Lydia Harpe
Reading Reflection #6
In the past couple of chapters, we
have read how important it is that teachers develop appropriate
lessons and take advantage of their peers' advice in order to provide
a profitable project-based learning experience for their students.
Now in this chapter we read about how students also must be prepared
and have the proper background knowledge necessary to tackle such a
project. The first step in this can be as simple as encouraging your
students to use the technology available, such as ProfilerPRO, in
order to evaluate themselves and get their minds ready for this
process.
Students will learn better when they
know that their work in the classroom is also impacting their lives
in the daily world, so making sure that your students develop a real
interest in your project's main idea is key. Teachers should devote a
considerable amount of time getting a sense of what students “know
about a topic, and also what they wonder” (101). Teachers can do
this by having whole group discussions with their students as well as
teaching mini-lessons on specific topics or evaluating students
one-on-one.
Because technology is so important in
the modern classroom, take some time to explain new skills to your
students. Just like setting aside a hotlist of websites that are
appropriate for students to browse, taking time to explain the
fundamentals and appropriate usage of technology will benefit and
guide your students to a better learning experience.
I could easily relate this chapter to
my group's project on designing a healthy dessert cookbook because I
could see how important preparing our students would be. If students
do not understand rudimentary concepts about researching, using
technology, or even the main core of subjects (math, science,
language arts) that are learned through this process, they will not
understand how to contribute to the cookbook as a whole. I hope to
use technology and in-class work to lead my students to a clear
understanding of project-based learning.
I like how you talked about the hotlist. I thought that also went along with another idea from the chapter- students should look less but think more. By using the hotlist, students spend less time looking for quality information and can spend more time thinking about the problem and how it could be solved.
ReplyDeleteI agree that making sure that your students develops a real interest in your project's main idea is key to having a successful project. When telling your students the purpose of the project there about to do, this allows them to connect what is being done in the classroom to the real world. A student won't take the project seriously and learn from it if they think its pointless and wont impact there life later on.
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