Hewitt School Notes

Presentations:
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Here are the notes for each of the activities from our workshop together

Included are notes from
Expectations
Point of Strength
Ideal Graduate
PBL Vernacular
Day 1 take-aways
Working Titles

Jade’s Digital Portfolio with links to rubric examples from her projects page – Click here
Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Assessment and Rubrics- lots of great information, links to articles, sample rubrics.

http://www.schrockguide.net/assessment-and-rubrics.html

PBL Checklists-student/teacher responses- form (4teachers.org)

http://pblchecklist.4teachers.org/checklist.shtml

Rubistar-create rubrics for PBL activities (free-you have to register)

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/

Introduction Activity

1. What do you want to learn?

• How do we incorporate skills and how do we assess what the students have learned?
• How do we use student created rubrics?
• How do we keep conversations going over the year?
• How do we expand what we are already doing?
• How do we create a differentiated project that meets the needs of all of our students?
• How do/can we incorporate PBL into our schedule?
• How does PBL change as students get older?  What is appropriate at each level?
• How do we deal with groups?  assessment?
• How will PBL change our roles as educators?

1. What do you want to experience?

• Participate in a group project activity
• Stimulating conversations about subjects that are near and dear to us
• A non-traditional classroom; what does this look like?
• Doing not talking

Point of Strength (The Ideal Classroom) Quick Write

• Community of learners
• Focused, interested, making connections, making decisions
• Creating and actively engaged
• Kids working within groups and helping each other
• Articulating someone else’s ideas in your own words
• Using different resources
• Risk takers
• Discovering
• Chewing on ideas and talking about them
• No drama, no one feels like bursting into tears
• Students put aside differences to work towards a common goal
• Serene
• Working outside of the classroom
• Student driven
• Children owning their problem
• Proud of their work
• Students set the agenda, newsroom like atmosphere
• Making connections about humanity across cultures, countries, etc.
• Excited about the topic, before entering class they are excited to talk about their work
• Represent visually what they are learning
• Asking questions and sharing suggestions

The Ideal Hewitt School Graduate

• Trust in who they are
• Working effectively with peers
• Risk takers
• Express and maintain creativity
• Knowledge of how things work
• Evaluative
• Energy and motivation to try something
• Grows from risks and mistakes
• Ability to communicate orally and through writing
• Joy of learning
• Observers
• Happy
• Curious skeptical mind
• Problem solvers
• Radiant

Content Specific Ideal Graduate

• Observations and form hypothesis
• Thoughtful and responsible of content (written word/poetry/blog writing)
• Being proficient in a 2nd language, orally and written communication
• Develop a thesis and written argument
• Cause and effect (Civil war)
• Apply algorithmic thinking
• Knowledge relates to everyday life
• Organize, analyze and interpret data
• Facility in a creative language
• Intercultural proficiency
• Literature as equipment for living
• Communication skills, literacy
• Understanding of the human body
• Maintain creativity; time to play and tinker
• Sustainable solutions and make the world a better place
• US Constitution
• Independent researchers
• What approach should I take?
• Commitment to global citizenship

The Big Ideas

• Organized, competent, productive
• Understand and express multiple perspectives
• Inquiry based questions
• Distill significant ideas
• Resourceful and resilient
• Articulate
• Translate math skills to real world situations
• Feel a responsibility to live a life of consequence

PBL Vernacular

Planning Backwards – Starting from learning outcomes, brainstorming products, designing the process, backwards design

Culminating (Final) Product – Lab report (science), is it individual? group? Should it be published? The thing that will be shared/presented

A Critical Advocate Protocol Among Colleagues – Brainstorming, Ego should not be a part of this, keep it professional, conversation not confrontation, no “I”, collaborate and critique, a place of discomfort, arriving at a common attitude, growth, how to take critique and not get defensive

Scaffolding – Providing students with appropriately challenging tasks that rely on existing skill sets, activities that build on to culminating product, allowing students to acquire skills as they are learning to get to product, everything builds on something else

Trail Blazing/In-process Assessment (Intermediate Deliverables) – Makes culminating product better, check-ins along the way, where you can see where you are going and where you came from

Community Connections – Relevant content, making a learning experience, project is catalyst for connections, involve mentors from outside the school to help critique student work, if the project is displayed in the community engagement is increased

Mentorship – Guidance with reciprocity, using and recognizing everyones strengths, self-selected, relationships need to feel comfortable, internships

Critique and Revision – Making the culminating project better by refining it over time, can be peer critique (students look at each others work), can be mentor critique, can be teacher/instructor critique, be kind, be helpful, be specific

Presentation of Learning (POL) – Mode of showing work, individual learning styles show, “this is what I now know”, what went well, what didn’t go well, what critique they listened to and then revised, doesn’t need to be content specific, can be a proposal/background research for a project, use evidence in presentation

Rubric – A way to grade a project, part of the assignment sheet/clear expectations of the project, done early and with the students, “What does this look like?”, can be a part of the process for check-ins

Digital Portfolio (DP) – A place for students to house their work digitally (over time), can link to internal/external things, can post intermediate deliverables through this, could include teacher comment (?),

Essential Question(s) – Driving question of the project, framing the learning around some sort of inquiry

Exhibition (Culminating Activity) – Really is a POL (public), high-stakes environment, people from the community come to view, show/explain your culminating product, someone besides teacher and peers will see their work, creating a platform for students to present/speak with adults (besides the teacher)

What did I take away from today?

Possibilities of interdisciplinary approach to PBL

We are ready and eager to take on PBL

Great working with colleagues from other disciplines

Enthusiasm to make this happen in my classroom

Interested in finding community connections

PBL is more than just doing projects

Good understanding of PBL

What topics are important to me

I am already using PBL in my classroom and there are ways to make them better

Good ideas for projects and examples of working projects

A lot of teacher planning is necessary for a project

Children should come to us with what they need, not us directing them

10 questions to set up projects

Check in points are very important and effective

Careful planning and clear guidelines make PBL effective

Learned what my peers are thinking

Aim high!

What do I want to learn tomorrow?

Actual planning of PBL project

How to implement projects in our schedule/curriculum?

Would like to see a complete project example

How do I implement 10 questions into a project?

Get more teachers involved

How do we incorporate meaningful learning into current curriculum

Project ideas for math

Want to see rubrics

How to continue enthusiasm and faculty communication

Answering the 10 questions and start building a project

Do the kids work on their projects outside of school at HTH?

Better understanding of terms used the first day

Working Titles