leslieramsey
13-03-2009, 08:34 AM
This is about 4/5 of a project-based learning lesson that I created with the help of a 5th grade teacher and her students here in NC. This project was special to me because I had a chance to “get back into the classroom” and work with students who wanted to learn how to create their own Activstudio flipcharts. I have attached some of their first attempts here, as well as the template, flipchart example, and Activstudio tutorial that I shared with Mrs. Minshew’s class. Their final flipcharts have not been completed as of yet, but are in the process of being peer-evaluated and refined.
Here are the steps we took to complete this PBL project:
1) I studied some PBL websites and put together a basic template (download “PBL Template New” to see it) that I thought would help teachers organize their ideas. I went over this template with Mrs. Minshew, and we discussed what she might want to consider for her project’s “big idea,” her objectives, what issues or problems she would assign to each team of students, and how she would evaluate her students’ progress.
2) Mrs. Minshew and I started customizing the PBL template after she decided to have her students work on a project involving some of the great questions that arose from the American Civil War: What advantages did the North have over the South that helped it win the war? What if the Confederacy had one or more of those same advantages… might the outcome of the war have been different? What would our lives be like today if the South had been victorious in the Civil War? You can download the attached flipchart “Minshew-Civil War Project” to see how we “filled in the blanks” of the original PBL template.
3) After making sure the students understood the objectives of this project, I tackled the task of teaching them the basics of Activstudio. Although I was sure that they already knew quite a bit about the Activboard from using it almost daily in the classroom, I put together a student tutorial, loosely based on the same tutorials I used with teachers. I decided to give each of them some “hands on” experience, so we went into the computer lab, and as I was addressing some of the fantastic tools and features of Activstudio, the students were able to follow along on the computers in front of them. I also had students come up to the Activboard and demonstrate some of the more difficult Activstudio tools and techniques, and although I knew I was going to be impressed with their innate skill and understanding, I have to say that these kids really blew me away with how quickly they caught on. You can download a copy of the “Student tutorial” and add to or take away from it as you see fit.
4) The students were broken up into teams, given a problem to solve, and then started their research. I created a flipchart template for them to follow, mostly because Mrs. Minshew and her class were facing a time crunch due to other ongoing projects. Some of the students’ first flipchart attempts can be seen in the attached “Flipchart template and Student flipcharts.” Happily, Mrs. Minshew was able to start the peer evaluation process using the rubric in her Civil War Project flipchart and a set of Activotes. She said that the students were extremely honest with each other about what was good and what needed to be changed in each team’s flipchart. She was very pleased with how they used the rubric to evaluate each other and that they also realized what they needed to do to submit a project worthy of a top grade.
As this is a work in progress, I would appreciate any comments any of you might have to help me improve any part of this whole process. Also, wouldn’t it be great if we could find classes in different areas of the United States who could compare projects based on the same curriculum topics and then perhaps even help to evaluate them? Does anyone have any other spin-off ideas?
Here are the steps we took to complete this PBL project:
1) I studied some PBL websites and put together a basic template (download “PBL Template New” to see it) that I thought would help teachers organize their ideas. I went over this template with Mrs. Minshew, and we discussed what she might want to consider for her project’s “big idea,” her objectives, what issues or problems she would assign to each team of students, and how she would evaluate her students’ progress.
2) Mrs. Minshew and I started customizing the PBL template after she decided to have her students work on a project involving some of the great questions that arose from the American Civil War: What advantages did the North have over the South that helped it win the war? What if the Confederacy had one or more of those same advantages… might the outcome of the war have been different? What would our lives be like today if the South had been victorious in the Civil War? You can download the attached flipchart “Minshew-Civil War Project” to see how we “filled in the blanks” of the original PBL template.
3) After making sure the students understood the objectives of this project, I tackled the task of teaching them the basics of Activstudio. Although I was sure that they already knew quite a bit about the Activboard from using it almost daily in the classroom, I put together a student tutorial, loosely based on the same tutorials I used with teachers. I decided to give each of them some “hands on” experience, so we went into the computer lab, and as I was addressing some of the fantastic tools and features of Activstudio, the students were able to follow along on the computers in front of them. I also had students come up to the Activboard and demonstrate some of the more difficult Activstudio tools and techniques, and although I knew I was going to be impressed with their innate skill and understanding, I have to say that these kids really blew me away with how quickly they caught on. You can download a copy of the “Student tutorial” and add to or take away from it as you see fit.
4) The students were broken up into teams, given a problem to solve, and then started their research. I created a flipchart template for them to follow, mostly because Mrs. Minshew and her class were facing a time crunch due to other ongoing projects. Some of the students’ first flipchart attempts can be seen in the attached “Flipchart template and Student flipcharts.” Happily, Mrs. Minshew was able to start the peer evaluation process using the rubric in her Civil War Project flipchart and a set of Activotes. She said that the students were extremely honest with each other about what was good and what needed to be changed in each team’s flipchart. She was very pleased with how they used the rubric to evaluate each other and that they also realized what they needed to do to submit a project worthy of a top grade.
As this is a work in progress, I would appreciate any comments any of you might have to help me improve any part of this whole process. Also, wouldn’t it be great if we could find classes in different areas of the United States who could compare projects based on the same curriculum topics and then perhaps even help to evaluate them? Does anyone have any other spin-off ideas?