Week 5 - Reflections

Hello, everyone

We are half a way towards final project! Time passes by so quickly.

This has been very interesting week full of useful information.

I'll start reflecting on PBL - Project-based learning. When I read PBL task on Monday, I admit, that I wasn't really certain what it is about. First, I read Susan Gaer's article ''Less Teaching More Learning''. This article implicitly shows how a very motivated teacher can get the best out of their students. She sought the ways to make her students learn and be motivated to learn better. Step by step not even did they complete the task but they sought for more. 

There are some students in my class that are not good at all subjects at school and for them everything in the Class Book is difficult. In PBL a teacher could find some activity that they could do to give them opportunity to get a good mark.

I read the articles my classmates recommended and they help me understand PBL . I liked definitions such as: ''A project is defined as a long-term ( several weeks) activity that involves a variety of individual or cooperative tasks such as developing a research plan and questions, and implementing the plan through empirical or document research that includes collecting, analyzing and reporting data orally and/or in writing''. ( Becket, 2002, p54) 

PBL motivates both teachers and learners. To complete this kind of project it is necessary to choose starting point ( topic of the project) that would be interesting, useful and available for search to students.By doing this projects, students become aware of academic work. And they can be easily motivated and inspired to pursue a career or engage in activism that relates to the project they developed. ((http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning)

 As my students are concerned I' d like to choose a topic related to subject they are interested in, maybe history or geography or any other they want to study after Primary School. For me, to carry out a successful PBL the students have to be interested in the topic, then to prepare clear objectives, to check availability of technology that students can use.

 As Susan Gaer's article shows, her students were very motivated and step by step they asked for more and more. They are given goals and reward ( alternative assessment) and they move on.

As alternative assessment is concerned, I think that PBL experience is not complete without opportunities for students to receive quality feedback during and after their project work. When the project has been finished students can have clear picture of how they  have done and have opportunities to improve their work. 

I created my Rubric at http://rubistar.4teachers.org/. This is the first time I have made Rubrics. I like it very much and it' on my list for future usage. The students can assess each other and by rubrics they know what they need to work on more. 

 

I’ll certainly make PBL as a part of my teaching methods, but there are some limitations in my class.Internet, class books and lack of time are some issues I reflected about on Nicenet.

As I wrote last week, my students have problem with speaking, as they make grammar mistakes while they speak. I have to point out that when they have a dialogue to prepare for homework they do it very well. So, it implies that they need a lot of speaking practice. I discussed this on Nicenet.

I'd like to thank my classmates for suggesting useful links and discussing very thoroughly all the topics. 

Enjoy the weekend!

Bojana