Reading Reflection 4

In chapter 4, it states that, to improve your own critical- thinking skills when it comes to reviewing project plans you should look past the “window dressing” of projects that seem appealing or make use of dazzling technologies. Teachers should pay attention to the quality of the student’s experience. Here are a few pitfalls in project design to watch for:

-          Potential pitfall: Long on activity, short on learning outcomes. If a project reaches small or lower- order learning aims and is busy and long, it’s not worth the students’ or teachers time.  Projects should be “right sized” for what it accomplishes. It’s important to look at the learning outcome.

-          Potential pitfall: Technology layered over traditional practice. Good projects focus on reaching significant learning outcomes, not merely making use of technology applications. When reviewing a project plan, consider whether technology is used to bring people together, connect students to rich data or primary sources, or provide some other way to allow students to create unique and high quality learning products.

-          Potential pitfall: Trivial thematic units. Thematic teaching is not necessarily project- based learning. There are different valuable ways in teaching. A thematic approach can be trivial, but it doesn’t have to be. A theme for a whole year’s work can be used. A theme can help students make important connections. Look for ways a theme elevates and connects the learning when examining thematic projects or creating one on your own.

-          Potential pitfall: Overly scripted with many, many steps: Be wary of over prescriptive project plans that have many discrete steps. When evaluating a plan look to the description of learning, objectives, and the students outcome.

The best projects share the following qualities. They:

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-            -Are loosely designed with the possibility of different learning paths. 

 

-         - Are generative, causing students to construct meaning. 

-          -Center on a driving question or are otherwise structured for inquiry.

-          -Capture student interest through complex and compelling real-life or simulated experiences.

-          -Are realistic, and therefore cross multiple disciplines. 

-          -Reach beyond school to involve others.

-          -Tap rich data or primary sources. 

-         - Are structured so students learn with and from each other. 

-         - Have students working as inquiring experts might. 

-          -Get a 21^st-century skills and literacies, including communication, project management, and technology use.

-          -Get at important learning dispositions, including persistence, risk-taking, confidence, resilience, self-reflection, and cooperation.

-         - Have students learn by doing.

Finding good projects can come from everywhere.  A good project can come from blogs, reports, as well as issues in the public. A good project can come from something a student has expressed interest in.  Projects can come from other people and other teachers projects. One successful project can led to another successful project. A good project can come from a mixture of tools or resources and from projects that already exist.

Projects that are designed must be within a context. The school calendar, curriculum sequence, student readiness, and student’s interests are all factors to keep in mind while planning a project. Here are the steps to designing a project:

11)    Revisit framework

a)      Make a final list of learning objectives for core subject and allied disciplines.

b)      Decide on 21^st century skills you want to address.

c)       Identify learning dispositions you want to foster, such as persistence and reflection.

22)     Establish evidence of understanding. Think about how all the students are all different learners and people. Think about what the students know or be able to do once they have learned.

33)  Plan the project theme or challenge. Think about what the students inquire about, do, and create? Strive for “optimal ambiguity”--- that is, both enough structure and enough flexibility to serve the needs of the project.

P4) Plan entrée into the project experience. Think about the things you first want to say to get the students’ attention and build excitement for the learning ahead.

After designing your project get feedback on your ideas from you colleagues. It’s important to revise and rework your plan a few times so that your project can be the best that it can be for the students.

These concepts relate to our project by giving us the features that our project should have. It also gives us steps on how to design a good project.  It gives us ways on how to get our students interested in the project and also on how to get the project started.  This chapter also gives us information on where project ideas come from.  Overall, the concepts in this chapter will help my group and I make our project be the best that it can be.