STABLS teachers

I love the experimental nature of this PBL activity. It doesn't matter what the materials are. The children were experiencing, experimenting and solving problems. What better way to teach young children about rules and responsibilities? Often we think of PBL in terms of lengthy projects. This activity shows that this is not necessarily the case. If I were the teacher, I'd spring a similar activity on the children with completely different materials at a later time to see if they could apply what they had learned.

It seems like our math "Home Links" definitely employ the spaced repetition mentioned here. They are exposed to the same concepts repeatedly over a long period of time. However, interleaving is not incorporated in the Home Links, as the types of problems our students are asked to complete are all the same in each section.

This is helpful. I love reading all of the sample projects... Especially the variety of culminating final presentations (definitely authentic and doable!). Also, thinking about how one question guides weeks of study makes me wonder how this would mesh with our spiraling Everyday Math curriculum.

I agree--I enjoyed looking at the different sample projects. I did a lot more PBL when I taught 5th and 6th grades, and I feel like I haven't been quite as successful with it in 1st grade, so it was great to see some of the types of things that might be really great for 1st graders. Caitlin, I love how you mentioned math as well. One idea I had wanted to try a few years ago was writing a complex problem that we could spend the year working on, one that in order to solve, the students would need to figure out what they needed to learn, but it would lead us to the topics and the basics that are part of the regular curriculum anyway--it would just be more student directed. I never actually tried it, though. Something like this, though, or trying to integrate math through PBL, means making some changes to the EM curriculum that we currently use.

I LOVE all of the ideas! The one about first graders exploring a suitcase from long ago to ask questions and create a video sounds like it could fit right in with our curriculum. As I mentioned in another post, I think we will need to be mindful of how we integrate PBL into our curriculum with the younger students, because their exposure can be quite different from one another. I feel some content introduction and base knowledge would need to happen before diving into these projects, but I fear it may become "dessert" rather than the main course.

Lisa K, Check out Modelli Pages and Stationary Set at the apps store. We have those 2 template apps on the iPad cart.

Very cute rubric. I liked it

This rubric is quick, user-friendly and adaptable to other applications. I like that the first face is neutral and says, "still learning.". I think I'll use it. It may be a good time to implement this tool to help my students focus on the way that they present.

It is cute and user firendly. Self evaluations are a critical part of the process and can be done with any age.

I don't know.... I might try one, although the construction looks frustrating..... But there may be another way to achieve the same thing...... It's got me thinking....

I don't know if the tubric would help- I don't think 3 x5 cards would be unmanageable. Not sure though... What makes a good story? Or... What makes a story good?

Agreed. The Tubric is just a tool. I get excited about using DQ's as a springboard for projects. I think they improve the focus.