Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Critical Friends - Wow!

Last Thursday and Friday, we (my teaching partner and I) invited staff members from our campus and district office to participate in our PBL Critical Friends.

For those of you unfamiliar with Critical Friends, this is the point in the process where PBL groups received critical feedback regarding their end product prior to final presentations.

We had teachers, facilitators, interns, and even technology staff come over and spend time with groups to provide them with three pieces of feedback:  What I Like, Things I Wonder About, and Next Steps.  My teaching partner and I even swapped classes for a day to provide feedback to each other's classes!

We simply created a Google Doc with class periods, emailed the link, and asked staff members to sign up for a class period or two if they had time.  We had a great response!

Groups then took the feedback and are using it as a basis for revisions.

Originally, Think Forward taught us that peer groups should provide the critical feedback.  Since we launched PBL in the middle of a year and at the 7th grade level, we decided to use adults.  They were so gracious and helpful to our students, and our students realized just how important it was too have work completed when they found out they had to present their drafts to adults who were strangers for the most part.

Overall things went really well.  However, we are in the process of revising and editing, so I am hoping that the groups will use all of the feedback to truly make their end products better.  I am working my way through groups for two days as they revise and edit to verify as best I can.

Presentations are Friday!  I will post more after I see final products.  Wish us luck!

Maas Out!

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