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For years, my students did projects in my classroom, and I thought that was what made my classroom project based. I was particular in the design of the project, and my students turned out some impressive tri-fold boards. My students became the kings and queens of PowerPoint (and when they were feeling adventurous, they made a Prezi) and tri-fold boards/posters. As long as the students followed my specific instructions with the design of their, I could guarantee a beautiful project. I was always proud of how my students learned the content, and then created my vision of how to represent their mastery of the content. The students had an opportunity to add their own personal flair to their projects by choosing different colors for backgrounds, and I made sure to let them pick different topics from the unit for their projects to represent. And then I learned that I had no idea what project based learning was. I always thought that as long as my students were doing projects, I was engaging them in project based learning. This could not be further from the truth. Project based learning looks at the purpose of the project and who generates the design of the project. 1. Projects are the MAIN COURSE, not the dessert of a unit. The project is what students use to cement their understanding of content during a unit of study. It is not an at the end of the unit create a diorama of what we covered. The students use content AS THE LEARN IT to develop their project. This helps students to understand the purpose of the learning and how all of the information connects. 2. Projects are student designed. Teachers do not tell the students what sort of project to create; the individual student determines that. This allows the students to develop more significant meaning and connections within their project. Students will also have greater buy-in to mastery of the content when it is THEIR project. Project Based Learning, to do it well, requires something that I lacked: TIME! There just wasn’t time to have the students do a project with every unit of study. Flipped learning solves that problem. Because direct instruction is not consuming the group space, students have time to dive into the application of knowledge. The higher end of Bloom’s taxonomy (Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create) becomes the focus of your class time. Your students have the TIME to apply their knowledge by creating a project that enables them to evaluate the depth of their understanding of the information. How have you used projects in your classroom? Were you like me, using projects as dessert instead of the main course? How can you take project based learning to the next level?
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Mr. Dan JonesMaster Flip Educator with 13 years experience in the classroom. FLGI Faculty Trainer who trains based on the Gold Standard of Flipped Learning 3.0. Expertise in project based learning. Archives
October 2018
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