Reflection 4, Chapter 4

1. Some potential pitfalls of project design are if the project is to long, but short on the learning aspect of the project. The project may be a hit with the students but if they are not learning enough doing the project then what use is it? Technology layered over traditional practice--we need to make sure the project will reach a specific learning outcome. As the book states, "Having students research a topic on the internet and then present it in a electronic slideshow is not a quality project-it is just a dressed up version of a research report." Pg. 61. Trivial thematic units--Make sure to have many different projects for one theme. One project for one theme can be dull. Look at the big picture with your theme and try to connect it to many subjects in your classroom. Overly scripted with many, many steps--This sounds boring. To many steps lead kids to become bored with the project and they will not finish it or poorly finish it. Kids need precise steps but short and few steps. They will learn more because they stay interested and more engaged. 2. The features of a good project include letting the students interests play a role in the projects. If they are interested in the project they are much more likely to stay with it and finish the project with as much enthusiasim as they can. Make sure they want to ask questions about the topic. Asking questions makes the project more interesting, if the questions are something that no one has thought of before. 3. Where do project ideas come from? They can come from anywhere and from anyone. Teachers may have projects from their schooling or from projects they have used in the past in their classrooms. Ideas can also come from other teachers. You can get ideas from the news, contemporary issues, student questions and interest, or even a classroom problem that needs to be solved. The students can research how to solve the problem. Ideas can also come from former projects that you give a new twist to. 4. The steps to design a project are to decide on the skills you want to address, identify the learning dispostitions you want to foster, establish how you will evaluate understanding of the skills, plan the theme or challenge of the project, and how will you get the students excited and interestedin the project. Try to think of every possible advantage and disadvantage for and about the project that might come up with the students during the project. 5. I think the concepts of this chapter that relate to my project are making sure the students are interested in the project. If we were in a classroom teaching doing a project eith the students, I would listen to their interests and hope to come up with one or two that everyone agrees on. I think the weather is an interesting topic for my project and I hope to engage all students in the topic. Having the penpals to work with will help students see that the weather is different in different parts of the world at differernt times. Some students may not realize this if they have never been outside their town or state. I hope to get information and project ideas from other teachers. Other teachers can be they biggest resource for us.