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Michele Mathieson

Main Course Not Dessert | FreeBIEs | Tools | Project Based Learning | BIE - 12 views

www.bie.org/...main_course_not_dessert

PBL

shared by Michele Mathieson on 31 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Michele Mathieson on 31 Jan 12
     
    This is the article Lisa put in everyone's mailbox. Please comment here.
  • ...16 more comments...
  • Robin Albertson-Wren on 06 Feb 12
     
    Love the idea of serving up the main course to our young learners! So important to recognize that so much out there may really just be dessert...
  • Pamela Grosch on 06 Feb 12
     
    This article made me think of a project I did recently with fourth grade, in which they researched and produced a food web using their choice of iPad apps. Was it better than my previous food web activity (cutting and pasting pictures to a piece of construction paper)? Definitely. But, not surprisingly, it was immensely time-consuming, particularly when I only see my classes twice each week. A five-session project translated into 2 1/2 weeks of science time, and the quality of the students' work would have benefited from at least one more class period for revisions. How do we decide if the skills that students learn with a "main course" project are valuable enough to give up the consistent content base our students get from more traditional forms of classroom instruction?
  • kathleen dubovsky on 08 Feb 12
     
    I have tried to create quite a few pbl based projects over the years in both history and mathematics. I agree it takes a lot of time, but I do think the time spent is well worth it. The skills in collaboration, problems solving, critical thinking and research cannot not be duplicated through dessert projects. In younger grades, I do think some filling in of content needs to be done through other types of instruction, mainly because young children do not have as deep a pool of prior knowledge and skills. For example in the latest pbl I did, the kids had great enthusiasm, worked hard, gathered amazing information, but then lacked the skill to pull it all into as meaningful end results as I had hoped they would. Luckily I had Lisa there to videotape the lessons and I was able to see that my students need some mini lessons in how to figure out which content from their research is important to put into the end product. I do believe that they will remember the information gained much better than if i had simply presented it, let them read and then had them do a project at the end. Critical to the success of pbl is ample classroom time .... Flexibility in schedule, large chunks of time and not having large gaps between different sessions is critical. Too often we lose a class because of changes to the schedule and that further widens the gap between meetings. Discontinuity of schedule hinders the process.
  • Janet Kingsley on 10 Feb 12
     
    I'm wondering if other teachers think PBL is a component of interdisciplinary studies with the addition of the leading, premise question. From this article, one would not think the arts would have a significant place in PBL. Hopefully, the arts are included in the teacher collaborations of PBL, as the arts help to facilitate the 21St century skills: collaboration, creative and critical thinking, emotional intelligence and various mediums of communication. (Eisner, Gardner, BrIce-Heath etc.) I think it would be great to include more PBL at St. Anne's with the requisite amount of collaborative, inter-departmental planning time. I tend to think of PBL as a comprehensive project. In my mind, the primary grades project discussed in "Primary Preoccupation" was an example of experiential learning, not necessarily PBL.
  • Melissa Scott on 10 Feb 12
     
    As I begin to think about creating this type of learning envirnoment, I am thinking... I need to be able to devise real "problems" or "situations" that my students can actually see as something that they need to solve. I am wondering, how can I create a problem that relates to Ancient Greece that my students believe really needs to be solved.
  • Melissa Scott on 10 Feb 12
     
    After reading Kathleen's comments above, I also wonder how my role as a second grade teacher fits into PBL. I am thinking, is it sufficient to begin to lay the foundation for PBL by teaching through student inquiry which includes student choice of what questions to ask and how to present the information? I believe that I may need to lay a foundation for children, a "prior knowledge" in the first several lessons of a unit in order for them to handle seeking out answers to new questions, developing a plan of action, and presenting a final work. I adapted a lesson in history today so that student partnerships had to gather information about Pocahontas in several different texts instead of me only reading aloud the information and then discussing as a class. I am at the point now where I need feedback about the changes I made in the lesson to see if I am moving in the right direction. I look forward to the opportunity to bounce ideas around.
  • Laura Doherty on 10 Feb 12
     
    I have a very similar train of thought as what Pam wrote above. I do a lot of PBL in the LS Spanish program in most grade levels, but especially in third and fourth, we will work on something that stretches over a few classes, or even sometimes a few weeks, when I only see them once or twice a week. With language learning, the repetition and focus on these kinds of projects reflects the students deepened understanding of the content targeted, which for me, makes the project more worthwhile than moving through a larger amount of content in the same time as a long project. The catch is that I feel that the curriculum has more content than I can cover if we do that "deepened" understanding through PBL...I would rather have less "topics" in my curriculum and more time to go more in depth with the time I do have with the kids.
  • Andrea Corbin on 12 Feb 12
     
    The examples of schools using PBL were all at the high school level. I assume that students have had a chance to master the basics. A PBL experience for a younger student has to take more time in order to learn some basic skills such as research, pulling information together, figuring out the main idea and writing that makes sense. I see a huge value in PBL because the student has to take ownership and responsibility for their work. I liked the library of tested project ideas mentioned.
  • Karen LeMaire on 12 Feb 12
     
    So far everything I have read or seen - in video presentations - about PBL has focused upon high school students/projects. They describe, in this article, that students need "to use higher-order thinking skills and learn to work as a team. They must listen to others and make their own ideas clear when speaking, be able to read a variety of material, write or otherwise express themselves in various modes, and make effective presentations." These are the skills that are needed in order to begin answering a driving question. I believe in projects - pourquoi stories, Ancient China museums, etc. - but I also think that our job, as elementary school teachers, is to teach these basic skills so that they can then be used for PBL in middle and upper school. These are my preliminary thoughts, as I begin to learn about this type of learning.
  • Lisa Keeler on 13 Feb 12
     
    I wonder how to adapt this to elementary level work. I think that the teacher who came from November Learning (the Canadian woman who teaches first grade) could be a good resourse. And of course Kathleen can probably demystify us as she has been doing some of this. I also think that it would be hugely helpful to collaborate as grade level teams to come up with ideas for PBL - maybe just one per gl- that we can try and then regroup and tweak. Making it truly "main course" is going to require some thinking. But it sounds exciting. At the end of the article the author lists certain conditions that make this type of learning/teaching/curriculum feasable. We have some work to do to meet those benchmarks. What are your thoughts on developing project libraries? How will we create time for teachers to "meet with colleagues, plan projects, critique and fine tune lessons and gather and share resources" ?
  • john russell on 13 Feb 12
     
    Any effort to promote greater reflection and opportunities for revision is important. This appears to be an important feature of PBL--as it should be. I also like the focus on open-ended DQ(Dairy Queens or Driving Questions).
  • lisacetroni on 13 Feb 12
     
    Lisa K. -- the projects I remember were probably a hybrid. I don't recall any driving questions, but sometimes, I was researching ... Teaching myself something that hadn't been taught in the classroom. I learned only very basic critical skills, but that was the age of the encyclopedia. I learned to consider the background and education of the author. To me, the key is applying the information thoughtfully and creatively. I think a good starting point is taking the projects we're already doing and taking a closer look. How can they be more meaningful for our students? How can we use projects to teach Lucas' basic skills? TLT time can be used for planning.
  • Natasha Solomon on 14 Feb 12
     
    I enjoy the idea of a Driving Question. I also appreciate the aspect of small group and independent work this type of learning seems to facilitate. I am curious about how to involve a public audience in more ways than the typical end of drama presentation.
  • john russell on 14 Feb 12
     
    In the PBL introductory handbook, from BIE, I'm glad they acknowledged the findings of Dewey and what he initiated. It reminded me of the importance of student engagement. My wife, Maureen, and I did our masters in teacher education at George Mason and one of the crucial findings was that engagement is imperative in learning. PBL seems to recognize the importance of this engagement.
  • Mary Schnur on 14 Feb 12
     
    When I think about the kindergarten moon unit, I realize we really do PBL. This unit is student driven (they decide what they want to know) and a learning adventure. Enhanced by technology... we research using books, drawings, e-video clips, internet books and websites (NASA.gov) Children connect and problem solve and end up teaching each other with words, posters, drawings etc.
  • Michele Mathieson on 14 Feb 12
     
    This is Leo: PBL really excites me. This type of learning puts the focus on the student. The teacher then acts as a guide, rather than the sole knowledge provider. Students in turn take pride and ownership over their area of focus. I would love to add more types of PBL into my teaching, but need to find creative ways to incorporate this into our busy schedule.
  • Mark Raffinan on 14 Feb 12
     
    I value a lot of the ideas (choice, authentic audience, 21st Century skills) presented in PBL. I just don't know how to incorporate it or totally revise my classroom to make it work. I'm interested in hearing how to make this work with elementary classrooms.
  • Heidi Bennett on 14 Feb 12
     
    I have similar feelings as Kathleen, in that often the excitement is there, but the means to culminate a final project is difficult with younger students. I find PBL quite interesting, but I do feel that starting smaller and working up to larger, more in-depth projects may be 'safer' as it is new for our students as well as many of us. We can find how it would work with our age groups, content, and specific classrooms then scaffold from there.
Michele Mathieson

MIND Research Institute - About Mind - 2 views

mindresearch.net/...landing_about.php

TLT

shared by Michele Mathieson on 17 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • The MIND Research Institute enables elementary and secondary students to reach their full academic and career potential through developing and deploying math instructional software and systems. A non-profit organization, MIND also conducts basic neuroscientific, mathematics, and education research to improve math education and advance scientific understanding.
  • Michele Mathieson on 17 Sep 11
     
    This is where the game Kick Box came from that I shared with the students during our TAC classes.
Michele Mathieson

Q-files - Children's Online Encyclopedia - 0 views

www.q-files.com/home

research reference Fridays PBL

shared by Michele Mathieson on 15 May 17 - No Cached
  • Michele Mathieson on 15 May 17
     
    I will add to our Symbaloo page - looks like a good resource for student research.
lisacetroni

Technology Is Changing How Students Learn, Teachers Say - NYTimes.com - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...udents-learn-teachers-say.html

Technology

shared by lisacetroni on 06 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • lisacetroni on 06 Nov 12
     
    Two ways of looking at it. Research from the field ...
lisacetroni

Education Week: Research Links 'Responsive' Teaching to Academic Gains - 0 views

www.edweek.org/...04responsive.h32.html

TLT

shared by lisacetroni on 14 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • lisacetroni on 14 Sep 12
     
    This is not surprising, but it's great to have the research.
john russell

Applying PBL fundamental skills - 41 views

In art, I have been using the DQ,driving questions, recently with my unit on the self portrait, and in the Red Grooms project. In the self portrait unit, students are creating 3D images about who t...

PBL TLT

started by Michele Mathieson on 10 Feb 12 11 follow-ups, last by john russell on 19 Feb 12
Michele Mathieson

Spotting a Fake: Teaching Website Evaluation Skills | Education.com - 1 views

www.education.com/...Website_Literacy

information literacy website_evaluation

shared by Michele Mathieson on 22 Sep 11 - Cached
  • Test the wading pool. Younger students under grade six may not be ready to surf the vast “open Web,” warns Schrock. “They do not have the knowledge base to know if what they are finding is reliable, authoritative, and may not understand what bias is all about.” There is little authority on Wikipedia, she says, while a site such as BrainPOP, while colorful and interactive, doesn’t include citations. “I would rather see students use a juried directory such as www.homeworknyc.org for homework,” she says, which includes citations to information. Use kid-friendly search sites. An older student with training may be able to search the Web for a hobby – like skateboarding or a favorite young adult author – on search engines such as www.kidsclick.org, monitored by librarians though San Jose State University. Visit a fake site. Take a peek at www.allaboutexplorers.com, an intentionally fake research site in which the biographies of explorers are riddled with factual errors. Sir Francis Drake’s bio mentions artifacts like computer disks, while another page claims that Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition to the Spice Islands was financed by Bill Gates. Search for as many questionable facts as you can. Or, browse the stories at the mock site www.theonion.com and figure out which pieces of an article aren’t true. Detect bias. “One way to approach bias is to teach about advertisements and persuasion,” says Schrock. “Bias and persuasion seem to be closely linked.” Create a Web page about a topic you know well, and then use it to persuade others. For instance, your child may build a biased site that talks about why a Nintendo DS is better than a PSP. (He probably needs some media literacy training evaluating persuasive materials like commercials and magazine ads, says Schrock.) Be inquisitive. Always ask the question: “Who wrote this?” Click on the “About Us” page for more information. Find a “byline,” or the line attributing an article to an author. Scan the bottom of a website for a person or organization’s name, and then Google it. Look to experts. Brainstorm proven leaders in the subject you are researching and take note of their organization and affiliations they have. If you’re writing a report on gorillas, for instance, find out what organizations Jane Goodall has worked with. Check out their websites for further information and links to even more resources. Befriend your librarian. Use this free and friendly resource. “I suggest to parents that they talk to their local public librarian – students often can have home access to great subscription databases of information by using their library card number,” says Schrock. Beware of phony URLs. Check the URL and pay attention to fishy addresses. It’s not always effective to look at the domain – .com, .net, .org, .mil, .gov – as a way to determine bias or authenticity, warns Schrock. “Except for .mil and .gov and k12.us, anyone can have any domain.” Also, a site that asks for personal information to access a free, public site may not be legit. Check the copyright date. Most websites, especially frequently updated ones, display a “last updated” date or a year the site was created. If you see a date that’s a decade old (or more), it's wise to find a site with more recently written content (posted within the last several years). Create a shortlist. Over time, build a list of tried-and-true websites. Take note of the best websites on animals, history, sports, the environment, or current events, and return to this list when necessary. You will build your knowledge of the Internet, and learn which sites are reliable.              
Michele Mathieson

whitmer - Internet Researching - 0 views

whitmer.wikis.birmingham.k12.mi.us/Internet+Researching

Google L2L

shared by Michele Mathieson on 28 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • Michele Mathieson on 28 Jul 14
     
    Might be a good start to resources on teaching search strategies.
Erica Roth

they're not too young.pages - 0 views

www.childrenscommunityschool.org/...theyre-not-too-young-1.pdf

DEI socialstudies

shared by Erica Roth on 25 Jan 20 - No Cached
  • Erica Roth on 25 Jan 20
     
    This is an excellent graphic, that is backed by research, showing the beliefs aboutrace that children develop at an early age.
Erica Roth

NAIS - Equitable Grading in a Challenging Time - 0 views

www.nais.org/...-grading-in-a-challenging-time

DEI

shared by Erica Roth on 06 May 20 - No Cached
  • Erica Roth on 06 May 20
     
    "As we look for silver linings in the midst of this pandemic, perhaps we now have a more critical eye and greater license to examine our traditional grading practices and improve them to more tightly align with research, our beliefs, and our commitment to equity."
lisacetroni

Understanding by Design: Essential Questions | huffenglish.com - 2 views

www.huffenglish.com/?p=363

Essential Questions Curriculum Design

shared by lisacetroni on 09 Oct 12 - Cached
  • Our students need a curriculum that treats them more like potential performers than sideline observers
  • Essential questions “keep us focused on inquiry as opposed to just answers” (124).
  • lisacetroni on 09 Oct 12
     
    This article speaks to me about EQ's. Do you feel the same?
  • ...6 more comments...
  • Kelly Kosefeski on 09 Oct 12
     
    I like the idea that there is no definitive answer to a well crafted essential question. That depending on where/when/whom it is asked, the answer will always be different.
  • Andrea Corbin on 09 Oct 12
     
    I see there is a lot of confusion or disagreement about what a good essential question is.
  • Andrew Brennan on 09 Oct 12
     
    The EQ reminds me how a curious learner might approach a topic or subject. As they learn more they can still ask the same question. It's not about mastery but about the joy of research, inquiry, thinking, deducing or inferring and all driven by the EQ.
  • Kayla Carter on 09 Oct 12
     
    As I read this article, I found that it connected project-based learning and EQ's together. It emphasized the importance of general questions that require inquiry, thought, and group discussions. It makes me want to look at my unit and come up with one-two over arching questions, and put them up in the classroom. Throughout the unit, I would reference the question and as we learned/discovered more about our topic of study, the students would be able to dig deeper and deeper into the EQ. (Just like project-based learning, where students are given problems and work to find a solution over time). By the way, I am pretty sure that I own the book that was referenced in this article. If anyone wants to borrow it, please let me know.
  • Jenny Kirkland on 09 Oct 12
     
    I find Wiggins and McTighe's views thought provoking. I've read some of their book...Understanding by Design. The framework they use is backwards. They recommend beginning with the essential questions which link to the understanding, then determine the assessment, and lastly develop your activities. I like this idea...it forces the designer to focus on the understandings and essential questions throughout the entire design process. I would like to keep my focus on my essential questions and what I want my students to truly understand.
  • Anna Helsby on 09 Oct 12
     
    I think this article reflects the importance of learning through inquiry and exploration that many of us value, especially as teachers of younger learners. The idea of an essential question being something pointed but allowing for a lifetime of thought or study is one that I'm sure many of us would hope our essential questions might capture. However, I struggle to visualize how this would look in a first grade classroom. When would we share these questions with our students, or would we not? Are these questions for us to build our lessons around or are they something we would like our students to attempt to answer in a concrete way at some point during a unit? Must they be subject specific or are there more general lines of inquiry that could be applied across the curriculum? I would be interested to read examples of effective essential questions that fall within this description that have been used with younger students, and what kind of learning this has led to.
  • kathleen dubovsky on 09 Oct 12
     
    Parts of the article made me want to reread dewey and eisner.....there is a great quote from eisner about viewing as curriculum not as something to be covered....makes me wonder what it would be like to have some large essential questions for the whole school..... And then more narrowed ones for each class..... Creating life long learners should be our goal.....i always find it disheartening when i ask students at the end of the unit of study what they are still wondering and they write "nothing"..., then i feel that i have not taught well.... But then maybe as the article states we feel that we shouldnt have questions at the end of a lesson....we have been "trained" to think that sitting through a lesson should answer all of our questions answered, when in fact the opposite is true. Sorry for the lack of punctuation and upper case letters, but i am wedding prep exhausted.
  • Michele Mathieson on 10 Oct 12
     
    I like the concept that education "is not about learning the answer but about learning how to learn". I also like the idea of having the students try and personalize the questions, trying to relate the essential questions to their lives and experiences or ideas they have had.
lisacetroni

Education Week: Proper Role of Ed-Tech in Pre-K a Rising Issue - 6 views

www.edweek.org/...30early_ep.h32.html

shared by lisacetroni on 11 May 13 - No Cached
  • lisacetroni on 11 May 13
     
    I like that this article is specific to Pre-K children. It's simple and straight-forward. It makes sense.
  • ...2 more comments...
  • Kathy Carpenter on 12 May 13
     
    I like the line what do children need. It is a good article. We cant deny the technology is there and in many ways it has enriched our program...
  • lisacetroni on 14 May 13
     
    Thanks for sharing, Kathy. I'd love to hear if there is a line or idea from the article that hits home with anyone else. I think the picture at the beginning defines "best practice" for appropriate use of technology with Pre-Schoolers. One of the links made me think about our responsibility to educate parents about appropriate use of technology outside of school. The iPad and iPhone seem to be equivalent to the television in the1950's.
  • dollyjohnson on 19 May 13
     
    Yes, this article hit home for me. Technology is here to stay and moving rapidly and as teachers we need to find the most effective and appropriate ways to use it to meet the needs of our students. With Pre-Schoolers, nothing can replace "hands on" experiences yet technology obviously has a place in the classroom. We just need to keep in mind the appropriate kind of screen time, the amount of time, the purpose and the specific child. I have my iPad at every morning meeting just in case some type of question or clarification arises.
  • lisacetroni on 20 May 13
     
    So true, Dolly. It's great for children to learn how they can research or "look things up" if they can't figure something out for themselves. If you think about it, Google helps us all to become more independent learners. So, all the more need for collaboration, deep thinking and application of knowledge in the classroom.
lisacetroni

Student Choice in the Classroom -- Join Michele & Lisa in this discussion... - 41 views

Have you been more conscious about choice since we discussed it at our last TLT? Have you tried to implement choice in either bold or subtle ways? Anything to share at our next TLT meeting? Mark...

Student choice TLT

started by lisacetroni on 01 Apr 13 12 follow-ups, last by lisacetroni on 14 May 13
lisacetroni

Balancing Math Skills and Play in Kindergarten | MindShift - 5 views

mindshift.kqed.org/...kills-and-play-in-kindergarten

TLT

shared by lisacetroni on 14 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • lisacetroni on 14 Jan 12
     
    Andrew shared this interesting article. It doesn't need to be about play vs. learning. It's learning through play-like activities. When children work in groups to explore math concepts, they're also developing social interaction and communication skills. It's a win-win situation. I have certainly seen this in our Kindergarten classrooms.
  • dollyjohnson on 16 Jan 12
     
    You are right on Lisa. There really should be no debate concerning academic skills vs. Social/emotional learning in the early childhood classroom setting. They both affect each other and should go hand in hand. I feel we do this well at STAB. I found it interesting that Duncan's research discovered math stood out as serving students the best in promoting later achievement with reading a close second.
  • Robin Albertson-Wren on 17 Jan 12
     
    So true! We learn best when it is fun and engaging!
Michele Mathieson

George Lucas On The Best Fix For K-12 Education - Forbes - 10 views

www.forbes.com/...he-best-fix-for-k-12-education

PBL

shared by Michele Mathieson on 06 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • In today’s world, students need three fundamental skills: they need to know how to find information, how to assess the quality of information, and how to creatively and effectively use information to accomplish a goal. These skills are critical for college, careers and life in today’s Internet-connected world.
  • lisacetroni on 29 Jan 12
     
    In his response to the first question, George Lucas shares a concise explanation of PBL. When I think back to my own elementary experience, I remember the projects and presentations I did. What do our students need to be able to do? Research/find information, assess it and apply it with thought and creativity. To me, this is the backbone and maybe the yardstick of PBL. What do you think?
  • ...4 more comments...
  • kathleen dubovsky on 08 Feb 12
     
    I agree that creative thinking, collaboration and the ability to think critically about information are the backbone and yardstick of pbl.
  • Lisa Keeler on 09 Feb 12
     
    Lisa- Would you describe the projects and presentations you did in school as PBL "main course" or "dessert?" I remember creating and operating a pretend grocery store in second grade. We had cans and boxes and we priced everything and got to operate the store and to this day I associate that experience with learning about money and learning to add and subtract. But- when I read about project based learning I think of it as "dessert." It was a great way to learn some math though!
  • john russell on 13 Feb 12
     
    I like the insight that George Lucas shared in this article. I think that his perspective as a producer and director as someone interested in creating products is interesting. The director, in order to create a great film, must weed through much film to edit and have the eye and ear to determine what is important to keep and what to reject. It makes sense that the students must learn to determine which info is more important and which it is better to leave alone or reject. A keen understanding is required to prepare students for this type of process. It sounds as if PBL does this. I wonder how many of us have been dong this--at times, at least, without naming it PBL?
  • Caitlin Dean on 14 Feb 12
     
    This reiterates an important point from other sources, that students need the skills to find and analyze information more than they need actual information. I think while we know this and teach these some of these skills, I have so much room for improvement in this area! Need to constantly remember this important tidbit, and brainstorm ways to move in that direction. On the positive side, I think that teaching 21st century skills of collaboration and cooperation is something we are already doing well!
  • Andrea Corbin on 14 Feb 12
     
    I appreciate Lucas's clear definition of PBL. The project based work that I did, or that my children did, does not differ except for the faster access to information today. I thought that the need to learn how to get along and collaborate has always been a project problem. If children spend more time on machines than playing with other children, I wonder if this social/emotional learning is more important today.
  • Andrew Brennan on 14 Feb 12
     
    The caveat that must be added is that the creative and effective use of information must be done ethically. It's importance cannot be overlooked and must be thread through all PBL.
lisacetroni

edWeb.net - Networking, resource sharing, collaboration, and professional development f... - 0 views

www.edweb.net

TLT teacher training

shared by lisacetroni on 10 Aug 12 - Cached
  • lisacetroni on 10 Aug 12
     
    Have you joined edWeb.net? It's free. Find research, webinars, Professional Learning Communities built around topics that interest you...
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