Project Based Learning

In preparations for a district professional development summer course, I have been assigned to read Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age, by Suzie Boss and Jane Krauss.  First impressions, I kind of like it.  And by that I mean, I really like it.

I have a feeling I may come back and add more thoughts as I continue reading (I'm only through Chapter 1).  So far, it has given a concise descriptors of project-based learning (PBL).

1. PBL is active learning. 
2. PBL is based on questions.
3. PBL allows for learners to make choices. 
4. PBL facilitates teamwork. 
5. PBL encourages risks. 

I am ALL about this.  If you could have seen the cover letter I wrote for my current job, I think I spoke to most, if not all, of these points.  

The authors quoted the Singapore's Ministry of Education's motto: "Teach Less, Learn More".  Let's just ponder that one for a moment.  Read it over once more... ask yourself "What does that mean?"  If the author wrote only four words in her entire book, I think it should be that motto. 

My head is spinning with ideas (not out of the ordinary for me-- hopefully I'll be able to sleep tonight).  I can't help but to try to plan my year out based on some of these ideas.  But, I feel a little torn based on the constraints of textbook and curriculum adoption.  How does one use the curriculum but let questions guide instruction? This is my enduring question.  

Can't Use a Knife

On Mother's Day, as I was getting ready to make some delicious stuffed french toast, I pulled out the knife from the block.  Apparently it was a little too quick and the knife slid through my hand and sliced my hand pretty good.  I had to get a few stitches and my hand was bandaged up for about 2 weeks.

Anyway, one of my kindergarteners asked about how I cut my hand.  I told her the story.  She looks me in the eye and says, "I guess you aren't allowed to use knives anymore."  I guess not-- the 6 year old told me not to. 

The Stranger

Have you ever read The Stranger, by Chris Van Allsburg? This story is genius! I've read this story at face value before and never thought twice about it. Maybe I am slow to join the bandwagon of teachers using it in their classrooms, but this story provoked some serious reading conversations in the classroom... in my 2nd grade classroom.

On the 1st day, we read the story with the purpose to listen and to enjoy. The kids didn't seem very interested in the book and I didn't think it would provoke any thoughtful discussion because so far... no one had any questions... or at least they weren't saying anything.

Day 2 rolls around and I told the kids we were going to read the story again, but this time our purpose would be to figure out who the stranger was. I had the students bring their journals down and write down questions about the story as I read the story again. The kids were not very excited to hear the story again. I read a few pages, paused, gave them a few moments to write questions, then they shared their questions with a buddy. This is where their wheels started to turn. I only read about 1/3 of the story. This routine continued for day 3 and 4.

I created a poster at the end titled "Who is the Stranger?". It was a T-Chart- one side labeled "who" and the other side labeled "clues". We filled out the chart at the end of the story. These are the kids responses:
Who=Blue Clues=Red

1. He is a friend of the doctor. (The doctor knew the thermometer was broken, but brought it anyway.)
2. Chris Van Allsburg (The first part of the story)
3. Paperboy (Paperboys always wear those types of clothes.)
4. Chris Van Allsburg's dad (It's dedicated to him.)
5. The doctor (He knew he got hit by a car without being told. (He didn't care about the temperature.)
6. Magician who controls the weather with his feelings. (When he's sad, it's cold and when he's happy it's warm.)

I could tell by my students' responses they didn't really understand the clues (or facts from the story). They were inferring a lot clues... instead of just inferring who the stranger was. And their inferences were not based on any real logical facts except for the last response!

So, we read the story... AGAIN! This time, the kids wrote in their journals again... but I focused them to ONLY THE FACTS straight from the story. Nothing that they "thought" or "guessed". Great way to teach facts vs. opinions.

We came up with another chart with facts that could lead us to who the stranger was. We created another poster to add information to as we read titled "Clues about The Stranger". Here are their thoughts:

1. lost his balance

2. he's not dead

3. when the stranger is there, it's warmer

4. bigger pumpkins

5. the farmer didn't see him at first

6. Mr. Bailey thinks he's a hermit.

7. leather clothes

8. Mr. Bailey thinks he lives in the woods.

9. the weather is not changing

10. Little girl is listening

11. He can't talk (Mr. Bailey doesn't think so.)

12. Dr. thinks he lost his memory (should get it back in a few days.

13. Didn't get his memory back

14. Thermometer is broken

15. Bump on his head

16. There was a cold breeze that night

17. Didn't tie shoes

18. North trees are orange and red

19. Confused about buttons

20. Copied Katy, blew on his soup

21. doesn't know what's going on

22. Cold in their house

23. Has new clothes

24. Picked up rabbits, stroked ears, hopped toward him instead of away, likes bunnies

25. No sweating

26. Doesn't get tired

27. Learning new things, followed Mr. Bailey

28. Staring at birds

29. Notices color

30. He blew on a green leaf and it turned red and orange.

31. He thinks something is wrong when he sees the green leaves.

32. Wants to leave

33. Disappeared

34. Tree were bright orange when he left.

35. Bailey's were to slow to catch him to say goodbye

36. Dressed back in leather clothes

37. Turned colder when he left

38. He will come back next year.

39. Comes back every year around fall.

40. The trees stayed green for 1 week while the trees to the north changed colors.

41. In frost, it reads "See you next fall."

So Is This What Differentiated Learning Is?

Last week, I was meeting with a group of my readers. It is a group of 3 girls who are quite intelligent and very inquisitive. They think deeply and love to investigate what they are reading about.

They are currently reading a book about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. On this particular day, they had read about Harriet Tubman getting married. It said something about Harriet Tubman jumping over a broom to symbolize their union as a couple. One student had written in her journal that it was confusing that they just jumped over a broom and "BAM, they were married". She was confused and wanted to learn more. So, we talked about different wedding traditions. Hannah said that she thought it mean that "two become one" as TWO people jumped over ONE broom.

I read that it was just a tradition deeply rooted in the slave culture. Hannah said she liked her idea better. FUNNY!

It gets better. Then, they said that it wasn't like weddings nowadays because now it takes about 5 days to plan a wedding and for them they just quickly decided. (HA HA- 5 days! :)) They asked how long it was taking me to plan my wedding. I told them "about a year". Deeper and deeper into the conversation we go. They said that getting married means that you have babies. They asked if I wanted to have kids. Hannah remarks that she doesn't want to have kids because it would probably hurt. I told her that there was special medicine that you can get so it makes your body numb and tingly so you don't have to feel it as much....

Then... I realized this was ALL so beyond the point. Yes, they were curious... but this conversation needed to end before they we began talking about more than I bargained for. These kids are so inquisitive how can you possibly cut them off? But, I realize... this kind of differentiation walks a fine line... YIKES!

Sleepovers

A few weeks ago, Jonny (my fiance) happened to come to class with me on Friday. As tradition goes in our classroom, we have a class meeting every Friday before my beginning track students go home. Everyone shares something they want to say. My kids went around and shared their thoughts. Jonny loves to chime in and he said that he was "excited to have a delicious breakfast with Ms. Berg". (We had plans to go to Kneaders for breakfast on Saturday. They have the most delicious french toast EVER!)

Anyway, a minute goes by and Kyle raises his hand. He says, "Why does Jonny get to sleep over at your house? You're not married." I quickly retorted, "He's not. He's staying at his sister's house."

Then, I quickly changed the subject before anymore awkward conversations arose.

Ability Grouping

Read an article today (http://www.omaha.com/article/20100222/NEWS01/702229916) about schools in Omaha that want to try to reform education. They want to ability group students instead of group them by age. I am really interested in this idea. I really want to see how this works.

Yes... it is highly controversial. There are benefits and drawbacks of course. But, when I think of what I can do with a classroom full of students near the same level, I am much more optimistic that when I see I classroom full of TOTALLY spread out students. I can do my best, but it will NEVER cut it. More on this idea later... when it isn't 11:20 PM. I need to go to bed... so I can be mentally refreshed for tomorrow. Tomorrow is... another day.

Great Reading Comprehension Assessment

So, this year I have been really focused on "beefing" up my reading program in my classroom. I am trying anything and everything. I want my students to have the education that I didn't have growing up. As a kid, I remember being labeled in K, 1st, and 2nd as a good reader. I was quite interested in books WAY before I ever started school (and I started kindergarten at 4). But, I was really good at answering the teacher's questions. When I got into upper grades, middle school, and high school (don't even mention college), I have slunk back into being an average reader. Either my primary grade teachers didn't understand what makes a good reader, I wasn't challenged enough, or I wasn't taught what skills I needed to stay on top. By the time I hit middle school, I was completely turned off to reading. I remember when I discovered CliffNotes, it was like a present sent from the heavens above. It meant I never had to read again, just graze over the notes and take the test.

In college, I realized very quickly, I had a huge whole in my comprehension. I was never fully taught (or in my case, I never learned) how to read below the surface. Never had a seen the importance of that... until it was too late. Struggling through my literature and composition classes, I was at a loss when I was to analyze a Shakespearean sonnet or write a story with a deeper meaning or a hidden storyline.

It is for this reason that I want my students to be better than I was/am. I am learning, as my students learn, how to become a better reader. Good readers question, make connections, make inferences, make prediction, analyze unknown words, find parts of text that they love... I just answered the checklist of questions. No wonder I hated books... no wonder some of my students hate books. I would too if this is all I was expected to do with words on a page.

So... this is not an original idea. Paula had just returned from a conference and she shared a way a high school teacher assessed her students for their learning. This teacher would copy the same text for each of her students and have them write on the copy connections, inferences, questions, and any other ideas that came to their heads as they were reading. They would hand it in and she would know where to go from there with her teaching as well as know where her students are.

I decided to do the same. I took an article the kids have all read from the National Geographic Magazine about volcanoes... or so I thought. The kids had read through this National Geographic Magazine on their own, but I wanted to read it to them (especially for the struggling readers... give them all the same base point). Before I told them what they were going to do, I put the "I can..." statements on the board for each reading topic we have covered so far this year (WOW... it was a lot!). I told the kids that I had to do their report cards and I needed a way to see if they could do these things. I told them we were going to take the article, read it, and write all over the page about anything they thought was interesting, any connections they could make, or anything else that showed me they could do the things on the board. They took 25 minutes to dissect the article. They used pens (which they LOVE to do). They wrote in the margins. They asked questions. They underlined words they didn't know. They wrote about the author's purpose. They made connections. They used Post-Its. It was pretty amazing. High readers and low readers alike were both analyzing the text beautiful.

I realized that I don't give enough credit to these AMAZING minds. These kids are totally cool. Their minds are FULL of questions... I just don't give them enough time to explore and expand on those questions.

What worked: this idea... one of my favorite things I've done
What didn't work: this article was kind of lame, not enough background knowledge, too many abstract ideas, not enough practice to make it an assessment for the report card

What now: I want the kids to buddy up and talk about it some more. I can't leave it at that. I have too many questions and so do they. I can't wait to hear more... from them individually. We'll talk about some of the things I noticed with the class... and then I'll try to conference with the kiddos about it. Hmmmm... I don't know... so many ideas. Glad I got at least these down.