Honing the Edge
Sharpening…
This week saw some incremental but important changes to my PBL project. I have realized all along that the real power behind this project is not in the musical skills that it teaches students. Instead, the student lead performance mimics the organization of a small production company. Although the objective is still centered around students discovering what makes a successful performance, I think the lasting impact of the project will happen during phases 2-4 when students are working to improve individual skills, solve problems, and confront the real world challenges of working with a group. With so many moving parts, I am asking that students work independently and focus their efforts. I believe a key to ensuring this focus is regular reports to both group leaders and the teacher. It will also be necessary to help students go through the mental steps necessary to identify the resources and knowledge to achieve their goals.
In order to help students go through this mental process, I created several concepts and resources throughout the week. After students have been assigned to groups, their first group meeting will identify an overall goal and begin a discussion over the various contributions individuals could make towards the group’s final product or service. During this discussion, students will start to realize what they are required to do for their group, whether or not they end to learn new knowledge or skills, and what resources they will need. After these realizations have taken place, students will identify Major and Waypoint tasks. Major tasks are the final product or service each group member is required to provide for the success of the group’s overall goal. Waypoint tasks are designed to help individual students further structure their own learning by requiring assessed benchmarks before the Major task. Furthermore, while Major tasks are identified and assigned to individual group members, Waypoint tasks are developed by the individual based on their own learning needs. After a student identifies their Major and Waypoint tasks, they are also required to consider barriers to success. Barriers to Success Can either be internal or external obstacles that need to be considered and anticipated. Barriers to Success, Waypoints and Major tasks, and scheduling are all recorded on students’ personal interim reports and submitted to their group leader and the teacher.
For example, through group discussion a student is assigned to record the final performance which is his major task. This student does not know a lot about running sound boards so he identifies several resources to help him learn such as working with the school’s sound engineer, reviewing manuals, and watching youtube tutorial videos. After collecting his resources, the student identifies two waypoint projects designed to demonstrate his growing skill with using the soundboard. Our example student submits a personal interim report to his group leader who reviews it and ensures his Waypoint and Major tasks align with the group’s overall goal. The schedule for when these steps are to be completed is also considered as well as any barriers to their completion. Internal barriers (such as a lack of sound board experience) can be addressed through study and practice while External barriers (such as broken cables) must be anticipated and planned for. After the interim report is accepted the our example student can now begin the process of executing his own learning goals and achieving his Waypoint and Major tasks.
The last refinement to my PBL project made over the course of the past few weeks has been the creation of a Group Interim Report. This report is designed to help the group leader focus their group’s efforts and ensure that good leadership skills are developed. Group leaders are encouraged to think about their member’s strengths, how to best to help individuals to complete goals, and identify problems as soon as possible.
As a teacher and CEO of this PBL (assuming I am the only teacher doing the project), I see my main goal as providing enough guidance so that no one gets lost during the process. To accomplish this goal, I need to ensure that students have enough guidance to focus their efforts without squashing their creativity in the process. I will be relying on my group leaders to bring problems to my attention but I am going to discourage them from bringing every challenge they face to my attention. I am even considering a limit to the number of problems they can bring to me in an effort to make sure that each group leader is at least attempting to solve problems before coming to me for aid. This policy does have to be balanced through regular observations of each group and the progress they appear to be making towards their goals. The identification of problems early in the process will be key to a successful PBL project.
Below you can find copies of the Interim Reports (Personal and Group).
