Navigating the Learning Experience

Project Launch-Implementation Strategies: Chapter 6 presented many good ideas in terms of developing rubrics and strategies to effective teaching. I briefly worked in the secondary education system; however, I never allowed my students to participate in developing rubrics for assessments. The K-W-L approach appears to be an excellent approach. In contrast to my previous experience in the classroom, I have never fully implemented the K-W-L activity. This activity may have been effective in my classroom. The text discusses how Vicki Davis taught a particular subject for a year before a completing a project using what the student learned. This step is vital to ensure that students fully understand the subject matter prior to completing a project using this information. The analogy that was made to the approach of learning to drive was relevant. This example put the learning process in a better perspective for me. We as teachers must ensure that our students fully understand and can effectively apply what they are taught. Therefore, ample time should be spent on teaching the fundamentals and ensuring they have a full understanding of the information. In the future, I will ensure that I focus on building my students’ foundation skills. In projects that I’ve given in the past, I did very little to ensure that my students understood the fundamentals of the project that was assigned. It is difficult for the student to complete a project in which he must use Microsoft Word when he has never used this program. Foundation skills will be a fundamental part of the lesson for my classes prior to assigning any project.

A Guiding Hand - Keeping a Project Moving: What is the art of teaching? The art of teaching refers to individual and how that individual effectively teaches the subject matter for that course to his students. The art of teaching also refers to the teacher’s interaction with students, the teacher’s compassion for his students, and his willingness to go above and beyond to ensure his students are learning. It takes a special person to be a teacher. Teachers understand that not all students learn in the same manner. Therefore, various approaches must be taken to convey the information to all students. Sometimes students may be assigned to work in groups in which various dialogue takes place. One method that I use to keep my students on track is to provide guiding questions for their dialogue. The text mentions higher-order questions. Higher-order questions lead the students to think deeper about subject matter being presented. Furthermore, providing the students with questions helps to keep the students focused. Student-to-student dialogue has been effective in my past experiences because it provides the students to chance to share their ideas with their classmates away from a large setting. Some students are reluctant to share within large classroom settings. Furthermore, I circulate the classroom to monitor each conversation to ensure dialogue is conducted in a respectful manner. Sharing ideas is beneficial, but it requires a great deal of respect on everyone’s part.

Boss, S. & Kraus, J. (2007). Reinventing Project-Based Learning. International Society for Technology in Education. pp. 95-124.