LearningTip #51: Energize Meaningful Learning Through Projects
By Joyce Melton
Pagés, Ed.D.
Mother of two children, President of KidBibs
Children busy at work---reading, writing, researching, building, drawing, creating. Some working together; others working alone. Some using books; others using computers. Some asking questions; others finding answers. Such is the nature of project-based learning.
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KidBibs' LearningTips For the convenience of our readers, KidBibs offers the following related resources through Amazon.com: Bringing Reggio Emilia Home: An Innovative Approach to Early Childhood Education by Louise Boyd, et. al. Building on Children's Strengths: The Experience of Project Spectrum by Howard Gardner, et. al. Challenging Projects for Creative Minds by Phil Schlemmer (ed.) First Steps Toward Teaching the Reggio Way by Joanne Hendrick (ed.) Starting from Scratch: One Classroom Builds its Own Curriculum by Steven Levy Windows on Learning: Documenting Young Children's Work by Judy Harris Helm Engaging Children's Minds: The Project Approach by Lilian G. Katz and Sylvia C. Chard |
Incorporating projects into the instructional program can be a wonderful way to motivate children to do what good learners do: ask questions, use a variety of resources to seek answers, and take control of their learning in terms of process, direction, and progress. Projects may be of short or long duration. Further, whether done at home, school, children's organization meetings, or in relation to a hobby, project-based learning has the potential to:
motivate reading, writing, and learning
stimulate higher level thinking and engage children in problem-solving
inspire creativity and promote inquiry
engage children in applying skills and content in meaningful ways
involve children with a wide variety of materials and resources
integrate technology in meaningful ways
involve children in working together to solve problems and achieve common goals
provide relevance by integrating the real world with school learning
integrate the content from a variety of school subjects
Projects can by used to supplement, reinforce, enrich, or extend learning. They can focus on a specific topic or integrate learning across several subjects. In addition, projects can be implemented as an individual activity or as an all-encompassing approach which teaches the curriculum through investigation and student involvement. Finally, projects can be designed by the teacher or emerge from the questions and interests of the students.
Projects can take a considerable amount of time. Selecting topics which support the curriculum can relieve pressure for students and teacher while still providing meaningful learning for the children. Further, targeting skills, learning processes, or content understanding to be observed/assessed, reinforced, or taught (individually, small group, or whole class) during the project can provide the structure dictated by some school districts. Checklists and rubrics can be used along the way to evaluate and document learning.
The Project Approach: An Overview
Finding Collaborative Internet Projects
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The Project Approach: An Overview
Embraced by teachers in many early childhood classrooms, the project approach is also implemented in many home school settings. A variety of factors affect teachers' implementation of the project approach in other settings. Many teachers have discovered the benefits of implementing the project approach with students who have varied abilities and needs. Indeed, this can be an excellent way to individualize instruction for children with special needs.
Chard (1999) compares systematic instruction and project work. She explains that the goal of systematic instruction is the acquisition of skills while project work seeks to promote the application of skills acquired earlier. Systematic instruction is provided at the child's instructional level while project work activity occurs at the child's independent level. Further, rewards and other forms of extrinsic motivation are often part of systematic instruction. Project work, on the other hand, is typically more intrinsically motivating. Other key distinctions between systematic instruction and project work are provided by Chard (1999).
In the emulated early childhood classrooms of Reggio Emilia, Italy, exploration, communication, problem solving, and discovery are encouraged. These are also the characteristics of the project approach classroom. Kraft (1999) emphasizes that project-based instruction is "real" world oriented, utilizes hands-on approaches, provides for in-depth understanding, and encourages the use of higher order thinking skills and learning concepts as well as basic facts. Finally, Chard (1999) explains the importance of the teacher setting the climate for the classroom community. She emphasizes that the teacher and children support, encourage, and model appreciation and respect for others in these classrooms.
In addition, Chard (1999) states that there are three aspects of the early childhood and elementary curriculum which meet children's needs in the project approach classroom:
spontaneous play to explore materials, ideas, and social relationships (younger children)
systematic instruction for the acquisition of skills (older children)
project work for the application of skills acquired earlier
According to Chard (1999), there are three phases involved in implementing the project approach. In the beginning phase, the teacher and students discuss the topic together. The children share their experiences. The teacher helps the children develop questions to be answered by their investigation. She also recommends that a letter be sent home to parents encouraging them to talk about the topic and share any relevant special experience. In the developing phase, children have opportunities to do field work and speak to experts. The teacher provides resources to help the children with their investigations; this includes real objects, books, and other research materials. Each represents what s/he is learning through drawing, music, constructions, dramatic play, and/or writing. In the concluding phase, the teacher provides a culminating event which provides the children with an opportunity to share what they've learned. The teacher "uses the children's ideas and interests to make a meaningful transition between the project being concluded and the topic of study in the next project." Chard (1999) provides an excellent Project Approach Features Chart and many other useful resources on The Project Approach web site. Other useful web resources related to the project approach include:
From Themes to Projects by Sylvia C. Chard
Visions of Online Projects Dance in My Head by Leni Donlan
In addition, a project approach listserv provides a discussion tool for teachers implementing (or considering implementing) the project approach. This mailring provides teachers with a forum for asking questions and sharing ideas.
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Projects have existed for many years. From the shoebox diorama and the roller TV, the project approach has added many options to support learning. In addition, the internet has added a whole new dimension to the project approach. While collaboration on projects and sharing of results used to be with classes in the same school, the internet facilitates collaboration and sharing across the city, state, country, and world. Further, the internet enables classes around the world to access project web pages. This supports their learning and gives them ideas for how to explore answers to their questions, report their findings, plan future projects, etc. The project web site can be the project, the tool for managing the project, or the forum for publishing the results or student work of the project.
Collaborative web projects offer many opportunities to support children's learning. Reading, writing, and art are the tools that invigorate imagination and inquiry in the web project. These projects are used to support, extend, and enrich learning across the curriculum. They involve having students read books and write about them, share information about their communities around the world, collect data and share, research a common topic, discuss topics of human concern, and respond creatively to literature. These projects involve students in school classes, special programs, afterschool programs, computer classes, homeschooling groups, and children's organizations. Some of these projects are limited by the number of classes that can participate while others are designed to involve many classes. Some focus on participation for a finite period of time while others are relatively continuous in the way they support student involvement. Teachers are afforded the option of choosing the most meaningful way to integrate these collaborative projects into the instructional program. Finally, most collaborative web projects include significant off-line learning experiences.
Teacher-Designed Collaborative Projects
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Teacher-Designed Collaborative Projects
Guided by their curriculum and inspired by their students, elementary teachers have been creating a wide variety of innovative collaborative web projects. Collaborative projects continue to emerge as classroom teachers create new ways to develop web projects. Some projects involve having classes publish their work on a project web page. Others involve having students submit information toward the completion of a project. Finally, others involve various forms of e-mail communication for the sharing of stories, information, data, responses, etc.
The following projects reflect just a small sampling of completed or ongoing collaborative projects. They are intended to provide a broad variety of topics and organizational options for teachers wishing to locate or design a web project.
A single class publishes their project on a web page
Online Alphabet Book by Mr. Fontanella's Juneau, Alaska kindergarten class
Loogootee (Indiana) West Elementary School a variety of elementary school projects at different grade levels
A number of individual classes work on a common topic or theme and contribute to a larger group effort
Susan Silverman's Second Grade Class (includes a number of wonderful collaborative web projects)
Alphabet Across America (and Australia)
A-Peeling Apples Evaporation Project
Boil, Boil, Toil and Trouble: An International Boiling Point Project
Two or three classes in different schools work together on a project
Mouse Project Mrs. Gaines' Seneca, Missouri kindergarten class joins Mrs. Bullman's North Carolina kindergarten class to learn about mice.
A Principal Adventure Students in first grade classes in three communities (Mrs. Tonnessen's class in Chester, New Jersey, Mrs. Valenti's class in Pine Brook, New Jersey, and Mrs. Hall's class in South Lebanon, Ohio) write a story about their principals vacationing together.
Several classes in a school work together to research a topic
Cartwright Cougarsphere, Cartwright Academy, Phoenix, Arizona. Susan Nixon's second grade class joined a fourth grade class and a sixth grade class to learn about living in space and compete in the NASA Space Settlement Contest. This wonderful project placed third out of 147 international entries.
The Three R's of Our Fight for Freedom, Comsewogue School in New York. The fourth grade classes of Mrs. Lussos and McAllister learn about rebels, redcoats, and revolution!
An individual class invites others to participate
Millennium Mystery. The Multimedia Masters Club at John R. Good Elementary School in Irving, Texas invites students to predict what life will be like in the new millennium. The club sponsor is Stacey Hoppenstein.
The North Star Story STARters Project. Sue Pandiani's third grade class at Ella F. Hoxie Elementary School in Bourne, Massachusetts invites students to share their poetry inspired by the wonderful North Star artwork of Peter Reynolds.
Poetry Post. CLUE students at Grahamwood Elementary School in Memphis, Tennessee invite children around the world to submit poetry that describes their "little corner of the world." Wanda Day is the Project Coordinator.
Random Act of Kindness of the Month Project. This project, sponsored by Project KAVE (Kids Against Violence Everywhere) at Herman Schreiber School in Brooklyn, New York, honors children for their acts of kindness. Harriet Stolzenberg is the Project Coordinator.
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Online collaborative projects have been created by foundations, universities, and corporations. The primary purpose of some web sites is to publicize collaborative projects. Web sites which list or publicize a wide variety of collaborative web projects include:
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Finding Collaborative Projects
Finding just the right web project can be challenging. It is best to choose a web project which relates specifically to to the goals and objectives that are being taught.
Some of the web sites in the previous section list internet web projects. Others send e-newsletters which announce web projects. In addition, many teachers invite other classes to participate in their web projects through teacher mailrings. Teachers.net and Teacher2Teacher are two mailrings that teachers use to announce their projects. Finally, many collaborative web projects are announced through newsletters such as Net-Happenings.
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Online projects provide teachers with a wonderful tool to support their students' learning. Sometimes the "perfect" project is not already available. Teachers can create their own online collaborative project. The following excellent online resources are available to help teachers plan, organize, implement, and evaluate their own online projects.
NickNacks Telecollaborate! by Nancy Schubert
Guidelines for Telecommunications Projects (Florida Center for Instructional Technology, University of South Florida)
Grassroots Program Teacher ToolKit (Canada's SchoolNet Program)
How to Design a Successful Project by Yvonne Andres & Al Rogers
Internet in the Classroom Tutorial by Susan Hixson
Teachers wishing to invite classes to participate in their projects can announce them through the teacher mailrings, the project listserv, Net-Happenings, or some of the web sites listed in Collaborative Projects section of this article.
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Conclusions
As teachers search for innovative ways to strengthen student learning, they often discover the advantages to implementing a project approach in the classroom. When implemented effectively, online collaborative projects broaden the scope of the project approach in interesting ways. Indeed, the potential of the internet is exceeded only by the potential of students as teachers inspire learning across the curriculum and around the world.
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References
Chard, S. (1999) Features Chart. Available http://www.ualberta.ca/~schard/development/features.htm.
Chard, S. (1999). Systematic Instruction and Project Work. Available http://www.ualberta.ca/~schard/foundation/teaching.htm.
Chard, S. (1999) Teaching: Systematic Instruction and Project Work. Available: http://www.ualberta.ca/~schard/foundation/teaching.htm.
Chard, S. (1999) The Classroom-A Community of Learners. Available http://www.ualberta.ca/~schard/foundation/class.htm.
Chard, S. (1999) The Project Approach. Available http://www.ualberta.ca/~schard/projects.htm.
Chard, S. (1999) Three Phases. Available http://www.ualberta.ca/~schard/development/phases.htm.
Kraft, N. (1999) Criteria for Authentic Project-Based Learning. Available http://www.rmcdenver.com/useguide/pbl.htm.
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