It's Time For a Project

 

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It's that time of year again for many (most?) of us in the K-12 world of the United States to deal with standardized testing.

And there are many teachers who have been waiting until "that test is over" to start a pbl project.

There are some of you who can't see past the test that is approaching. I understand. But post-test can be the perfect time to knock out a project. And, therefore, now is the perfect time to start planning for that project that will put you and your students on the WOW end of the spectrum. You can do it and there are many of us out here willing to help you on your path forward.

So where do you start with the planning? Content, content, content. What things did you want your students to learn this year? Is there something that you know your students didn't learn at the requisite level? Maybe there's something that they were supposed to learn that you or the students really enjoyed and the topic is perfect for going deeper in their learning? Maybe there is something that they will need to know for the next school year and you might want them to explore it now?

If you are looking for project ideas I have two places you can go, right now, to see projects that might spark you imagination.

First place, of course I'm a little biased, is the BIE website. Look under the Resources Tab and you will see this:

In the Project Search area you can find hundreds of projects that teachers have uploaded. Although I tell teachers to NEVER use a project exactly as written, there is nothing wrong in looking over a project to whet your appetite. While you are in the Resources Tab, go to the Project Planner and do all of your planning in one place.

If you need more ideas for projects I always recommend High Tech High . Their list of projects (under the Project Tab, of course) is quite extensive.

Project planning can be a chore and, if you are new to pbl, it can be somewhat daunting. Don't do it alone. Enlist your fellow content teachers or a friend to help with brainstorming project ideas. And, even better, ask your district or school literacy coaches, instructional coaches, or curriculum specialists to help.

To be successful, you MUST take the time, up front, to get every day mapped out. Only then will you be able to feel comfortable and confident with the daily flow within you classroom. And, only then, will you have the time to work closely with individual groups of students.

When your students present what they have accomplished to a group of professionals and they are answering questions and engaging in conversations with these professionals, that time you spent up front will seem like nothing. But you will be everything to your students.

You Want Me To Do What? Creating School Culture.

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     Last week I sat down and took a serious look at what I need to do between now and the first day of school and I had to pause and shake my head (while saying "holy crap!")  It was one of those days.

     So, this transition thing - how hard can it be?  To answer that I took a look at an 8 day training plan I am putting together for the 6th grade teachers as they change from being regular classroom teachers to PBL teachers in our New Tech school.

     I decided that they needed to find out what it means to wear the label of New Tech (NT).  Anyone can become a teacher using PBL in their classroom.  There are 100's (1000's ?) of teachers in the United States who are trying out PBL or have been using PBL, successfully, in their classrooms for years.

      But what does the PBL look like in those classrooms?  How strong are the inquiry and the questioning?  How open-ended are the products being created?  And what is the school culture like for the school within which these classrooms reside?  In my opinion, it is this culture piece that is the biggest difference in schools with the NT label.

     If you are to be a NT school you must be willing to create a culture of Trust, Respect, and Responsibility.   And, you can't just give those three words lip service.  A bunch of posters in the hallways or the classrooms with what those three words mean doesn't mean they actually reside within your school culture.

     We will start building this culture with our teachers in Grand Rapids, MI as they attend the New Tech All schools Conference (NTAC12) during the week before we officially start the 8 day training.  The teachers will have assigned breakout sessions to attend and then share at the end of the day.  During the end-of-day get together we will be discussing and creating our meeting norms.  And, we will be establishing our School-wide Learning Outcomes (SWLO's).

     These teachers will never have used learning outcomes to grade student work.   When schools attend the New Schools Training with NT they spend hours upon hours establishing their learning outcomes complete with written definitions and rubrics of how they will be assessed.  Our teachers will not have had that benefit and so I will have to facilitate this conversation.

      To make life easier for them I intend to put the learning outcomes used by our district, in its Strategic Plan, on the table as a starting point.  They are: Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, Digital Citizenship, and Work Ethic.  Our teachers will have at least a cursory vision of what each of these look like and this will be easier for them as they make these outcomes our own learning outcomes.

     At the end of our discussion each night it will be time to bond.  Too often we forget to take the time to get to know each other.  Gone are the days where teachers lived in their little classroom never to mingle with the other teachers.  And so, for us, that may mean sitting together for dinner, it may be having a drink together, it may be doing some of the fun night-time rituals NT schools do in Grand Rapids like the Piano Bar Sing-a-long.  The most important thing is creating memories, outside of work, that will stay with us as we tackle the more difficult issues during the following weeks and months.

     Then, with this week of getting to know each other behind us, we will really be able to tackle culture during our 8 days of training.  Here is a brainstorming list of what I will have for them to work on:

          a. Specific ideas for Culture –  (Something every day)

1.  Use a PBL approach to this with an Entry Event and agenda within ECHO  (a Moodle-like platform used by the NT schools) so they are seeing how to use a project briefcase.
2.  We will use team building activities each morning and after lunch each day.
3.  We need to set the Norms and the decision making process.
4.  We need to discuss the Learning Outcomes, define them, and create a rubric for each.  We will use the 5 mentioned in the district strategic plan:  Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, Digital Citizenship, and Work Ethic for our first year.
5.  We need to weight the Learning Outcomes – Content 40 – 60% with the others adding up to 100%.
6.  We need to discuss a 6^th Grade Orientation.  Do we want to use MNTHS (Manor New Tech High School) students who graduated from our middle school?
7.  We need to discuss how we will conduct Classroom Observations and what we will do during late start Mondays (our district has late start Mondays for PD).
8. Have a "Day of Celebration" when we get to the end of the first 9-weeks (or other significant date).

          b. Specific ideas for PBL – (2^nd week only?)

1. Teachers will plan their first project.
2. Teachers will plan a 2-week culture project (for the whole school to create the culture).
3. We need to have a literacy component to the project briefcase.
4. Have a critical friends day, in the middle of the second week of training, to see what they have planned for their first project. 

          c. Specific ideas for ECHO – (Something every day)

1. Who will be the ECHO liaison? 
2.  We will create a standard project briefcase that every teacher will use for the first two 9-weeks grading period (minimum)
3.  We need to create a School Resource Library in ECHO
4.  We need to have a Low Tech version of the Project Briefcase.  This could be a “White Binder” for each student with pre-set tabs where each of the sections will be electronically. 
5.  We need to show them what is available in the NTN Resource Library also in ECHO.

     The culture we create will need to be refined and worked on throughout the school year and beyond.  Culture is not something you create and then "it's done!"   This up-front time without distractions will pay dividends as we move through the school year.  Wish us luck.

5 Quick Reasons to "Do PBL"

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It was like shooting ducks on the pond as my Grandfather used to say.  I walked in turned on Tweetchat to get ready for the chat on pbl (#pblchat) and there it was.  "MrsIsbellsClass RT @PBLChat: Anyone? Reply to=> @gavhays: Why do pbl? #parrapbl #PBLChat " 


   How could I resist that?  So I sent 3 tweets with a total of 5 answers to the question. 


 1.  Students more engaged = students less cranky  -   As students work on their projects they can really immerse themselves in their work.  This leads to a much more friendly and work-oriented atmosphere.  It's pretty nice. 


 2.  Teachers learn more because they learn with their students - quite often (at the high school level anyway) students will start researching a topic and they will get to a level that isn't immediately at the grasp of the teacher.  Sure, with a little brush up (usually), the teacher can quickly get up to speed and interject informative comments.  But when the student feels that they are learning with their teacher it brings learning to a new level. 


 3.  Students get to demonstrate their creative side - in almost every project there is some sort of end product that is shown to an expert panel or their classmates.  This might be a video, a poem, something actually built to demonstrate a process, or other item that was created with a students imagination and expertise. 


 4.  Students must face a panel of experts = must know their stuff - We don't always do a good job of getting outside panels but when we do the students really rise to the occasion.  Even when the panel is just a set of parents or teachers it means a lot to the kids and they prepare for their presentations accordingly. 


 5.  Teachers get to see their students grow with confidence and intelligence - It is really a wonderful feeling to see that shy student stand up and sing a song they have created to tell a story for their final presentation.  Or to see a student show the entire class that, yes, they do understand that very hard concept (that most kids figured he or she had gotten the rest of his group members to do while he sat back and did nothing.)   


      Those 5 reasons are reason enough but there are many more reasons to do PBL in your classroom.  If you ever want to see more come join us for #PBLCHAT on Tuesday nights at 9PM EST.  You might just be amazed at what you read.

Project Two Reflection

fieldingnair.com

     As we start to wrap up our second project it is time to write down some reflections.  Some of you may take this and run with it as a project but I assure you this is only the shell and there is much more that needs to be added to really make magic.  Still this will give you everything you need to plan a project to tackle the design process.

   The concept of this project was to design a yoga ball seat using any size yoga (or exercise) ball and PVC piping.  The project took the students through the first 7 steps of the 12 step design process that we use throughout the year.  By taking it through step 7 we did not have to actually build the concept.

     The steps we worked on were: Define the Problem, Brainstorm, Research, Criteria and Constraints, Explore Possibilities, Select an Approach, and Develop a Design Proposal.  The problem was defined for them in a Design Brief that was written for this project. The way we embed the idea of needing to learn in our students is from their creation of Knows and Need to Knows (K/NTK's).   So we had them list their "Knows and Need to Knows" from the Design Brief.  When you have students state what they need to learn to successfully complete a project then you immediately remove the "but where will we ever use this?" from the equation.

     For brainstorming we had them each sketch 3 or more ideas for the design of a chair.  By working in groups of 3, each group had about 10 sketches and ideas to consider.  They then narrowed it down to 3 or 4 possible ideas and started their research.  This was the first chance for our students to do research for parts.  We allowed them to use Home Depot or Lowes (for costs) and any other place they could find on the internet.  Any information that they used had to be documented using MLA formatting.

     One of the important engineering items we needed to teach was how to do Multi-View Sketches (front/top/right side) of their design.  After they had sketched their initial brainstorming we were able to discuss the fact that we need to have clear and well dimensioned sketches that tell our customers what they are getting.  This led to the need for a method of sketching that everyone would understand.

     At this point we were able to discuss the difference between criteria and constraints and we gave them a spreadsheet to list the criteria and constraints that they knew about this project.  Then we had them each draw their personal favorite design.  This gave each group 3 designs; sketched and with a written description.  To learn how to select the best approach in an unbiased way they needed to learn about decision matrices.    They learned that by grading  each design by looking at the criteria and constraints, the best design will move to the forefront.

     Finally, they needed to take the best design and make sure they had a good multi-view drawing of it.  We had each member take one of the three views of the design to practice creating the multi-view.  That way we didn't have one person doing all of the sketching.  They then needed to have a good written description of the design.

     And so the students created a design of a yoga ball chair.  They learned about how to research for parts and how to document the findings.  They learned how to do a multi-view sketch, how to create a decision matrix, and the difference between criteria and constraints.  An additional item they learned was how to work in a different group.  They had been allowed to pick their groups for the first project and I assigned group members for this project.  There was the need to learn new personalities and who they could depend on to complete work.  They also learned the importance of having daily task lists for each member of the group.  To be honest most groups were not able to make that happen and we will have to work on that for the next project.

    The process of successfully completing a project isn't just learning the curriculum.  There are the skills of collaboration, writing, communicating orally, and a good work ethic.  This is a work in progress and will continue for all four years at our school.

Assessment in a PBI Environment? How?

Whenever I talk with someone who is considering using Project Based Instruction (PBI) in their classroom I can be assured that the topic of assessment will be one of the first questions asked. Assessment, both formative and summative, is a topic that is guaranteed to bring out opinions from educators and this is magnified by teachers trying to visualize assessment in a PBI classroom.

So, what does assessment look like in my classroom? Well, we have tests and quizzes and daily "warm-ups" and written explanations and.......
Wait, that sounds just like a regular classroom? YES! That is exactly the point I am trying to make. Even though we are considered "100 % PBI" does not mean that we give up assessing the learning of our students.

There are a couple of items that we do assess differently and that, really, is all that we need to discuss. If you have options, in your bag of tricks, of assessing the learning that is going on in your class, then you are already at a point where you are ready to be a PBI teacher.

Some things that WILL look different or that you don't normally see in a conventional classroom include: Project Grades, Collaboration Grades, Oral Presentation Grades, Critical Thinking Grades, or even Group Assessment Grades.

PROJECT GRADES - A project is more than just putting together a pretty poster or a power point explaining some research that has been conducted. There needs to be definite demarcations for the beginning or introduction to a new concept or idea; a middle where research, hands-on learning, or direct instruction is going on; and an ending where the new concept or idea is presented by the students to show their level of knowledge of the material.

At each stage of this process there are chances to assess knowledge. There might be a pre-assessment to confirm the knowledge levels of each student during the introduction phase. During the middle stages there can be written quizzes, (or even tests for larger, longer lasting projects), there can be oral quizzes, there can be quick "knowledge checks" taken through clicker systems or surveys. We collect "Warm-ups" at the beginning of class or "Tickets Out" at the end of class as another way to check for understanding. Your imagination is the only limiting tool.


COLLABORATION GRADES - While we are walking around monitoring group work, we have an intuitive "grade" of individual efforts in each group. To put a numerical value to what we already know we can assign collaboration grades at the midpoint and at the end of the project. This might be done with a survey or Google Forms where each student gives the other students and themselves a grade (1 - 10, 1 - 5, etc.). Then you add them all up and determine the grade for each student. Don't worry about equity, students are both ruthless (about the other group members) and honest (about themselves). A fun way to do this is to give the groups a total score that the individual scores must add up to. Just make sure the total isn't evenly divisible by the number of students in the group.

ORAL PRESENTATION GRADES - Whenever we can, we make sure that the students are presenting their projects to an audience. They have worked hard and deserve to show off their new-found knowledge. The audience might be a panel of experts from a business, education majors from the local college or university, parents of students, other students, or whatever combination of people you want to come up with. We often hear "I haven't touched algebra in 20 years," or " I was never good at math." But these panelists don't have to grade on content, they can grade for how the students presented: did they have good rapport with the audience? did they have interesting videos/podcasts/powerpoint slides/etc.? did one member of a group dominate the presentation or were they equal partners? Just list the objectives you would like graded and let them do the rest.

Assessment, as should be no surprise, is done in a PBI classroom just like a conventional classroom. I hope this short post has dispelled any rumors that PBI means we don't have to do assessment. That rumor needs to go into the same category of unfounded myths as the one about PBI can't have direct teaching. Don't get me started on that one. Or, maybe that's a topic for another post.