PBL Explore

This week we are responding to some set questions by the Edtech 542 professor. PBL (Project Based Learning) is a concept I am not necessarily familiar with but I think that my background in the MYP curriculum and inquiry based methods will give me a good idea of how to proceed in this class and come up with an excellent project for my students.

What were you able to find?

“I still haven’t found what I’m look for”

I was particularly interested this week in reading about a PBL Opera Project that happens every year at Roosevelt High School in Honolulu Hawaii. They use the seasonal shows from the local Opera house and have designed a cross curricular PBL unit based around it. Students from various grade levels and teachers from various disciplines come together to plan and execute the unit centered around core standards that each teacher adheres to. The unit also has the entire school attend the opera and students involved in the project get to work with some of the people involved in putting on a professional show. The community also gets involved to make this unit a true cultural event. I very much want to follow in the footsteps of this unit and see the entire school get involved in a PBL unit of my design.

How do you think PBL will fit into your teaching style?

Not much room in my style but we’ll try’n make you work.

Looking into PBL over the past two weeks has left me with the impression that it is very much like the teaching I have done in MYP based curriculums. These projects remind me particularly of the Personal Project that students complete at the end of grade 10. These personal project are very much self directed, require students to keep a reflective journal, and adhere to a general rubric that is filled out during and directly after the project. The final mark is then moderated after an exhibition where all grade 10 students display their work to their peers, other teachers, and the community.

Do you have an idea for a project? If so, begin articulating it now.

If you build it…

I am going to take the advice of the suggestions given in our reading this week when Tonya advised to use a unit that that has been used in the past and to “keep it small” so as not to overwhelm either the teacher or the students. (Ertmer et al, p44)

With this advice in mind my PBL is going to center around a student lead performance. In my class all students have a performance requirement. Usually I am the one that needs to put together their performances but this class has alerted me to the possibility of having a performance that is put together by the students. By this statement I mean that students will be responsible for choosing what gets performed, where, and handling all the logistics of putting together a performance. The actual works that they perform would have already been completed in another part of music class. Students could also turn this into an academic exploration by considering what ‘performance’ means and explore performance practices from various styles and cultures.

Students will perform for each other initially during a special small assembly time (as is now the case). The students involved would range from late middle school to high school age with each grade level taking on tasks of various complexity required for a successful performance.

I like the idea of a performance since it is expandable. Instead of just music, other disciplines could become involved and the venue could be changed to a formal concert or an arts/exhibition night where students from a variety of disciplines get to share their work. It might also be possible to structure the night after a theme or central idea that unifies all of the participants.

A concert based PBL also offers the benefit of working flawlessly into my subject’s existing assessment criteria supported by our nine MENC content standards.

As I look to the future I will need to flush out what tasks need to be done and formally list and assign them to appropriate grade levels. I also want to get professionals from the community involved since I appreciate that aspect of the PBL’s I’ve examined so far. I will also need to consider what guidance the students might need and where their problems will arise. Anticipation will be the key and while my sets are set on the future I am concerned mostly with the present and keeping it simple.