I am very excited that the fifth grade at my school is going to pilot a week long project based learning venture in June. I do a lot of PBL in my science classes, but this is very different!
The first step is to work together to identify the skills in all the subjects that need to be taught and then we can choose a topic that will fit them. We will keep our homerooms for the entire week and each of us will pick the topic we are most interested in teaching!
After meeting with one of my colleagues today, I think I have a topic that will work very well. We were brainstorming what topics would fit the math skills that need to be taught that week: volume, surface area, displacement. I got very excited when I realized that this would be a great way for me to keep some of the floating and sinking curriculum that the kids loved last year! We have taken out the unit due to having to teach sound, light and magnetism. Here is a chance to still teach it.
I think my topic will be the Titanic! Over April vacation, once all my cohort presentations are done, I will start the backwards planning for this cool (no pun intended) week long project.
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3 comments:
This is a cool idea. What a great way to motivate your students in June! I love how the project goes across the curriculum. Is the district thinking of implementing a week of project based learning in all of the schools?
Thanks! I know that the high school has been trained for PBL. I was lucky enough to experience PBL at a private school for about five years. It was challenging and fun to teach, and the students made more connections than I have ever seen before. I wrote a post about PBL and Pat encouraged me to talk to my principal and see if I could pilot something. Fifth grade is on board! WOOHOO! I'll blog about how it goes. It will be in June.
So, to answer the original question, I do not think it is a district wide idea yet.
By the way, awesome job today!
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