Well... I can't believe it, but our first PBL has come to an end. On Friday, students presented a summary of their information from their Action Plan. Below are my thoughts and tips now that I have lived through my first PBL experience from design to presentation.
First, while not all
end products (Action Plan and Presentation) were the quality I would have liked, I am extremely proud of my students for sticking with it and having the courage to stand in front of their peers, parents, and school staff to present their findings. We only had about 10 minutes the day before to review presentations skills. And while Thursday was supposed to be a day of practice, it was really a day of groups trying to finish at the last minute because they realized I wasn't kidding about presenting, and
YES I DID invite parents, principals, and staff to participate in the audience. I must say, I'm really not surprised about the scrambling at the last moment, but I think it will pay off in future PBLs because they now know I'm serious.
One of the first things my partner and I realized we needed to change was the
timeline. Even though the
Think Forward Institute told us to keep the PBL to 4 weeks max, we pushed it to 5 because we were reading a novel to complement the PBL. Well... Think Forward was right.
We COULD have completed the work in 4 weeks, especially Pre-Ap classes.
Another change we would make is
using more Centers/Stations for Workshops. I think we expected a little too much from the get go, and it back fired a little bit with 7th graders.
I think groups traveling from center to center in a class period or two would be better than the single workshop style we used during this PBL. At the 7th grade level, it is important for all members of the group to get all the information rather then sending one person per group to the workshop and rely upon that sole person to re-explain the information to the rest of the group.
On the same topic of
Workshops, we realized
we should have used the resources around us more for workshops: librarian, counselors, and technology staff. All of those groups could have helped us by coming in to conduct a workshop with students rather than them all coming from the teacher or materials.
Edmodo was an invaluable tool during the entire PBL. It stored all documents and resources including Entry Event Document, Rubrics, Research Material, Quizzes, etc. It was an important organizational tool for our 1:1 iPad school for this PBL. In addition to using Edmodo,
each group also had a folder that contained PBL resources. That was GREAT idea because there was NO excuse for not having access to the appropriate documents or information at any point in the PBL.
One thing I did find was that
students had a difficult time taking the information they had researched and idea they had written down on their Action Plan and turning it into a presentation. They left out quality information from their written words. This lesson in disconnect helps me understand they need more scaffolding at that point in the project. They also had a hard time taking the feedback from
Critical Friends and revising their work.
Overall, I feel our first PBL was a success. I'm so happy we implemented almost immediately after training. I think it made a big difference and has allowed us to reflect on what we can change, add, delete, etc for our next attempt.
Now... I'm off to stick my head in the sand for a few hours... Oh wait... I have to grade final Action Plans, start a new unit, and plan the next Research PBL... Who am I kidding... I'm a teacher. No rest for the weary.... Off to work I go... THANK GOD I LOVE IT!
Maas Out!
