring storm in (place) on (date). I destroyed everything in my path including ________ for a distance of _____."
3. Present their info in a graphic organizer
4. Create a class wiki
5. Use photos and text in a program like photostory to tell the story of the disaster form a human onlooker who was spared its destruction
6. Write a newscast that tells about it and podcast or video it
7. Write a song or a poem about it
8. Send out a Twitter stream (in sections of 140 characters only) of what was happening as if they were a victim of the disaster
9. Student decides on the disaster, then reports on it from the point of view of an object or other life form. eg a tree in the path of lava flow or ash fall from a volcano. "Tree" describes setting before event, maybe hears rumbling (still going with volcano), feels some bumps, noise of eruption, heat, etc
10. Be scientists and predict where the next one will occur, due to the facts?
11. Have half the class think of it from the victim/survivor's point of view, and half from the rescue community/scientific community. Maybe have a timeline, and give them what is happening around them, and then figure out the causes and consequences
12. Take a 'Decisions, Decisions' approach where everyone needs some common background information. Then they have a role to assume in a disaster and make their case for their fair share of the resources available. Maybe arranging for services for evacuees, dealing with wildlife and pets affected, saving/repairing infrastructure, etc. Wrap up with some kind of evaluation.
13. Prepare a power point as if they are the teacher teaching a class to their peers about a natural disaster
14. What about looking at it from the standpoint of a questions of essential need? So you might ask, "what do people need to survive" then ask "how does this disaster change the status quo and how do you think they will act/react?"
15. Try introducing topic through personal disaster/advice column style. Break students into groups of 3 and I suggest you give them a personal disaster "letter" from a "reader" that they need to reply to with helpful advice. Left on their own, they might get a bit carried away. Disasters for 5/6 grades: "reached into my pocket 3rd hour and discovered my cell phone I forgot to leave at home...what to do?" Ask about, I'm sure you'll find ones more specific to your local. Give a rubric and require sources for response, even if only made up. "As recommended by the principal"... After this, introduce natural disasters...how they affect natural world, animals, planet, and people personally. Have them right an "advice" column response on how to deal with the situation with real sources. Again, a rubric but one more specific & demanding
16. What about writing from the relief worker's perspective? As a first time volunteer for the Red Cross or World Health Organization. You know, the workers who dish up food and hand out water.
17. How about having them write is in the first person. Or as their pet. Suggested points ( you can simplify or expand according to abilities of grade levels) -What the disaster was -When it occurred -Who they are –Their family makeup -Their house/apartment before and after -The people (agencies) who helped them -What has changed in their life (new house, new city, people missing from their family, loss of friends,etc)
18. Take a sort of "CSI/forensics" approach to it? The kids could come in after the disaster, research some of the causes, and the reasons why there was so much loss of life/property. If you get some that are really advanced, they could even research ways to prevent disasters of that sort in the future.
19. What about a time traveller to a N disaster in the past 100 years – the usual 5 W questions, but also comparing it to a similar (different) in this C.
20. Students report on a disaster in an imaginary or given location (a Tsunami striking Sydney, an blizzard blanketing a location in Tasmania)- they would have to detail how it affected the people and geography of the area, using what they know about disasters at a higher level
21. Students could write as if they themselves (or their own families) were the victims of the disaster. They can then explore what their own reactions would be and thus have more personal investment in their researching and writing.
22. Create a newsletter about being prepared http://librarianscorner.net/disaster_newsletter.htm

Barbara Braxton, Teacher Librarian, COOMA NSW barbara.288@bigpond.com
Together, we learn from each other

21st century skills in 13 words : Jamie McKenzie

From Jamie McKenzie's website From Now On http://fno.org :

21st Century Skills Bookmark: A Dozen I-words Trump the 4 Rs
During the previous century, there was often talk of the 4Rs: Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic and Reasoning. It was a user friendly way to focus on the basics.
With all the talk now of 21st Century Skills, we need a model that is equally user friendly - just the right number of prime thinking competencies to fit on a handy bookmark or poster to remind all teachers and students about core values...
My bookmark offers thirteen competencies, all beginning with the letter "I" - a baker's dozen http://fno.org/Jan2010/bookmark.html

Jamie McKenzie, ©2010, all rights reserved.

Reading and writing non-fiction

From the School Library Monthly blog :

http://blog.schoollibrarymedia.com/index.php/2009/10/27/inquiry-and-choice/

"I’ve just finished skimming the Stenhouse title A Place for Wonder: Reading and Writing Nonfiction in the Primary Grades, which you can read in full-text online here. It is full of great ideas that we could extrapolate from classroom-only environments and into classroom-and-library environments.

Among my key takeaways:

• Consider starting a wonder center where kids can write wonderings on Post-Its and others can answer them.
• Have a place where kids can deposit wonder items for others to enjoy.
• When planning a non-fiction piece of writing, have kids use a table of contents page as a way to organize the order of their thoughts.
• Distinguish between heart questions that can be answered with your inner knowledge (e.g., “What makes a great friend?”) and research questions (e.g., “How do whales breathe?”).

Check out the rest of the post - questioning how the library can capitalise on the wonder children bring, maximise the use of non-fiction, and be partners with the classroom in fostering wonderment and curiosity...