It seems as if I have been wrestling with the feasibility of implementing a project for long enough now that it is a good time to see what can be done to improve upon it. I should give you the basic background on my project first. My integration project is going to be based around students creating videos that challenge their classmates to solve problems in economics. These short videos will be designed to bring up economic problems both audio and video mediums and levy a challenge against the viewer to utilize creative economic thinking to pose a possible solution. For instance, the students might provide a challenge where the local water resevoir is facing critical shortages and offer several reasonable solutions, such as building a new resevoir paying and neighboring community for rights to water or increasing local taxes on water use. The students viewing the videos will offer their solutions as the creators discuss these options and their viability.
My biggest concern is the rubric and getting the students to take ownership of the project at all stages, especially at the presentation stage where I think many students struggle to present what they have created in effective ways.
I will be starting the rubric process soon to help clarify some of these questions and make the changes that strengthen the lesson.
Oh...I love that Aaron! I think that is very creative, innovative, and "NEW"...something that hasn't been done before. So how are they going to answer the challenge? Where is this going to be recorded? Is the point to produce and artifact with the solution! I think that would be a great place to start. What are you asking them to do to illustrate their knowledge...then how can you grade that? That is a struggle I am having myself...but I think I made it general enough to give myself flexibility YET specific enough so the students and parents know what I am looking for!
ReplyDeleteTwila, Those are great questions.. Where to record this.. Do you mean the physical location or the medium (flip video). Having them create their own solution is a possibility, or even provide the outcome of several possibilities with classmates voting on the best solution? Their knowledge should be on display as they identify the problem and the consequences of the solution. How DO I grade that..?! Not sure exactly.. Thanks for your comments though.. they are very insightful.
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Aaron
ReplyDeleteI think it is a great idea to start the rubric soon so that your students will know the expectations to an even greater extent. This way, the lesson will be most effective.
I like your project idea! I think that there are pros and cons to project based learning. Since these projects take so much effort from the student and they are more responsible for their work and learning it almost takes them by surprise. Also the students become nervous when it comes to approaching the assignment. I think that this will just take time and doing more and more pbl projects for them to become comfortable.
Aaron, you have developed a great idea for your project. As far as rubric is concerned, i would like to see from students their rationale of their solutions or their logic of why they think the solution will work. Students could be required to collect and provide the certain number of supporting information. You might want to consider asking students to present their solution to a wiki page (such as a google site) so that students in different groups can share others' solutions. These are some ideas....Hope they are helpful in any way! I can't wait to see your final project!
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