I was excited to jump in the world of PBL with our students this year. I had previously worked with the PBL notion however didn't explicitly realise that students were working within the PBL framework. I have also guided students and allowed them to establish their key inquiry questions to research, explore and present an area of interest to them (as per content and Australian Curriculum). As we all know that students produce their best quality of work and engagement while in a focused area of keen interest.
The first few weeks consisted of establishing key/inquiry questions with students and working and cooperating in small groups of 3. It wasn't until we reached Week 5 in which by this week we had ventured on our excursion, students had started to find their feet in their new year level and started to work productively and co operatively in their groups...and that's when I finally started to see it all coming together for them!
On Monday of week 5, I had students asking first thing if they were doing PBL today. I had students wide eyed keen and eager bringing me information, resources, materials they had collected over the weekend to dive straight into their learning task. I also had students, (who I don't usually see as much excitement from), excited running up to me with facts and abundant amount of relevant information in which they had discovered during the PBL process, given and own time. I was watching some students even heading to the library at lunch breaks to further research and work on their PBL tasks.
What I started to see in Week 5 was enjoyable as an educator. I could see each student working to their best ability at the rate they were capable of. They were challenging themselves and those within their group. The discussions within groups were rich in factual information they had each discovered during their exploration. What I was observing was each student working, producing, remembering and sharing their newly discovered knowledge. Within this learning they were also adopting and working on their skills within working with others.
On the Wednesday of this week, Nathan and myself sat down with groups and looked at their product and created a rubric with students. Here, was when I was further impressed by the language and thought process students were adopting and had employed while creating their criteria sheets together. Students were able to clearly communicate and identify what they were working towards.
After each session I review and evaluate the effectiveness of each PBL lesson and have created a list of tips and tricks which will help next Term when working in the PBL framework again. So...stay posted to read some tips and tricks to keep PBL alive and effectively running as a rich learning task in your classroom.
Belinda
The first few weeks consisted of establishing key/inquiry questions with students and working and cooperating in small groups of 3. It wasn't until we reached Week 5 in which by this week we had ventured on our excursion, students had started to find their feet in their new year level and started to work productively and co operatively in their groups...and that's when I finally started to see it all coming together for them!
On Monday of week 5, I had students asking first thing if they were doing PBL today. I had students wide eyed keen and eager bringing me information, resources, materials they had collected over the weekend to dive straight into their learning task. I also had students, (who I don't usually see as much excitement from), excited running up to me with facts and abundant amount of relevant information in which they had discovered during the PBL process, given and own time. I was watching some students even heading to the library at lunch breaks to further research and work on their PBL tasks.
What I started to see in Week 5 was enjoyable as an educator. I could see each student working to their best ability at the rate they were capable of. They were challenging themselves and those within their group. The discussions within groups were rich in factual information they had each discovered during their exploration. What I was observing was each student working, producing, remembering and sharing their newly discovered knowledge. Within this learning they were also adopting and working on their skills within working with others.
On the Wednesday of this week, Nathan and myself sat down with groups and looked at their product and created a rubric with students. Here, was when I was further impressed by the language and thought process students were adopting and had employed while creating their criteria sheets together. Students were able to clearly communicate and identify what they were working towards.
After each session I review and evaluate the effectiveness of each PBL lesson and have created a list of tips and tricks which will help next Term when working in the PBL framework again. So...stay posted to read some tips and tricks to keep PBL alive and effectively running as a rich learning task in your classroom.
Belinda