A bit about my context:
I teach L1 and I cover not just grammar, but also language history, dialectology, literature and media. Taken into account that my students will be 13-14 next year, it's time to give a bit of context for my question. The first 2 1/2 months of the school year I usually teach language history. That means that I have to take my students in the past for few centuries. We're focusing on development of our native language, Macedonian language. Over the years, students have hard time to understand why there were no public schools, why only rich boys were allowed to get education, what they learned from etc. The periods of Enlightenment started a bit late in Macedonia (1820's). I want to make it a bit more understandable. So I'm planning a lot of research. But I don't want to take them full 200 years back from the start. I'm afraid it would be a great shock. That's why I want them to start with their grandparents and find out about life in the 1960's, and then gradually take them back 50 years more, then 50 years more... all the way back - 200 years in the past.
Once the class and topic are identified, it is time to ask the RIGHT question.
Find out what you can about life in Macedonia in the 19th century and think - What would you do if you were the same age as you are now and lived in the same town as you do now, but instead of being 2016 it was 1816? Curriculum objectives* :
Pretty vague and boring, right? I completely agree, but that's what gives me the latitude to enrich my students learning. My objectives are added to the prescribed ones and based on Bloom's taxonomy of learning. Students can and would:
Now, the final part of this is that I still need to find a way and plan activities that would challenge my 21st century students to want to work and go back 200 years. My Learning Designer plan
** click on the title, it's a link to my activity plan in Learning Designer
2 Comments
The teaching period here is over now. It ended yesterday (10th June). Now is time for wrapping things up, evaluating, reflecting on the past and planning the next school year's activities.
Next year I'll be teaching Macedonian language and Literature to 8-graders. Starting lessons are always about the history of our language and that is quite good topic for PBL. All history lessons, be they national, international or linguistic are a story. It's time to make that story interesting and let my students discover it. Being that my students are 21st century children, my main concern and the question I have to address are:
PBL is a way to create lifelong learning curve. It's easier to learn if you are the one doing it instead of listening to it. By hands-on approach, we create direct links to actions and results, reasons and consequences. Facing a problem, makes us face the life. Life consists of (small and big) problems that we need to solve to move further. It's like a game (not always a great game), but in order to get to the next level, you have to pass the current one. PBL allows us to experience that in safe environment.
Site I use...a LOT
I've always liked 4teachers.org bundle site, ever since I discovered it about 8 years ago. I like that it's growing and not as in member, but as in options. One of the sites in that bundle is PBL site. I like the checklist it offers, but you should see for yourself, see if it fits your style and needs. Unfortunately, It is ranged up to 12 grade. I'm making my own modifications where needed and it works for me.
Now about my own teaching (reflections)
**short introductory video for the Animation project with 7th grade (2016)
I've been teaching language and literature for over 20 years. It would be quite unbecoming of me if I hadn't used different methods and approaches over the years. And yes, I've used PBL too. First time as a rookie teacher and it was a disaster. Even I myself didn't learn anything. And then, I came across some reading material about Problem based learning and the light in my head went 'bling!' So I went back to PBL, created and conducted projects that even after lots of years my (now former) students talk about. I wish I could use PBL more often than I do, but Macedonian educational system is results oriented and I don't always have the needed time for it.
The teaching period here is over now. It ended yesterday (10th June). Now is time for wrapping up, evaluating, reflecting on the past and planning the next school year's activities.
Next year I'll be teaching Macedonian language and Literature to 8-graders. Starting lessons are always about the history of our language and that is quite good topic for PBL. All history lessons, be they national, international or linguistic are a story. It's time to make that story interesting and let my students discover it. Being that my students are 21st century children, my main concern and the question I have to address are:
After having watched the videos on PBL course site, I'm quite positive that students learn more and in the process have fun with it. Critical thinking is crucial to future of education. Instead of asking 'what should I do?' the question should be 'can I think of another way?'. Of course, the first steps are always the hardest and they take a lot of trial and failiure. But failiure is not the reason to stop, but to think of a different approach and that's how human intelligence grows. There's an old saying I've heard somewhere: 'Those who can - DO, those who can't - TEACH'. Is that what's stopping us? Maybe it was true in the past, but these days teachers CAN and DO too. Many stick to the traditional way of seeing things and they get displeased with what they see. Results oriented learning is shallow. Once the student achieves certain grade or the day passes, they never look back. And then, in few years they need to get hands-on but they don't even remember what they need or what they learned because their learning was linear, not matrix.
So, we are the only ones stopping ourselves. Sure we can blame everyone and everything around us, but deep down we all know that 'the shut door only means we should figure out how to make way through the window'. |
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