The Project - Reflection 1
So I have launched "The Project" in my sophomore and junior classes. We are a week and a half into the process. These are my reflections thus far:
1. My proposal process was much tougher than I thought it would.be. I expected it to be challenging, but I underestimated the time it would take to read, critique, and return each proposal, almost always working though multiple drafts. Doing it in four classes at once was a lot.
2. Kids are not used to thinking on their own. Many kids struggled to come up with even a topic. Others got started, but at the first sign of uncertainty, they didn't know what to do. This is new stuff. It is new to me too. I'll admit that after awhile, I began to help/write many of their central questions for them. I'm not sure how big a foul this is. On one hand, I'm doing the hard work for them. On the other, they chose the topic, and this is new, so giving them a solid base to work from, rather than letting them struggle through to a weaker question might get better results. I'm not sure.
3. I'm not sure what to teach them. In the article Time to redesign curriculum for the digital age by Nicole Krueger the author argues that "When it comes to teaching students in the 21st century I have come to believe that it is more important to teach kids how to learn than it is to teach them what to learn.” I agree with the sentiment, but how do you teach kids to learn. Just teaching them content is easier. How do you teach 27 teens to learn in 50 minute time chunks? What should my mini-lessons be on? How do I hold them accountable?
4. I was unprepared for the messiness. I don't like things messy. I like them organized. This is what we are doing. This is what you should be doing. This is how I know that you are on task. Obviously, I know that's not really how learning is going to happen. But I guess it's easier. How do you dig into an in depth conversation with one kid while you know the kid across the room is off task? Do you just let them go?
5. My plan was probably too open ended. If I could go back, I probably wouldn't give them free reign to research anything they wanted. I'd give them more focus. I had a bunch of ideas this morning - The fantastic voyage where they research places on an epic road trip, a career exploration where they look into a career. This would also allow me to focus my instruction more on the specific needs of THIS project. As is, they have different needs. Oh well, next time.
6. I don't know what to do with the kids who aren't off the ground. I have a couple in each class. Kids who haven't finished the proposal. We are well into the "research" part and you don't have a topic? What do you do? How hard do you push? I'm not sure.
7. I'm making it up as I go. It's a really uncomfortable feeling to be floating a new idea every other day because you know that some are going to be good and some aren't. I don't like falling flat. But hey, we are supposed to celebrate failure right? I'm going to be doing some celebrating.
1. My proposal process was much tougher than I thought it would.be. I expected it to be challenging, but I underestimated the time it would take to read, critique, and return each proposal, almost always working though multiple drafts. Doing it in four classes at once was a lot.
2. Kids are not used to thinking on their own. Many kids struggled to come up with even a topic. Others got started, but at the first sign of uncertainty, they didn't know what to do. This is new stuff. It is new to me too. I'll admit that after awhile, I began to help/write many of their central questions for them. I'm not sure how big a foul this is. On one hand, I'm doing the hard work for them. On the other, they chose the topic, and this is new, so giving them a solid base to work from, rather than letting them struggle through to a weaker question might get better results. I'm not sure.
3. I'm not sure what to teach them. In the article Time to redesign curriculum for the digital age by Nicole Krueger the author argues that "When it comes to teaching students in the 21st century I have come to believe that it is more important to teach kids how to learn than it is to teach them what to learn.” I agree with the sentiment, but how do you teach kids to learn. Just teaching them content is easier. How do you teach 27 teens to learn in 50 minute time chunks? What should my mini-lessons be on? How do I hold them accountable?
4. I was unprepared for the messiness. I don't like things messy. I like them organized. This is what we are doing. This is what you should be doing. This is how I know that you are on task. Obviously, I know that's not really how learning is going to happen. But I guess it's easier. How do you dig into an in depth conversation with one kid while you know the kid across the room is off task? Do you just let them go?
5. My plan was probably too open ended. If I could go back, I probably wouldn't give them free reign to research anything they wanted. I'd give them more focus. I had a bunch of ideas this morning - The fantastic voyage where they research places on an epic road trip, a career exploration where they look into a career. This would also allow me to focus my instruction more on the specific needs of THIS project. As is, they have different needs. Oh well, next time.
6. I don't know what to do with the kids who aren't off the ground. I have a couple in each class. Kids who haven't finished the proposal. We are well into the "research" part and you don't have a topic? What do you do? How hard do you push? I'm not sure.
7. I'm making it up as I go. It's a really uncomfortable feeling to be floating a new idea every other day because you know that some are going to be good and some aren't. I don't like falling flat. But hey, we are supposed to celebrate failure right? I'm going to be doing some celebrating.
 |
| An example of a student's research thus far, using Google Keep. Her book choice on her topic is there too. She is researching whether a career as a dancer is a good fit for her. |
Your question "how do you teach kids to learn?" summed up what I have been struggling with. I would like to see some standards that I could use to guide my practice as well as a system wide scope and sequence. Obviously if all grade levels are making the change at once, the first several years everyone in the upper grades will have to fill in for what students would have learned in elementary school. The first step is to list some discrete skills for research, Google search basics, finding reliable sources, detecting bias, but also interviewing a source, note taking, question writing. Also what skills do the need to bring a project together? Supporting a point of view with evidence, choosing a format for a presentation to best reach your audience (often this is NOT a slide show.) Do we teach these skills? Which ones? When? How? Is there anyone else out there that is using a skills based curriculum that we could look at?
ReplyDeleteThis is me on my soapbox:
ReplyDeleteI am becoming less concerned about teaching them HOW to learn. I am becoming more concerned what you came across with your #2. The reliance on someone else to teach them how to learn, or even how to think it seems sometimes. I don't think that you committed any mortal sin by helping them hone their questions, but I find it troubling that they don't know what to do without that guidance.
Kids are terrified when you take the training wheels off. But, once the wheels are off, it's not like you start teaching them how to build jumps and do tricks. Once they realize they can actually ride the bike they start figuring out what they can do with it. I think that the first obstacle in this type of project is convincing kids that it is OK to think without worrying about being right or wrong.
We do a pretty good job of killing creativity as teachers. I just wish I knew how to be less good at it.
"The Project" idea I have tried in art with as much fidelity as you have and I have concluded that giving the students 3 to 4 idea options is enough to get each student the sense of ownership and independent exploration. You still have all the frustrations you went through but only with the kids you know always seem to struggle making decisions for themselves. I have to say that the final results often are beyond what I expected and the students seem to be impressed with themselves more too. On a final note, I often have a time where all the students take a gallery walk of the current works underway so they can see what the other students are doing and it often fires up those who are struggling to be creative. Good post!
ReplyDelete