Unfortunately I'm home ill today, but the students' work is flowing in via email as they craft public service films for the endangered species projects, and study their math facts using SumDog. It's amazing how the Internet has changed the sick day routine for teachers. I can send my plans via email hence no need for my husband to run them in early in the morning, and I can assess students work from home.
So as the movie drafts came in from Animoto this morning, I was reminded that our next focus lesson has to center on the finishing touches of PBL--the essentials when it comes to publishing including:
- Just right, on topic humor (that's a challenging one to judge and guide for 4th graders).
- Proper grammar and spelling (best possible--we all err from time to time).
- Correct capitalization for titles (this requires constant review in 4th grade).
- Thinking of our audience as we edit--how will the audience react to the films, presentations, and displays. Will we inspire them with words, music and images to help save endangered animals with action? Do we give them ideas about what they can do to make a difference?
There's a give and take nature to all learning. The teacher and/or students prompt an investigation and make a beginning to end plan with backwards design. We get to work, analyze, and reflect. The reflection leads to the project meeting and class discussion related to next steps, making the project better, and effect. We work more, analyze, reflect, and the cycle continues until we get to the final stage, the presentation. This is the wonderful, authentic, real-world movement of PBL--a not to be missed effort for all children and teachers today. Learning choreography that both stays the same and changes with every class, every year, and every learning endeavor.
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