Discuss the potential pitfalls in project design
There are many pitfalls in project design that teachers and students need to watch for. They are Long on activity, short on learning outcomes which is not worth investing time in if the project is busy and long but reaches lower-order learning aims. Technology layered over traditional practice is another thing to watch for because researching a topic and presenting on a slideshow is not a quality project. Good projects focus on reaching significant learning outcomes. Trivial thematic units is another potential pitfall. Work must be interdisciplinary, collaborative, or rigorous. Another potential pitfall is overly scripted with many, many steps because teachers have to be careful that students don't end with a "cookie cutter" work product because they are able to get the same results without following all the directions.
Discuss the features of a good project
The features of a good project have different learning paths and are loosely designed, structured for inquiry, captures student interest through complex and compelling real-life experiences, involves others, have students learn by doing, and and are structured so that students learn form each other. There are many more features, but these are the features that stand out when you read them because you can relate when doing a previous project in a certain class.
Discuss where project ideas come from
Project Ideas can come from everywhere. In classrooms, from other projects, books, contemporary issues, student questions and interest, and news stories. Project ideas are whatever a student or teacher is interested in researching or teaching.
Discuss the steps to design a project
The steps to designing a project is
1. Revisit the framework. This includes 21st century skills, learning objectives, and learning dispositions you want to foster.
2. Establish evidence of understanding
3. Plan the project theme or challenge. Think about what do students inquire about
4. Plan the entree into the project experience . This helps get the students attention.
Last but not least, you write a project sketch. Which is a brief account of your project.
Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.
Chapter four relates to our topic staying healthy, because we also have steps to help students, teachers, and parents. Our steps involve staying healthy and creating a healthy lifestyle. We also use features to create a good project for students.
I really like how you listed out the steps to designing a project. I was also thinking about using bullets, but decided against it. I agree with the order of your steps as well.
ReplyDeleteI like how in your list you mentioned need that we need to use 21st century thinking. This this something that we don't really think about when we design a project. We don't realize that we need to teach our students this!
ReplyDeleteThe way you broke down what features make for a good project ideas is clear and concise. I think you included the most important ones as well- I especially like having students learn by doing because its the realistic way to teach students. In life, no one sits around and lectures the person on how to do something, usually its by trial and error.
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