Classroom Fun - PBL Updates

Student: "Mrs. Wilson...can I conduct a social experiment in order to see what really makes people happy?"

Me: "Absolutely"

Student: "Really? Ok, good. I love this assignment."

Me: Smiling from ear to ear and thinking....that's #whatsup

We are about three weeks into our PBL project in my English II class, and it has been an interesting learning experience for me as a teacher to step back and let my students take ownership of their own learning. Due to other curriculum items and our reading of my favorite novel, The Great Gatsby, our PBL activity is something we do on a weekly basis. Every Monday, the students get the entire period in order to research, analyze, reflect, interview, and inquire what it means to be truly happy and how one can attain this happiness. As we near the end of the unit and school year, the students will take the information they collected and created from their Google + Collection and synthesize it in order to create an infographic that answers our driving questions. Although the first few weeks were slow, I am finally starting to witness my students taking ownership of their work and direction when it comes to this assignment.

One Student's Interview Questions

One great piece of evidence....my students's question listed above. In addition, students are writing questions and interviewing friends and family. Some students went to the lunchroom during class and interviewed over 10 students for their projects. Students then asked to create a video montage of responses in order to add to their Google + Collection. One student came in with a copious notes on her phone that she was typing into her Collection. When I asked what she was typing, she told me she talked to a bunch of different people over the past week in order to get their perspectives. True inquiry, creativity, and ownership. Wow...my students make me excited about the process and potential that come with a PBL activity.

On the other hand, some students do struggle with an open ended project. They want clear instructions. They want set guidelines. They are worried about points and how they can "lose" points if they don't do something a certain way. When they ask me a question and it is not answered directly, they struggle to comprehend that they are in the driver's seat when it comes to their work with this assignment. This makes me sad, as it appears the students feel the only way they can think is if they comply with my expectations. While I think it is important to set some ground rules/expectations, I do believe that students should be allowed to be curious, ask their own questions, and use their interests in order to drive research. Yes, this can be time consuming and hard to fit into a jam packed curriculum, but don't we want our students to be critical thinkers? Curious? Creative? Collaborative? Problem solvers?

All of these skills are expectations in our curriculums and, more importantly, in the real world. I am seeing more and more that they need opportunities in the classroom environment to take ownership of their thinking and learning. And they need us to facilitate, motivate, and challenge their thinking.

I love my job! #whatsup

Here is my PBL Assignment sheet. If you are interested in seeing some of my students' work, please let me know. I will ask their permission to share their Google + Collections and final infographics.