As I settle into the rhythm of PBL, I have started to contemplate the preparation it took to get to where these students are in March. September is always a time to get to know students and establish routines; it’s just good teaching practice. But in PBL, it’s not just a good idea, it’s an essential idea.
PBL values, champions and encourages student choice and voice. Many children are not used to this kind of freedom. The freedom to dictate your learning, to navigate the journey, to direct the ship. The common fear that PBL will dissolve into chaos becomes a reality when the students are not properly equipped to handle this sort of freedom. I have determined that September is not a time for curriculum content. It’s a time to focus on relationships and skill building. Students coming into my classroom need to trust me and trust each other. There is no shortcut to trust; it takes time and investment. September is a time to learn about each other, be a little vulnerable, discover passions and talents. It’s a time to figure out what our “class” as an entity unto itself looks like, to define ourselves as a community, and to determine our common goals. It’s a time when students can be given permission to look inside and see who they want to become this year. It’s a time to learn what we all have to offer and to value our differences because they are our strengths. Students also need a certain base of skill in order to start into such a setting. They need to know how to collaborate, ask questions, research, be creative, think critically, communicate. They need some basic technological and artistic skills. They need to have a love of literacy of all forms and an understanding of personal passion projects. When I write out these relationship and skill requirements, I end up with a list of foci for September. The first month planning involves carefully crafted activities that develop those relationships and skills so that when we start to jump into bigger projects and unfamiliar content the students are struggling with the medium or the team. That’s not to say there aren’t new facets of these areas to explore and develop as we go, just that it’s not beneficial to have students struggling with new content and new skills and new people all at the same time. Some people worry that PBL will slow down curriculum coverage to the point that you can’t get to everything. Is it even possible then to shave an entire month off of the year to devote to things that aren’t in those maps? The great benefit of integrated learning and PBL is that curriculum can be covered faster when you are overlapping in your hours of the day. But more than that, investing in relationships and skills in September will make things run more smoothly and quickly throughout the rest of the year as we won’t have to stop and constantly deal with problems that arise due to lack of training or understanding.
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Terri-AnnPersonal reflections on project-based learning. Archives
April 2021
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