Stations in Secondary a Must! - Revising and Editing Review

For at least a year, I have wanted to implement elementary stations / centers into my 7th grade classroom.  My sister teaches 2nd grade, and I saw the value of all that she did.  I just couldn't seem to put it together or wrap my head around how I could make it work with 5 classes (137 students) with so many varying levels and styles of learning.

I finally decided to take the leap for a portion of my STAAR Writing Review unit.  I hate test review. I truly do despise it.  The kids are bored, I'm bored and it never ends well.  This year, my principal challenged the teachers to stay creative through our STAAR review.  The dreaded testing review.  My teaching partner and I decided we would stop talking about stations and centers and actually give it a shot.  The kids have already learned the content, so we couldn't really do much damage... : )

We created 8 different stations to work on writing, revising, and editing in different ways. 
1.  Freewrite Station - various prompts and a writer's journal

2.  Revise Your Own Work Station - writer's journal and some score 4 examples

3.  Sentence Organization - hands on manipulatives to create a paragraph
4.  Revising Multiple Choice - Kamico as the source and Edmodo for delivery meithod
5.  Editing Multiple Choice - Kamico as the source and Edmodo for delivery meithod
6.  Sentence Editing - Similar to DOL... not MC
7.  Dead Words Station - Said is Dead and other boring words...provided some replacement word lists
8.  Revising Mulitple Choice Onlinne Game - already made online...just provided a QR code to students to scan

Any of these would work in a 1:1, BYOD, or use of a computer lab for the day environment.

10-15 minutes per station.  Provided a Passport Document to each student to provide evidence from each station.  (image attached)  Students work in groups of 3-4. Travel when music is played.  May work through stations in any order.

After the first day today... I am confident in saying it was a WILD SUCCESS!  It was a completely student led classroom today and 99% were completely engaged.  I even told my principal is was my best day teaching.

The stations weren't as pretty or fancy as my elementary teaching sister would have created, but still pretty darn good for a non-creative secondary type!

At the end of the day, I wished I had done this all year at various points.  Now that my feet are wet, I know it can be done in a secondary classroom with great success.  I challenge you to give it a try!

Maas Out!

First PBL has come to an end...Tips & Reflections

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!

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!

Success & Resources

Resources that have provided success!

Today, I want to express thanks to all the people, websites, and sources that have provided the resources my teaching partner and I have needed to increase the success of our PBL.  I have to say that I really do consider our novel PBL a success even though it isn't quite over yet.

• Edmodo.com - We have used this site to house PBL documents, quiz students over reading, provide research resources, provide workshop resources, provide small group communication spaces, and much more.  Best of all... it's FREE!  Students can access it online anywhere through the website or app.
• BIE.com - This website have provided information, links, ideas, etc.  We also have the book which our district has available to all teachers and was given to use when we attended the Think Forward Institute @ManorISD.
• Twitter - I follow many techies, teachers, and districts that talk about PBL in order to get ideas.  Try following @ManorISDIT for great resources.  They tweet often!
• My Peeps : )  - Of course there are many to thank here!  My teaching partner, Cassie Reynolds... ELA Instructional Facilitator, Shay Garland who spent countless hours helping us prepare for this PBL... My principal, Tammy Becker, and Campus Facilitator, Ava Bartek, and other district staff for making sure we have all the materials we need for our PBL...Think Forward Staff @ Manor ISD...and our other ELA teachers who have all shared their thoughts and experiences as we implement PBL together at SBMS!

LOVING IT!
Follow me on Twitter:  @MaasClassroom

 

Maas Out

Surprising! PBL Success!

We are in Week 5 of our first PBL, and it has been filled with wonderful surprises!

• Students are engaged.
• Students are truly thinking.
• Students are choosing to read materials and make connections.
• Learning is actually authentic.

I have really been pleasantly  pleased with the amount of control my students have taken on to be successful in their groups for our PBL.

Of course, I have some who just simply won't work or turn in poor quality work, but the reality is students are working harder and learning more than they could have in a traditional classroom.  

My only wish... I had started with PBL in September.

Pleasantly Pleased,

Maas

PBL Launch!

My teaching partner and I have launched our first PBL!  I am happy to report our launch was a success!

We started with team building activities we learned from our PBL training at Think Forward.  Students had a blast, and we had really great conversations about what teamwork means and looks like.  Students then broke into groups of four, and we began to review, create, and sign group contracts.  That took an entire day, but it was time well spent.  We have since reviewed the contract as groups which I think will become a Monday morning 5 minute activity since this process is so new to everyone.

Launch
For those of you new to PBL, launch simply means we began by giving our students three items over two days:  Entry Event Video, Entry Event Document, and PBL Rubric.

Although there were some things I did not do as well as I had hoped, such as my delivery of some items, I do now feel a lot more comfortable with the process.

The Entry Event Video and Document analysis went well, and the students were just as confused as they were supposed to be! LOL!  Because of that confusion, they began to ask some great questions about how they were going to complete the project.  This lead us to the Knows / Need to Knows part of the PBL process.

Students began to make lists of all the things they already knew in order to complete the PBL and all the things they didn't know but need to in order to complete the PBL.

What a great learning experience for all of us!  They came up with some questions I had not thought of, and it was wonderful to see them ACTUALLY THINKING!  What a concept... I LOVE IT!

Thank you PBL!!!

On Friday, we analyzed the rubric for the project and students added to their Knows/Need to Knows list.  I left on Friday believing my students really understood what I was asking of them.  They may not know exactly how they are going to get there, but they know where they are supposed to end up.

Let's just say I'm exhausted, the students are exhausted, and we all learned what a student led classroom looks like where students are seriously considering their work.

I couldn't have asked for a better start to our PBL.

Maas Out!

Classroom Website:
https://sites.google.com/site/maasclassroom/

New Semester, New Way of Teaching

Hello All!

I am a 7th grade English teacher at South Belton Middle School.  We have 1:1 iPad technology for all teachers and students on our campus.  Can I just say I LOVE my job!

This semester (Spring 2013) I will be teaching through Project Based Learning or PBL.  I can't even begin to describe my excitement about this semester!

At the end of my Fall 2012 semester, I asked students to reflect upon all we had accomplished thus far and the way we had worked through each unit.  Almost every student said they wished they could work more in groups and learn from each other rather than just me, the teacher.  I listened and was thankfully trained on how to make this happen effectively! (Training:  Think Forward Institute - Project Based Learning)

Since this is new to me, I have decided to blog about my experience transitioning from a traditional classroom teacher (meaning using various traditional styles of teaching) to a PBL teacher.  I know things won't be perfect at first, but I also know this is going to be a great adventure that will lead to some inspiring learning.

Instead of just writing in my journal for my own growth throughout this process, I thought I would share it with everyone in case you want to learn from my mistakes or just want to know more about PBL in a real classroom environment.

Here we go!

April Maas
7th ELA

More information on PBL:
Video: Project Based Learning Explained

My Classroom Website: MaasClassroom