This post originally appeared on Edudemic, a digital magazine and website committed to make people smarter. As they say, “That means not a university, not lengthy books, nor a constant flow of high-brow editorials. Rather, diverse forms of new thinking.” View site >
Click here to view the pdf of the June 2012 issue of the magazine and read the article on Page 38 of the document.
This post originally appeared on Edutopia, a site created by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, dedicated to improving the K-12 learning process by using digital media to document, disseminate, and advocate for innovative, replicable strategies that prepare students. View Original >
It’s never too late to address this subject. Yes, many of us are gearing down from the epic standardized testing season, enjoying the freedom, released from the many pressures that come with the tests. However, these tests will keep happening. Whether a yearly course assessment, a six-week benchmark exam or a state-level competency test, teachers and students are inundated with testing. Because of the way that testing permeates education culture, I often hear some “pushback” from teachers and their implementation of project-based learning. Here are some tips and responses to that tension between PBL and standardized tests.
Don’t Wait!
“I’ll wait til after the testing season,” is one I hear often. I know where it comes from: the pressure. If you say this, you are defeating the purpose of PBL. PBL’s intent is to drive new learning, to engage students in learning critical content that is leveraged and tested. I’m not saying, “Don’t do PBL after testing,” just that if you truly want to leverage PBL and capitalize on its strengths, use it to teach content that will be on the test. What the PBL teachers often intend to do after testing is a culminating project or activity that will celebrate and review learning. This isn’t PBL. However, there is nothing wrong with this sort of project or activity. Keep doing it, because it does engage students. I simply want to make sure that you know the difference between a culminating project and PBL.
Power Standards/Learning Targets
Whether individually or through facilitated professional development, teachers spend a lot of time unpacking the standardized tests and the targeted standards and learning on which they’re based. When you design a PBL project, make sure it hits those frequently targeted standards or learnings. If you know a specific book or genre is a frequent testing target in the AP English Literature exam, use the PBL project to go in-depth on that content. If you know Linear Equations are tested the most often or weighted more in the state test, then use PBL to ensure that students walk away not only knowing their linear equations inside out, but also being able to think critically and make relevant connections.
Embed Test Stems and Questions in the PBL Project
Standardized test preparation does not need to go “out the window.” It can be embedded effectively into the PBL itself. When I create PBL projects, I make sure to look at related test questions and either use them in the project or use the stems to create my own. For example, I might create a project from the reading standard stems for whatever fiction or non-fiction text we happen to be reading. In addition, these test prep questions, whether short answer or multiple choice, can serve as excellent formative assessments for student learning. They can let me know if students need more preparation so that the test isn’t unfamiliar or intimidating, and they can indicate whether students have learned the content or skill. Look at the sample test questions and use them to create excellent formative assessments throughout the PBL project.
PBL Projects Where They Fit
Some of us have to deal with testing more frequently than others. If, for example, you have six-week benchmark testing, then you must focus the PBL on the content in that six weeks. Design PBL projects that hit multiple standards in that time period or at least hit a couple of power standards. I’ve said this before: “Don’t try to fit a square peg through a round hole.” We’ve all been in that place of “trying too hard” to make the project work. If it doesn’t fit, then don’t do it. Work within the structures you have if you want to find an opportune time for an in-depth dive into a PBL project.
Hopefully these tips will help you not only to relax, but also to focus when it comes to designing PBL projects within the world of standardized testing. Don’t let those tests hold you back from doing what you know works for students: in-depth, authentic and relevant work that engages all kids. Simply embed them and choose times for them that are appropriate and natural!
This post originally appeared on InService, the ASCD community blog. ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) is an educational leadership organization with 160,000 members in 148 countries, including professional educators from all levels and subject areas––superintendents, supervisors, principals, teachers, professors of education, and school board members. View Original >
Often, we forget to teach thinking skills to students. Project-based learning (PBL) by design, demands that these skills be taught and assessed.
Every PBL project has 21st century skills that are taught, assessed, and transferable across various disciplines.
How to teach and assess critical 21st century thinking skills, however, may not always be readily apparent from the way standards are written. Take these examples from the Common Core:
Reading Standard for Literature Grade 7: Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).
Math Standard – Linear, Quadratic and Exponential Models: Construct and compare linear, quadratic, and exponential models and solve problems.
If you unpack these standards, you can separate the concepts from the skills. Concepts like “elements,” “drama,” “quadratic” and “linear” emerge, but so do skills. In this case, analysis and comparison are embedded in the standards.
Analysis, for example, needs to be taught discreetly in order to scaffold instruction toward this standard, as a whole. Likewise, if you have a Math PBL project on Linear equations, then students also need to be skilled at making comparisons. When backwards designing PBL projects to the Common Core standards, be sure to include lessons and activities that teach not only the concepts covered in the standards, but the thinking skills embedded in the Common Core that support learning, across disciplines.
This post originally appeared on Edutopia, a site created by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, dedicated to improving the K-12 learning process by using digital media to document, disseminate, and advocate for innovative, replicable strategies that prepare students. View Original >
Baptism By Fire! That’s what I call the first year of teaching. No matter how much preparation and mentoring you have received, you are building the plane as you fly it. To make sure you don’t crash and/or burn (yes, pun intended!), I put together some hard-learned lessons from my experience as a new teacher. In addition, these are good recommendations and reminders for veteran teachers. When you get hunkered down in the day-to-day while the year presses on, you tend to forget what really works well, because you are working so hard. I hope you find these five tips useful!
1) Push Out Content in Different Ways
You know what’s exhausting? Preparing PowerPoints, presentations and other lectures! Guess what? You don’t have to do this all the time. Yes, there is a time and a place for a lecture or direct instruction, but there is also a place for a variety of strategies to have students take ownership of content learning. Use jigsaw techniques, games that teach, reciprocal teaching and other effective strategies that put students in the driver’s seat of learning. Move from sage of the stage to guide on the side. While all lessons require preparation and planning, a variety of lesson types can not only keep your students interested, but also keep you energized to try new ways of teaching.
2) Go Home!
I mean it. Go home! There is always something more to do, I know it. But you know what? It can wait! Now obviously, you do need to stay late for events, meetings and tutoring with students, but you also need to set boundaries. It is easy to get sucked into the school building, so make sure you leave when appropriate. Go home to your family (or your cat, in my case). Let your students and peers know that you are taking care of your own self by attempting to have a life outside of school.
3) Establish Boundaries for Your Time
Of course this relates to the tip above, but it has more to do with the overall structures you have in place for your time during the school day. It’s OK to keep your door closed. Yes, there are times to work with students, but there is also time to put on NPR with your cup of coffee, check you email and commence your morning ritual. Your lunch is sacred, so make sure you take that time for yourself, too. If professional development is scheduled, keep that sacred as well, because it is some rare time you have to work on your practice. Students, parents and others will respect the fact that you set time aside for them, but also for yourself.
4) Use Your PLN
In a previous blog here at Edutopia, Mary Beth Hertz wrote about the importance of the “connected educator,” suggesting that we all make sure to network with fellow educators. Great teachers steal (and you’d be a liar if you said you were “borrowing”), so make sure you use technologies like Edmodo and Twitter to keep yourself connected to other educators, your personal learning network (PLN).
5) Know What You Are Assessing
Obviously, teachers should know what they are assessing, but sometimes we forget and start assessing everything. If you collect a formative assignment, only assess for a few things. Do you have to assess for conventions all the time? No, but there is a time and place for that. Do you have to assess correct answers in math problems? Perhaps not this time. Perhaps you focus on process-oriented feedback. Know what you are assessing, and be transparent about this to students. Not only is this manageable for students to digest later, but it makes the time you spend assessing and giving feedback shorter, focused and more efficient.
Again, these are tips, and may not work for everyone, but I think in general they encompass what I learned in the first years. You can only care for your students if you are caring for yourself. If you create and live in structures that allow you to work smart, then you’ll transition into a confident, veteran teacher so much more quickly!
This post originally appeared on Edutopia, a site created by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, dedicated to improving the K-12 learning process by using digital media to document, disseminate, and advocate for innovative, replicable strategies that prepare students. View Original >
All great teachers do great work. And not only that, but they also do different work. Great teachers are always looking to improve practice, steal ideas and try new things — all in order to meet the needs of their students. PBL teachers are no exception. Any teacher who is truly doing PBL would also agree that it’s different. There is something about being a PBL teacher that requires different work, and work that is especially capitalized when implementing a PBL project. Because I work with so many PBL teachers, I feel there are some things that PBL teachers should specifically be proud of. I present them in these six affirmations.
1) PBL Teachers Collaborate with Each Other
Although PBL teachers often start out with projects in just their own subject area, most create integrated projects with teachers of other disciplines. In that creation, they seek to learn about how different contents connect with their own in authentic and meaningful ways. PBL teachers bounce project ideas off one another and engage in critique, such as the Critical Friends Consultancy Protocol, to seek meaningful feedback that will improve their projects.
2) PBL Teachers Give Power to Students
Through voice and inquiry, PBL teachers constantly reflect on how students can have more power in their learning environment. Teachers move from structured to guided to open inquiry as they do more and more PBL projects with their students, ultimately empowering students to take major ownership of their learning. During projects, PBL teachers use group contracts, learning logs and more to give students ownership of not only how they show their learning, but of how they spend their time moving toward those learning goals.
3) PBL Teachers are Learning Environment Designers
When PBL teachers engage in designing a PBL project, they are looking to create an engaging experience for all students. They are not only looking at the big package, but also at the nitty-gritty. They utilize their teacher bag of tricks to provide a variety of different learning activities and lessons that will arm students with the skills they need to perform well on the project. Rather than simply replicating lesson plans from year to year, PBL teachers constantly innovate and create engaging learning environments.
4) PBL Teachers are Student-Centered
PBL teachers know it isn’t about them. Instead the focus is on the students. For instance, when crafting a driving question, they move away from convoluted, academic language toward challenging, student-friendly language. PBL gives space for differentiated instruction, and PBL teachers use that space. They know students can show their knowledge in different ways, and give opportunities to do just that. They create engaging entry events to hook students on the project. They look for constant real-world relevance in the topic, and they provide contexts for students to connect their lives to this work.
5) PBL Teachers Honor 21st Century Skills
Through instruction and assessment, PBL teachers honor 21st century skills through true leveraging. PBL teachers target specific 21st century skills to teach and assess, rather than haphazardly “doing them.” They teach the skills of critical thinking, collaboration and communication through targeting instruction. PBL teachers work to balance not only the learning of their content, but the 21st century skills as well.
6) PBL Teachers Really Plan
And I mean they REALLY plan! Anyone who has done a PBL workshop and/or designed a PBL project knows that the majority of the planning occurs on the front end. PBL teachers design a plethora of critical components for PBL projects from driving questions to rubrics and assessments. They plan the majority of the project upfront to ensure that they can work with students during implementation. They work to make sure all elements of the machine are ready to go before kicking off the project!
PBL teachers, you are rockstars! You harness and hone all of these skills concurrently. The work you do with students is especially unique and honorable. This Teacher Appreciation Week, know that you are not only great teachers, but also teachers who possess specific qualities that I believe are challenging and rewarding.
This post originally appeared on Edutopia, a site created by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, dedicated to improving the K-12 learning process by using digital media to document, disseminate, and advocate for innovative, replicable strategies that prepare students. View Original >
The ISTE NETS (National Educational Technology Standards) are more than just simple content standards and learning objectives. If examined closely, they truly can foster an educational shift to engaging, relevant, technology-rich learning. In terms of project-based learning (PBL), the ISTE NETS, not only align, but can truly support a PBL environment. After my own examination, I felt we must have a #pblchat on the subject.
Weeks ago, this was our topic. Feel free review the storify archive of the whole chat to get more ideas. Here are some of my ideas and take-aways as well as inspirations from others on how some the ISTE Student NETS can support PBL. We will focus on five of the Student NETS this time, but keep in mind there are more, as well as the NETS for teachers, administrators and coaches!
Student NET #1: Creativity and Innovation
Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.
Okay, I’m going to be a bit crass with this description. PBL requires that students create something new, innovate with content, and develop products that show this deeper learning. Students do not gorge on content and then throw it up in a pretty new genre or technology tool. This NET can help teachers ensure that they’re asking for products that require innovation of the content and not regurgitation. Through an innovative project idea and driving question, your students are not only learning content, but creating something new with it.
Student NET #2: Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, sometimes at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
Two of the key 21st century skills in PBL are communication and collaboration. PBL projects balance the learning not only of content, but also 21st century skills that are transferable across disciplines and into life after K-12 schooling. Through this standard, students can communicate and collaborate, both in person with their teams and across the globe, giving an opportunity for global education. Using the right tools for the authentic purposes of collaboration and communication, students can engage in innovative PBL projects.
Student NET #3: Research and Information Fluency
Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate and use information.
When we unpack this standard, one of the key words here is “inquiry.” Students are not simply doing research. PBL projects require students to engage in in-depth inquiry on a specific topic through posing questions, researching and interpreting data, and reporting it. However, as students move through this cycle of inquiry, they may find incomplete data, require further information or make mistakes. This NET lets students know that revision and reflection are critical to the inquiry process. In addition, it leverages higher-order thinking skills like synthesis and evaluation, which can ensure that PBL projects are stimulating deep learning.
Student NET #4: Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources.
PBL projects must engage students in critically thinking around content, and they often have students attempt to solve a problem. In addition, this standard really pushes for student-centered learning. It is on the students to manage themselves, make decisions and more. The teacher’s role is more of guide on the side, with “just in time” moments of instruction to help students with critical thinking and problem solving. PBL projects also leverage the 21st century skill of critical thinking and problem solving through assessment.
Student NET #5: Digital Citizenship
Students understand human, cultural and societal issues related to technology, and practice legal and ethical behavior.
As students engage in technology-rich projects, it is important to model and practice digital citizenship. Explicit instruction, lessons and activities must take place to ensure that students are creating good “digital footprints.” In addition, this is a great theme inspiration for a PBL project. From a technology class to a language arts class, you can have students make recommendations about digital policy or teach other members of the school community and beyond how to be good digital citizens.
As you build your PBL projects, consider how the ISTE NETS can support your work. The NETS will not only help to hone and refine a PBL project, but also serve as an advocacy piece to stakeholders and other “naysayers.” They can help you focus how to use the technology and keep that focus on student learning for the 21st century. Consider assessing these standards to leverage them! How are you using the NETS in your classroom?
Recently, I’ve been doing webinars on Games for Learning, from Gamification of Education to using games effectively in the classroom. Below you will find links to various webinars, as well as descriptions for them. Enjoy.
Using the Video Game Model to Build Curriculum Units
Link
Webinar Description: Games are engaging our kids in and out of the classroom. Components of gaming can be leveraged to increase student engagement and achievement through careful instructional design. In our next webinar, Andrew Miller, game-based learning expert, will provide practical tools to utilize gaming elements in the the classroom to plan a curricular unit, from larger structures to individual lessons. Participants will learn essential elements of gamification of the classroom as well as the complexities of implementation. Andrew will share example units and provide tips for effective planning. James Paul Gee says that Andrew “is fast becoming one of the leading mediators and “cultural brokers” for those of us working across many fields to make game based learning a force for a paradigm change in education.” Please join us for this innovative webinar.
The Potential for Game-Based Learning
Link
Webinar Description: Games are engaging students, young and old, whether we know it or not. Learn about the potential games have to not only engage, but have us learn critical content. Andrew will hight both K-12 as well as professional development games and gamification to help you gain real ideas.
This post originally appeared on Edutopia, a site created by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, dedicated to improving the K-12 learning process by using digital media to document, disseminate, and advocate for innovative, replicable strategies that prepare students. View Original >
Minecraft in the Classroom is a recent addition to the field of game-based learning. It is a sandbox game where players can create and build, fight off enemies and explore vast landscapes. As is the nature of sandbox games, players can roam free, choosing objectives as they go. Because Minecraft has such open possibilities and potential, the teacher can choose how he or she wants to use it. Just as the student has the ability to be creative, the teacher has the same. That can be overwhelming, but luckily, there is a tool for using Minecraft created by teachers for teachers.
MinecraftEdu provides a custom mod, basically a customized modification of the game, that helps facilitate organization and focus for teachers to use Minecraft effectively. In addition, Joel Levin, the founder of MinecraftEdu, provides ideas and updates at The Minecraft Teacher blog.
For those noobs out there that need a push in the right direction, here are some introductory project or lesson ideas.
1) Explore Real Life Buildings
There are many already-created structures that you can import into the game and have students explore. From the Roman Coliseum to the Globe Theatre, they can wander through and literally see three-dimensional replications of buildings that are no longer there. You might have students identify aspects of a theater, or use it as a tool for presentations. If you really want to go nuts, have students create these models themselves.
2) Practice Ratio and Proportion
Minecraft allows students to build whatever they want, so use the opportunity to have them create scale models when you need a practice unit about measurements and proportions. The building of scale models might integrate social studies content to allow for cross-curricular connections. Coupled with in-class lessons and activities, Minecraft can help students apply the knowledge they have learned in technological and playful ways.
3) Learn about Survival
You can contextualize the concept of survival for students by having them play the survival mode, which demands players take into account resources, hunger, tools and more as they build and expand their world. Students have to explore in order to collect resources, and they have to process what they find, such as smelting ore to create metal. Doing this in the game can give students a basic understanding of how things work, and help them analyze the different components of survival and settlement.
4) Visualization and Reading Comprehension
One of the best ways to improve how students display their reading comprehension is asking them to create a visualization. They could reconstruct various settings from the text, and even recreate scenes and plot events. They could also use these recreations to give a presentation or make predictions on what might happen next, and then physically create those predictions in Minecraft.
As you consider using Minecraft in the classroom, make sure to have specific objectives in mind for implementation. Teachers do need to pay for it, but MinecraftEdu has opportunities to pay less, as well as a variety of editions. You might consider using Donorschoose.org to help back your project financially. Remember that you can have students collaborate in multiplayer mode or do independent practice in single player mode. I’m excited to see the creativity that teachers will bring to using this game in the classroom. I’m sure many of you have more creative ideas. How do you already use Minecraft in the classroom? How might you use it in the future in new and innovative ways?
This post originally appeared on Edutopia, a site created by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, dedicated to improving the K-12 learning process by using digital media to document, disseminate, and advocate for innovative, replicable strategies that prepare students. View Original >
You knew it was coming, didn’t you? Edutopia has officially launched its new Games for Learning Community, and I am honored to be its facilitator. I’m excited to have a space where teachers can share best practices, ask questions around implementation and nerd out on gaming in the classroom.
If you are new to the conversation around games for learning, it is a large umbrella that contains many aspects of using games and game mechanics in the classroom. Whether you’re a seasoned gamer or a total noob, here’s an intro video and a glossary so that we can all have a common understanding. Please feel free to add additional terms in the comments of this post. (Yes, I said “noob”).
Serious Games
These games require learning in order to solve a problem. Often they are used in a variety of industries to train people. A serious game might even be a simulation. For example, I know that many simulations are used to train soldiers, firefighters and doctors. In terms of serious games in the education sector, these games require learning of core content and other skills like problem-solving and collaboration. Common examples of serious games in education are iCivics, which focuses on government and civic learning, and BrainPop, which has games on a variety of subjects from math to health
Gamification
This is process of applying game mechanics to something that is not a game. These days, gamification is being used in a variety of areas, not just education. In fact, one of the seemingly funny but effective use of gamification is being used to keep people from speeding!
In terms of education, gameification has the capacity to completely transform the way students learn, how we assess them, and the criteria for success. Instead of a singular lesson, we are really changing the structure and paradigm of learning the classroom. Terry Heick did a great blog on the subject, and I describe overall structures and give further tips in two separate blogs about using the video game model to build units of instruction. Dr. Judy Willis gives some great specific tips as well. 3D Game Lab has even created a tool and professional development to help you gamify your classroom!
Game Based Learning (GBL)
This is also the blanket term you might see when reading or talking about games for learning. GBL and Games for Learning are almost synonymous. However, GBL refers to any practice that uses both Serious Games that balance gameplay with learning subject matter, as well as any instruction that also draws on “non-educational” games. In addition, games can range from a Kinect Game to a paper and pencil game. One might even include gamification of education in GBL. This may seem a little confusing, so let’s see how these different areas of GBL are used in context.
A GBL Approach
Are you going to use iCivics? Here, learning the content is required to be successful in the game. The game seamlessly pushes out content to students, which they must use to be successful. In order to achieve in “Win the White House,” students learn about the electoral college and elements of campaigning as they play. Through learning, trial and error, students can win the game
A Games for Learning Approach
Are you using Civilization? Here, the game isn’t necessarily used to push out content. Rather, it is used a space to apply and wrestle with the content in a new context. Teachers would pair other instructional activities with this game to have students learn, as well as create other assessments to check for learning.
A Gamification Approach
Are you creating a whole unit using the game model? Here, elements of games are applied to the overall model of instruction. Lessons become quests, and summative assessments become boss levels. In addition, multiple standards would be targeted in this unit. So instead of just learning about the electoral college, there would be many more standards and learning targets that would be synthesized in the boss level.
Additional Resources
Dr. James Paul Gee is a huge proponent of Games for Learning, being associated with many groups including the Games for Learning Institute, which also has many games you might use in your classroom. A blog recently posted by John Larmer reviews a recent talk he gave, but you can also watch Edutopia’s featured video. In addition, I encourage you to take a look at some of my past blogs on Games for Learning and look at the resources Edutopia has already collected. Let’s use these resources and the resources you can share with our community to engage students in learning critical content and 21st century skills. Game On!
This post originally appeared on The Whole Child blog, an ASCD initiative to call on educators, policymakers, business leaders, families, and community members to work together on a whole child approach to education. View Original >
Game-based learning (GBL) is a current trend in education reform and, as it becomes more widely implemented, we must make sure we are not simply focusing on the tools. Using games for learning is a great tool, but only if the use is intentional and aligned to best practices for student learning. GBL can, in fact, be aligned to the Whole Child Tenets—healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged—further leveraging it as a legitimate instructional model to reach all students.
HEALTHY
Each student enters school healthy and learns about and practices a healthy lifestyle.
There are many games for learning out there that promote health and well-being. Superbetter was just released and it includes a learning platform with quests and challenges targeted toward various physical fitness and mental well-being goals. Another fun mobile example is Run, Zombies!, an app that turns running into a zombie apocalypse story. There are plenty more games to choose from out there, and again, the games can help engage students in healthy activities in a fun way.
SAFE
Each student learns in an environment that is physically and emotionally safe for students and adults.
One of the essential design principles of GBL (and games in general) is the safety to fail. Often in education, whether through punishing students by grading formative assessments (or not replacing earlier failures with successful summative assessments) or lack of multiple drafts, we teach students that they only have one shot to get the right answer. Games on the other hand make trial and error a safe norm. We can use GBL to foster a safe space for learning in our classrooms.
ENGAGED
Each student is actively engaged in learning and is connected to the school and broader community.
GBL’s intent is to create an engaging environment where students learn both content and 21st century skills. Games engage our students through careful creation. From leader boards and avatars, to freedom to fail and immediate feedback, games and game mechanics can provide another learning model to engage our students.
SUPPORTED
Each student has access to personalized learning and is supported by qualified, caring adults.
GBL aligns specifically to the “personalized” aspect of this tenet. Although games are often collaborative, all games have important, individualized quests and missions. In a game that requires learning of content, the game is highly personalized. Success is only achieved through the individual’s play and learning.
CHALLENGED
Each graduate is challenged academically and prepared for success in college or further study and for employment and participation in a global environment.
Games are often quite challenging. Game designers spend time making the “flow” of the game perfect, where there is just enough challenge, but not so much that the game is impossible. We can use GBL to create an appropriate challenge to learn and practice content.
Through intentional and careful implementation, educators can use GBL and various games to address and meet the needs of the whole child.
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