This We Believe recognizes that as educators “We must endeavor to stimulate in the child a love for learning, an attitude of inquiry, a passion for truth and beauty, a questioning mind.” (National Middle School Association. (2010). This we believe: Keys to educating young adolescents. Westerville, Ohio: National Middle School Association.)

As a new educator I share the call of This We Believe to provide a classroom that is relevant and engaging for my students in order to facilitate a culture of life-long learning. As an applicant to the University of Vermont’s MAT program, I stated that my goals in becoming a teacher were centered around a passion for teaching and a belief in alternative assessments that allow students to demonstrate knowledge learned by means other than test taking. I believe that students learn best when they are engaged in learning that is relevant to them. I have been fortunate to learn in a classroom environment that strongly supports these beliefs. I want to share the some of the successes and difficulties I have seen in a middle level social studies classroom that is focused on Project Based Learning (PBL).

Lattimer and Riordan describe Project Base Learning as “an approach to teaching in which the students respond to real-world questions or challenges through an extended inquiry process.” During the process of completing the project, students are often working in teams, tackling tough questions through critical thinking, and practicing disciplinary learning. (Lattimer, H., & Riordan, R. (2011). Project-based learning engages students in meaningful work: Students at High Tech Middle engage in project-based learning. Middle School Journal, 43(2), 18-23. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23024494)

PBL has been proven to be a successful model in classrooms around the world. Researchers from the University of Hong Kong have found that PBL tends to lead towards more highly motivated teachers and students. This is important because, as the study results would show, “a key factor contributing to the successful implementation [of PBL] is teacher motivation.” The study goes on to say that motivation leads to “inherent enjoyment” of the learning experience. Students tend to have a more authentic learning experience if they are motivated and engaged. (Lam, S., Cheng, R., & Ma, W. (2009). Teacher and student intrinsic motivation in project-based learning. Instructional Science, 37(6), 565-578. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23372502)

The best way for us to get students to analyze, evaluate, and create in an efficient manner that keeps students engaged in topics that are relevant to them is through project based learning. PBL is engaging students in authentic intellectual work which supports the “construction of knowledge through disciplined inquiry in order to produce products that have value beyond school.” (Spires, H., Hervey, L., Morris, G., & Stelpflug, C. (2012). Energizing Project-Based Inquiry: Middle-Grade Students Read, Write, and Create Videos. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(6), 483-493. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41827851)

Examples of PBL

According to Lattimer, there are six "A's" to designing a successful PBL: Academic rigor, Authenticity, Applied learning, Active exploration, Adult connection, and Assessment practices. In her article "Project-based learning engages students in meaningful work" Lattimer lays out her idea of what makes a strong PBL.

Revolutionary War Project

When I began my teaching internship at Edmunds Middle School in the fall, I found that many of the students were obsessed with the award winning musical, Hamilton. As a social studies teacher, this is music to my ears. For our Revolutionary War unit my cooperating teacher and I decided to take advantage of the students love for the musical, in designing a unit, starting with the summative assessment, where the students would be writing their own song/poem about the war. What follows is a sharing of lessons learned from a first year teaching intern through the practice of Project Based Learning. This is not an exhaustive list of everything I have put into this project, but it is a highlight of what I have found to be the most important components of a successful PBL.

PBL and Backwards Design - start with the summative assessment

I have learned that in order to put together a successful PBL curriculum, a lot of out of class planning and front loading of the unit is required. In designing the summative assessment for our unit on the Revolutionary War, we took the first necessary step of included the standards that we wanted the students to learn by the end of the unit. It is important to remember when designing the unit and summative assessment that even though we want them to have fun and create a project that is exciting for the student, it is important that the student is learning. As Lattimer points out in her article about High Tech Middle School, “PBL often fails when the emphasis falls too heavily on the project element of the title rather than on the learning.”

Differentiate to help all students access information

The expectation was for all students to complete their own research on the seven events/features of the Revolutionary War. In order to keep this project accessible and challenging for all students, we created research resources which provided many different articles and mediums for learning. Students were able to choose between articles, videos, graphics, and songs for collecting their research. Every resources was labeled by its difficulty: Easy, Medium, and Difficult. Students were able to challenge themselves by choice. Sometimes students were take on a resource that was too difficult and they knew they could go back to the resources page to find a different resource that was more accessible to them.

Stop, take time to have meaningful conversations that are ‘real world’ relevant

In our classroom, we begin each day with a ‘Do No’ which allows the students time to reflect, analyze, and apply what they have been learning, or sometimes they are making predictions of what they think might occur. Students process these questions through the ‘Think-Pair-Share’ process, allowing students to work through a question independently before discussing it with their neighbors to get different perspectives, ultimately culminating with a whole class discussion.

Before learning about the battle of NY, students were asked “If you could send a letter to the past to Washington’s troops on the eve of the first battle, what would you tell them they were fighting for?” Students answered this question in many different ways, some chose to reflect on the events the led up to the war and reminded them of some of the challenges they were facing, others spoke of what the world would become today, and sought to inspire hope of a brighter future.

At the end of the Revolutionary War unit students tackled the question “Was the Revolutionary War revolutionary?” I defied revolutionary meaning “causing a complete or dramatic change” OR “ new or innovative ways of thinking outside the standard ways of thinking.” My students truly impressed me, some talked of how nothing changed, it was rich white men who still held the power. Women, slaves, natives, were all still treated terribly and those who were promised freedom didn’t receive it. Others pointed new ways of war, revolutionary thoughts, and to things to come for reasoning as to why the war was revolutionary.

Results

Overall, I think the students did a phenomenal job. In conversations with students after the project, I repeatedly heard students say that they enjoyed learning in this manner and creating a song. Most said that it caused them to seek out more research to make their song more meaningful. At the end of the day most students were proud of what they were able to produce and were excited to share their songs with their classmates. A review of their lyrics show a clear understanding of historical events, consideration and inclusion of multiple perspectives, and deep analysis of essential questions. One student boasted to me about a line that he had put in his song referring to how slave soldiers were not allowed to look white soldiers in the eye in this certain battalion. I asked him which of the resources he had found this information in, and he had happily explained that he had more questions about how black soldiers were treated so he did additional research outside of the materials I provided. He said he found himself asking a lot of questions about other subjects covered in class, this is a successful example of a student developing an attitude for inquiry and a passion for the truth.

Conclusion

As I near the end of my teaching internship, I find myself feeling energized and inspired by what my students were able to accomplish through a PBL oriented classroom. Although I only highlighted one project completed by my students, I have been able to witness its success again and again. Whether its by seeing students stand and give a speech in front of 300 of their peers at the culmination of learning about the road to independence, or students analyzing primary source documents to decide who fired the first shot at Lexington and to create a diorama representing all of their evidence to support their argument. I believe that had our students been required to demonstrate understanding through tests or essays, I might feel less successful as a teacher. Instead, through PBL, as mentioned in the Hong Kong study, I feel motivated as an educator in my "endeavor to stimulate in the child a love for learning, an attitude of inquiry, a passion for truth and beauty, a questioning mind.” (National Middle School Association. (2010). This we believe: Keys to educating young adolescents. Westerville, Ohio: National Middle School Association.)

Annotated Bibliography

Casey, M., & Tucker, E. (1994). Problem-Centered Classrooms: Creating Lifelong Learners. The Phi Delta Kappan, 76(2), 139-143. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20405277

This article discusses how to develop lifelong learners by creating a classroom that is focused on problem solving. It should be the goal of the teacher to offer open ended questions to help students think critically about how to answer the question. The instructor should also provide resources, some that pertain and some that do not pertain to helping the student solve the problem, so that they are able to analyze solutions. This source has more reference to elementary grades, but the same theories could be used in the middle level to help students to think critically. The idea is that instead of having students work to find exact answers, they are learning a process to find answers to questions they may develop. This article fits into my research because it is working towards the same core goal of developing lifelong learners.

Krajcik, J., Blumenfeld, P., Marx, R., & Soloway, E. (1994). A Collaborative Model for Helping Middle Grade Science Teachers Learn Project-Based Instruction. The Elementary School Journal, 94(5), 483-497. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1001838

This article is focused on learning by doing, specifically in the middle level science classes. It recognizes that learning by doing has long been touted, and goes into the historical contexts of learning by doing. I appreciate that the article also goes into specifics about theories behind the instruction model. Although the article is focused on science in specific, I think it is a good model for something that I could bring into the social studies realm. This article is really well laid out with historical context, teaching theory, specific examples, review of challenges, as well as suggestions for how the teacher can continue to learn. I think this is a great article and it will not only help me with my blog post, but could potentially help me in my instruction in the classroom.

Lattimer, H., & Riordan, R. (2011). Project-based learning engages students in meaningful work: Students at High Tech Middle engage in project-based learning. Middle School Journal, 43(2), 18-23. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23024494

This article from the Middle School Journal has a specific focus on High Tech Middle, a charter school based in the San Diego area. I appreciate that this article works through a lense of This We Believe and sites the goals and objectives and how they relate to TWB.This article is full of examples of how Project Based Learning can be used in the middle levels. This article is very concerned with having active engagement from the students so that they are interested in the projects that they are working on. This article is full of examples that were implemented in the school. I could see this as a good article that is focused more on the actions vs the theoretical and historical contexts covered by other articles.

Warner, M., & Leonard, J. (2004). An Emergent Problem-Based Course for Prospective Middle Grades Teachers. Middle School Journal, 35(4), 33-41. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23044095

This article is a follow up to an entire issue of the Middle School Journal, which was focused on rebuilding the middle school into more of the model that is described in This We Believe. This article focuses more how Project Based Learning fits into that new mold of middle school. A classroom teacher conducts a project, having their middle school classroom design the ideal middle school, and has the superintendent involved in the projected with the class. This is an especially interesting article as it is a PBL project led by students that also gives their input into how to create an effective learning environment. I am not positive as to how exactly this article will play a role in my blog post, but I do find it very interesting, it is a good case study created, in part, by the students.

Lam, S., Cheng, R., & Ma, W. (2009). Teacher and student intrinsic motivation in project-based learning. Instructional Science, 37(6), 565-578. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23372502

This is an especially interesting article as it is a qualitative case study out of Hong Kong focused on the ‘intrinsic motivation in project-based learning’. This case study examines 631 students and is a blind case study for the teachers teaching the curriculum. It is the first article that is focused on the numbers outcome of teaching project based learning, which I think is very interesting. I have not decided if this is good information for me to use yet, one reason being that it is so focused on numbers and another reason being that it is focused in Hong Kong which has completely different societal norms and standards from the traditional US middle school. I still find it personally interesting to take different cultures and ways of learning into account, even if it may not be directly applicable to my blog.