FAQ

What are some potential criticisms that you might receive from administrators, parents, and colleagues?

Assessment in group projects: How do you keep everyone working, and doing their part? As each part of the process is a cog in the machine, each role a student takes on is important. As roles will rotate throughout the process, students will need to train each other to move forward. Students not working on an active role, may be creating other important resources that may be assessed. Class reflection is more important than the final

How do you keep student's privacy balanced with the final products? As the final product is in it's nature a public performance, this is something that needs to be handled properly. When necessary, students with a known privacy issue, some of the on camera roles for that student may be diminished, and replaced with more active behind the scenes roles. Parent permission forms would be sent to ensure that proper permission has been obtained. Student journals can be set up so that only members of the class can see the results.

How do you manage the process, when students might be working with less supervision on location?

Students will need to obtain permission for locations ahead of filming on a location. Common areas of the school may be fine, but students will need to fill in a Travel log for moving and returning to class. Time would be limited, so students need to accomplish their task, and get back to class. Some additional resources may be needed, such as more adult volunteers or school assistants, when student behavior issues are a problem.

What rationale can you give for incorporating PBL into your repertoire of effective instructional strategies?

The benefit of PBL is the ability to engage in subjects/topics across the school. It provides more opportunities to learn about other parts of the project over an extended time. Thus, the learner may have deeper learning, and can connect the learning to make real world connections. They can apply their learning to make products they are interested in. They are working with other teachers, students, community members, experts, and each other to experience real world situations to create their products.