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A Whitfield Career Academy student (left) studies fingerprints as part of a forensic science project. Eric White (right), one of the Academy's teachers, enjoys a laugh during collaborative planning time with his colleagues.
It took some convincing. At first blush, Eric White -- social studies teacher at Whitfield Career Academy in northwest Georgia and the unofficial evangelist of project-based learning in the Whitfield County School District -- wasn't sold on project-based learning. He had heard the stories about PBL being "warm, fuzzy, snuggly learning in which Johnny glues some Wikipedia information to a poster and gets a grade." But visits to High Tech High and an in-depth look into the rigorous approach to PBL there turned him into a die-hard proponent and highly successful practitioner.
Here are White's top tips for implementing projects that engage and reward students while deepening their learning and enhancing their ability to retain valuable knowledge:
White and Ott think of the introductory activity for each project as the key opportunity to capture students' interest and engage their passions. To start the song project, they had students pull out their iPods, listen to the tune that was most meaningful to them, and write about it. Before starting a unit on debating, the students staged a quick debate -- complete with opening statements and rebuttals -- about who would make a better presidential candidate, Johnny Knoxville of Jackass or Snooki from Jersey Shore. White says that creating this type of relevant, engaging hook in the beginning "keeps them reeled in as we move along."
As White likes to say to his students, "Tell me something I can't Google." He and Ott frame each project with a driving question that aims to push kids deeper into the content. The question should prompt students to go beyond the acquisition of facts into application and analysis. And it should be open-ended enough that it has no single answer so that the process of getting to an answer is more important than the answer itself. The driving question for the song project was, "How does music affect us and how does it reflect societies and cultures?"
The only way to design entry activities and projects that excite students is to know what students care about. White approaches the task like an anthropologist, observing the students, noting what kids are talking about, and listening closely to their conversations. The classes perform team-building exercises and develop comfort and familiarity through peer critiques on small, low-stakes assignments. He also asks students to write about "a talent you have that you don't get to use in school." This provides the teachers with topical hooks to enhance student engagement in the project learning, and it lets the students know the teachers care about their passions and not just their grades.
Traditional tests do enable teachers to measure whether students are grasping the material they need to know. That's why White and Ott use them as complements to projects. Projects count for 50 percent of a student's final grade, while tests and smaller daily assignments each count for 25 percent. What matters most of all, says White, is how the students "apply the knowledge they gain in the context of the projects."
Links:
[1] http://www.edutopia.org/grace-rubenstein-content
[2] http://www.whitfieldca.com/
[3] http://www.hightechhigh.org/
[4] http://elschools.org/about-us/staff
[5] http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/stw/edutopia-stw-replicatingPBL-21stCA...
[6] http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/stw/edutopia-stw-replicatingPBL-21stCA...
[7] http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/stw/edutopia-stw-replicatingPBL-21stCA...
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