I've been out of the game for several weeks, and it feels good to be back. This week's focus on problem/project-based learning (PBL, however you want to define it) offered some great reading: good research pieces, nice resources shared by colleagues, and a number of useful texts discovered during my own late-night web searches. Posts by Theresa, Thomas, Scott, Amanda, and Sunshine provided me with additional resources and food for thought, as well.
Theresa's post really resonated with my own thinking this week: Prior to this course, I was confusing problem-based learning with a bunch of disjointed projects. The week's texts really helped me to understand how truly different PBL is from projects that occur at the end of a quarter, for example, where the teacher lays out a nice to-do list for students and then catches up on grading while kids work independently. (O.K., so obviously I used projects in this way once upon a time. Guilty as charged.) On the other hand, I used semester-long projects to anchor my ELA classroom; the projects involved authentic writing, serious collaboration and communication between and among students in my own classroom and in a colleague's classroom 3,000 miles away, and the final product was a significant publication that was shared with the world. In many ways, memories of those experiences really bring the reading about PBL to life for me.
Theresa's post really resonated with my own thinking this week: Prior to this course, I was confusing problem-based learning with a bunch of disjointed projects. The week's texts really helped me to understand how truly different PBL is from projects that occur at the end of a quarter, for example, where the teacher lays out a nice to-do list for students and then catches up on grading while kids work independently. (O.K., so obviously I used projects in this way once upon a time. Guilty as charged.) On the other hand, I used semester-long projects to anchor my ELA classroom; the projects involved authentic writing, serious collaboration and communication between and among students in my own classroom and in a colleague's classroom 3,000 miles away, and the final product was a significant publication that was shared with the world. In many ways, memories of those experiences really bring the reading about PBL to life for me.
Almost every piece of text I read this week (articles, research, and classmates' posts) mentioned something about the way the teacher's role changes in a classroom where PBL is in play. This is huge: The paradigm shift required to move from being the ONE in charge to being the one who is guiding, facilitating, coaching, and letting the students learn is frightening. There are so many unknowns! There is so much left to chance! And yet, as Scott's post pointed out, the teacher really does become the COACH...and if the coach has prepared her team well, then the players/students should understand the rules, be ready to play the game independently, score points, and win in the end.