PROJECT BASED LEARNINGBy Jennifer Long

REQUIREMENTS FOR PBL

Real World ConnectionsCore to LearningStructured CollaborationStudent DrivenMultifaceted Assesment

HOW CAN WE STOP BULLYING?

THE PROBLEM: BULLYING IN OUR SCHOOLS

WHY THIS TOPIC?

This assignment will be given to my 3rd grade class as part of a social studies unit we will complete about working together in the community.

I chose this topic due to the high incidence of bullying in Korean schools. Suicide rates in Korea are the highest in the world. This is a real issue that needs attention.

If students can be made aware of it at a young age, they will be more conscious of their actions and hopefully create a more loving environment in the schools they attend in the future.

IS THIS A REAL WORLD PROBLEM?

Students will start out by gathering data. They will have access to a class set of tablets. I will direct them to sites with relevant information (since they are young students and may require guidance doing research).

Students will take a field trip to a nearby middle school and high school to interview students and get their opinions on whether or not they believe that bullying is really an issue.

CORE TO LEARNING

Students will have to engage their communication skills to interview the older students.

They will use critical thinking skills to analyze the data they collect.

They will collaborate to come up with solutions to the problem.

Students will use creativity to create anti-bullying media.

Students will have to draw from interdisciplinary skills like technological, reading, writing, speaking, and comprehension skills.

STRUCTURED COLLABORATION

Once students have discovered the problem they will need to work together to come up with a solution.

Students will be assigned jobs like thinker, creator/designer, management coordinator and set to work to build a presentation that will be delivered to the school as well as neighboring middle and high schools.

STUDENT DRIVEN

It will be left up to the students to decide what route they choose to take with this assignment. They can make a video, they can develop a series of posters that include bullying statistics and anti-bullying slogans, they can conduct “It Gets Better” interviews and post them as a podcast on the standstrengthteam.org website, or any other well developed form of media.

MULTIFACETED ASSESSMENT

Students will be assessed throughout the course of the project in a variety of ways. They will be graded on:

How well they work as a team

The quality of their finished product

How effectively they divided the workload

The real world applications of their solutions

How well they used their resources

REVISE AND REFLECT

After students have hosted assemblies to present their projects, complete with a question and answer portion they will be asked to evaluate how well they think their ideas were received.

Is there anything they want to change about their presentation?

Are there ways their solution could be more effective or far reaching?

Do they feel they completed the project to the best of their ability?

SOURCES:

Larmer, John (2010, September). Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning. Retrieved from: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/sept10/vol68/num01/Seven_Essentials_for_Project-Based_Learning.aspx

What is Project Based Learning (PBL)? Retrieved from: http://bie.org/about/what_pbl

Johnson, Steven (2010, Sept 17). Where Good Ideas Come From. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugRZGDbPFU&feature=youtu.be

5 Keys to Rigorous Project-Based Learning (2014, June 25). Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/video/five-keys-rigorous-project-based-learning