Throughout my teaching program, I have been given countless examples of teachers who have created incredible lesson plans that end with their students producing incredible projects at the end of the class. While I am often impressed by the projects and I understand that students enjoy them, I wonder if these projects result in the same amount of understanding and content coverage as mainstream classes. When schools (and teachers) are largely judged on the performance on tests, are those projects (like the WWII documentary project in Michigan) actually giving students the skills to succeed on those tests? If not, then are teachers actually setting themselves up for failures if they attempt some of these complicated projects? It is a very complicated issue but it doesn't seem like teachers are given incentives to be innovative. Teachers are given a strict set of skills students need to acquire and they need to spend time developing those skills with students. I don't have any statistics to back up my thoughts but the amount of time that students spend on aspects of their assignment that lie outside of the common core the lower they would be likely to score.
I do understand there are reasons those projects are given so much attention, the most obvious being that they are memorable. When adult can remember a project from a middle school social studies class that is certainly an accomplishment. It also gets students who may not have been interested in the course at all, and therefore likely not retaining any information, involved.
I am torn! I would love to write an exciting curriculum with a lot of activities but my first two issues are that 1) I am not all that creative and 2) I don't know how to work the SBAC into my curriculum. Maybe I shall come across some different ways to do that over this next year but in the meantime I would be fascinated to hear some suggestions!
I do understand there are reasons those projects are given so much attention, the most obvious being that they are memorable. When adult can remember a project from a middle school social studies class that is certainly an accomplishment. It also gets students who may not have been interested in the course at all, and therefore likely not retaining any information, involved.
I am torn! I would love to write an exciting curriculum with a lot of activities but my first two issues are that 1) I am not all that creative and 2) I don't know how to work the SBAC into my curriculum. Maybe I shall come across some different ways to do that over this next year but in the meantime I would be fascinated to hear some suggestions!
I think you've nailed it with the notion that schools don't reward innovation. There's an intense pressure to do well on tests and when you deviate from the norm, there will most likely be a target on your back.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, students had higher test scores in my project-based classroom. However, there was one year when we simply lagged behind. All year. It was awful.
In terms of standards alignment, PBL works well because you can organize the projects to hit specific standards in layers. You can structure intervention into projects. An example might be adding repeated inference elements in a research project for certain students who are struggling.
I think the bigger issue is whether the mastery of standards connects well to standardized tests. It's tricky for sure.
Great post, Jacob. You've got me thinking.
Jacob, I think you are asking some fantastic questions, and ones that need to be asked by educators continuously. In my first year of doing PBL, I did the World War II project, and my students created amazing products- but learned hardly anything about history. I did not do a great job blending the content and project together.
ReplyDeleteIn the years since, I am learning how to give students a great, memorable, talk-about-when-you're-forty project experience, while also teaching rich content. This has come from better time management, more intentional activities, as well as teaching in a block schedule. I have more time with kids each day to work.
So this is what we need: more time in class with our students, and the space and time to try and fail while we figure out how to create meaningful/content-heavy projects. It can be done. I'm seeing it happen. My students are doing very well on standardized tests, and they're also creating real WW2 documentaries and serving the refugee population of Michigan.
And I love that you are asking how this can be done. It's something I am learning to do on a daily basis.
-Trevor
Jacob,
ReplyDeleteI don't think that you need to look at this as either or. Specifically the CCSS for historical literacy address skills, not just content regurgitation. In the process of doing meaningful work for a project students are also researching and analyzing primary sources. It is not a choice between content and projects, but deep content embedded into projects.
The other bonus is that students learn skills like critical thinking that actually help them do better on standardized tests. Furthermore the trend is toward measuring this thinking through more DBQ type questions where students analyze and interpret a primary source. Project Based Learning is perfect for teaching these skills.
Reading textbooks and taking notes off from Powerpoint slides does not help in these skills at all.
@MikeKaechele