[On Monday, June 25, as part of the Center for Teaching’s annual Summer Institutes, Bo Adams and Jill Gough are facilitating day 1 of a two-day workshop on PBL (project-based learning, problem-based learning, place-based learning, passion-based learning, etc.). The online course description is linked below, and the outline for day 1 follows. The pre-institute assignment (the “appetizers”) and a short description of the “flights” structure can be found here.]
Synergy-PBL: Questions are waypoints on the path of wisdom #CFTSI12 (2 of 3)
The First Course: “School Tools” – PBL for the Adult Palette
(Day 1 – Monday, June 25, 8:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.)
EL #1: I can share my deep understanding of PBL through PBL methods and pedagogies, as well as with direct-instruction and conversation.
EL #2: I can commit to PBL with student learners by working through stages of rapid-prototype planning, implementing, and assessing.
CHALLENGE: Because you are attending this Center for Teaching Summer Institute on PBL, the CFT intends to use you as PBL leaders in 2012-13 (and beyond!). Westminster is furthering its Learning for Life vision, and Drew Charter is envisioning a PBL high school, so PBL leaders are high in demand! We want to help you prepare your PBL-leadership tool belt. By the end of this CFT-SI, you will build and present a multi-media resource about PBL that you can use to support a host of adult and student learners engaging in the complex wonder of PBL! Consider it a crucial deposit in the bank of visionary work! [We may even go Pecha-Kucha or Ignite style!]
Resources to consider including in PBL multi-media tool:
- PBL Framework(s)
- PBL “Expert Voices” from research and practice
- PBL as “place-based,” “problem-based,” “passion-based,” as well as “project-based” [ideas around campus, Atlanta, etc.]
- PBL Video Resources – pictures are worth 1000s of words!
- Examples of PBL being tried and attempted/implemented
- Interviews – voices from students and adults about how and what we want to learn
- Ideas for PBL you intend to implement yourself
8:45 – 9:45 a.m.
Questions, Connections, & Empathy Flight
- POST-UP: What questions do you have about PBL and “the Challenge”, as well as questions about related opportunities such as integrated studies, teachers working in teams, etc.?
- AFFINITY MAP: What connections do we see in our questions and ideas?
- EMPATHY MAP: What’s it like to be a student? + provocations from “Writing-Is-Thinking” Flight of Pre-Assignments (How to Create an Empathy Map using Google Docs)
9:45 – 11:15 a.m.
School IS Real Life – From Simulations to Social Justice Flight
- World Peace and Other Fourth Grade Achievements – morning movie & popcorn!
- “Kiran Bir Sethi teaches kids to take charge” – and candy!
- Synergy 8 Ignite – and a Coke!
11:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Knowing Places and People Flights – Diners’ Choice
- Learning Walk Flight – Armed with an iPad, laptop, or other smart device, explore, inquire, and record by…
- Capturing at least 3 pictures of people, places, or things that could spur PBL;
- Archiving at least 2 video interviews of people discussing a possible learning project, problem, or passion;
- Brainstorming at least 1 idea for a community project. [BONUS: Base it on a synergy of the above!]
- “Bringing the news to life using Google Earth” Flight After reading Steve Goldberg’s What I Learned Today blog post http://wiltoday.wordpress.com/2011/12/09/news-to-life-google-earth/, use Google Earth to imagine and frame a project that enlivens the news and promotes empathy…
- locally,
- nationally,
- globally.
12:00 p.m.
Lunch…PBL really stirs an appetite!
12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail Flight
- UNDERSTANDING CHAIN or GRAPHIC GAMEPLAN: With a partner, craft a storyboard of your PBL multi-media tool concept. With one or the other of these two Gamestorms, we will be able to co-post our “slides” or “path points” on a common game board so that we can share across groups.
- Begin building assets, as time permits!
- Rapid-prototype presentations of storyboards before we adjourn for the day.
_________
Coming Soon…
Synergy-PBL: Questions are waypoints on the path of wisdom #CFTSI12 (3 of 3)
The Second Course: “School’s Cool” – PBL for the Student-Learner
(Day 2 – Tuesday, June 26, 8:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.)
Synergy-PBL: Questions are waypoints on the path of wisdom #CFTSI12 (After 3)
Coffee and Dessert: What Will Sweeten Your Teaching After #CFTSI12?
(180 Days of Possibility in 2012-13 – Keeping the Conversation Going)
[Cross-posted at Experiments in Learning by Doing and at Synergy2Learn.]
it's about learning 
Pingback: Synergy-PBL: Questions are waypoints on the path of wisdom #CFTSI12 (After 3) Coffee and Dessert: What Will Sweeten Your Teaching After #CFTSI12? | Experiments in Learning by Doing
Pingback: Synergy-PBL: Questions are waypoints on the path of wisdom #CFTSI12 (After 3) Coffee and Dessert: What Will Sweeten Your Teaching After #CFTSI12? « It's About Learning
Pingback: Synergy-PBL: Questions are waypoints on the path of wisdom #CFTSI12 (After 3) Coffee and Dessert: What Will Sweeten Your Teaching After #CFTSI12? « It's About Learning
Pingback: Synergy-PBL: Questions are waypoints on the path of wisdom #CFTSI12 (After 3) Coffee and Dessert: What Will Sweeten Your Teaching After #CFTSI12? « Synergy2Learn
Great day of learning in this workshop today! I particularly liked the Empathy-mapping we did. (Thanks, J and B, for direct “how-to” links for this in the lesson plan notes). We were to jot down things we thought our students might: see, say, do, hear and/or feel, during our class. I was struck by how seldom I ask myself how my students may “feel” from being in one of my classes. One of our pre-workshop “appetizer” choices was to write about a child we had watched learn to walk or talk. This is what I wrote about my daughter’s sentence development:
What I remember from Carson’s first phrases
When Carson began speaking in phrases, I was amazed! She was using all of the correct grammar, right out of the starting gate. I had always heard of cute little mistakes that children would make when they first began speaking, such as having the wrong verb tense or getting singular and plural mixed up, etc. But Carson was not doing that. So, of course, I knew she must be a genius. Several months (years?) later, however, it seemed she was digressing. Now her phrases were rarely perfect. It took me a while to figure out, but when I did, it made a lot of sense to me. At first, she was probably just mimicking phrases exactly as she heard them. She wasn’t old enough to even know or understand anything about grammar, so it was really just like singing the lines to a song that had been learned on the radio. When she began making mistakes, it was probably because by then, she was composing her own sentences, and was too young to know the rules.
So, I guess what this reminds me of is the importance, when teaching students, of using appropriate language (vocabulary) and writing down work the appropriate way. At first, they may not have a very solid understanding, so they will just need to follow my lead, and mimic my work. However, it also opens my mind more to accepting work that looks somewhat unique, once it becomes something they do understand. In other words, once they understand the concepts, the way they get from point A to point B could look differently because it went through their brain to be processed instead of mine. It should be clear enough for others to follow, for sure, but it may not look just like mine. DD
I think this practice alone, being more accepting of the product my students are giving me, even if it may not be perfect or look just like my work, will go a long way toward making my students “feel” better about being in my classes.
Looking forward to tomorrow.
DD,
Thanks for your superb, high level of engagement and contribution. Your learning walk photos are exciting, and you have made such an incredibly astute comment here about the difference in mimicked response and critical-thinking response. When our learners are asked to think critically and apply their unique and developing brand of thinking to an issue, we must learn to accept, welcome, and support the inevitable failures that come from independent and user-generated content and understanding. We cannot “grade” for complete accuracy when we are guiding others to developing expertise in complex tasks like independent and interdependent critical thinking and creative problem solving. Kudos to you for pointing to such a high-level assessment literacy issue and using your daughter’s talking experience as such a rich and profound example.