I had a good understanding of both Problem and Project based learning, but it was interesting to explore more around Challenge Based Learning. To me it seems even more relevant, generating questions that move students to a concrete and actionable challenge. And learners document their experience as they move through gathering evidence and reflecting upon possible solves. In Resilience it was a timely challenge for students with the New Zealand Natural Disaster, and their results were relevant and moving. My struggle with a focus on CBL, similar to PBL, is how to lay out an effective project that has standards embedded, with measures to make sure students are learning those standards. It is hard to begin with a challenge in mind, then craft questions to get there and then include standards.
Daniel Pink's Motivation video was very enlighting to me, to flip things and see them in a different way, learn in a different way. CBL is similar to this, but as I mentioned above, I struggle with planning how best to PLAN something like we saw in the Resilience film. All the content we have reviewed in this class has provided so much background knowledge as to the WHY we need to make a shift in teaching, and that it is obvious we need to make learning more relevant to the world around us, and the world these students will live in, work in, and lead in. The Flipped classroom idea is so enticing, especially after experience it myself as a student in this class. I was at a IB school a few years ago, and learned so much about how to craft and plan in an inquiry based learning evironment, As long as there are planners where teachers lay out the intentions and guide the learning of the information, then I think it is a totally viable model, and one that needs to be implemented with more consistency in our classrooms. To begin that process sometimes seems daunting. There is so much passion behind PBL (both problem and project) and CBL, and the more we as educator can collaborate in the digtial age the better off we will be. With PLCs and the trust we have built through those, teaching has become much more collaborative, and needs to be! Nussbaum-Beach's work around The Connected Educator that I read last class really enforced the need for us to be more innovative in how we work with each other. Someone out there is doing the same work as you, maybe a classroom, a school, a district, or even a state away. Breaking down some of those walls and sharing what we plan will be key to making PBL/CBL effective. I am not currently in the classroom, but spending a lot of time working with teacher leaders. We have worked hard to try and shift the traditional model of "Spray and Pray" and "Sit and Get", and provide less content and more process and application time. So the idea of a flipped classroom is what we are trying to do with our Blended Learning Enviornment, Edivate in NVUSD. We will have one of our sessions for Elementary ELA/ELD Leads within the Edivate courses, and much of the collaboration is starting to happen there. This will be key to us truly operating as an effective District PLC, sharing ideas across classrooms and school sites.
3 Comments
zack
12/4/2016 01:15:57 pm
I agree with your comment about the challenge of embedding content standards in PBL. I feel that PBL works better with unit wide goals, it can be such a challenge to form the project around foundation concepts. I found this quite challenging as a math teacher. I also liked your reference to the Resilience video about the NZ natural disaster CBL being a timely challenge. This element of urgency, is one aspect that sets CBL apart. I find urgency to be a huge motivator. Giving students access to this driving motivation in workplace adaptation is beneficial to learning. To motivate and also to give exposure of real work urgent situation to address and solve.
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Todd
12/4/2016 07:13:53 pm
Karly,
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Jennifer Wade
12/5/2016 05:18:24 pm
Thank you for your honest impressions of the CBL model. It was AMAZING! And whenever I see something like this I think, wow, this is so possible. Then I come back down to reality. Like you said, how do you plan for this? I think about how we sort of touch on this idea during food drives, writing letters to veterans, singing at a nursing home, but how can we make this the vehicle for their learning? I am also, always quick to notice if there are ELL's in the classroom. I am always worried that they will not be getting what they need. I am sure the results would surprise me. Thank you for you thoughts.
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