"Through Challenge Based Learning, students and teachers are making a difference and proving that learning can be deep, engaging, meaningful, and purposeful" (Mark, Karen, and Marco, 2016). After reading and watching the videos about CBL, I am really interested in trying this with my students next year. The reason I say "next year" is because I believe this kind of PBL work would be hard to do over Zoom. In addition, we are at the close of our year and testing is unfortunately taking the priority right now. However, with that being said, I envision creating a real-world lesson to go along with our "Communities" English Language Arts unit. I love how the students on the video felt empowered. They knew they made a difference, even if they are kids. I also love the idea of teamwork, collaborative groups, roles, creativity of how and what they are going to do, the communication between the groups members and the innovation of their presentations.
As for the flipped classroom design, we were introduced to this idea in Scott Marsden's class. I really liked the idea and tried it with my students. Unfortunately, it wasn't successful. My third grade students are having difficulties completing their asynchronous work. I only have 4-5 students who get on and complete their work outside of class and/or even go on and review what I post on their Google Classroom. I believe my failed attempt to do a flipped classroom is due to the aforementioned reasons. How can I get my students to listen to the flipped lesson, at home, and not during class time when they won't do their asynchronous assignments? I think it is a great idea but I see it much more realistic for older students. I think older students can front load the assignment and then have a very rich discussion among their peers and teacher during class time. I appreciate learning these new ideas and strategies. I look forward to creating real-world lessons for next year's students. I hope to do a couple CBL lessons next year. I look forward to having next year's students to see how much further along, in technology, they are than students of the past. It should be an interesting year.
3 Comments
Betsy Whitt
4/25/2021 08:03:46 pm
Good points Kimberlee. CBL in a virtual setting would be challenging, especially for younger children. My brain did make a connection between your ARP and CBL. It seems like your topic would be a great CBL project. When I did some Creative Commons lessons during Scott's class with my middle schoolers I was thinking about how they really had become much more knowledgeable than many of their parents and especially grandparents when it comes to internet safety and protecting their privacy. Sadly I hear all the time about older people I know getting scammed online or over the phone. People just can't resist clicking on stuff and can't seem to ignore calls from numbers they don't know. Wouldn't it be so cool if your kids created a CBL to inform and protect all the grandmas and grandpas in their lives? They could come up with teaching videos or live presentations and share them with elderly family, neighbors, and friends. Plus as they evaluated what the key ideas would be and developed lessons to teach it, you know it would just solidify the learning in their own brains. They could offer to teach people in retirement homes and maybe have a pledge that the people recite after the learning happens. I know a lot of families would be so appreciative for someone to educate their elderly family members and to teach them basic rules to keep from getting scammed. Imagine a little art contest to come up with a "NO SCAMS HERE" playbook / poster that people could put by their phones or computers. My husband's first rule would be #1- Social Security already knows your SS#. They will NEVER call you and they will never ask for that. HANG UP! Here's to CBLs next year and real live kids sitting in our chairs!
Reply
Kelly W.
4/26/2021 08:32:45 pm
Hi, Kimberlee!
Reply
Janine Burt
4/27/2021 08:51:21 pm
Hi Kimberlee, I agree that CBL is challenging during this time. We've tried to do modified versions of our units for most grade levels but the are not as robust or meaningful for kids when we can't do a lot of the hands on experiences, field trips, and collaborative work that we usually do. I'm really looking forward to getting the kids back in person next year where we can support them without relying so much on work done (or not done as is often the case) at home. I share your hope that we can use some of the innovations we've learned to challenge students once we get back to a more normal routine. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
April 2021
Categories |