PBL Learning The Student’s Role

Helping Students Collaborate Grouping students takes thought and planning. When students are groups they form a very diverse group with different backgrounds and experiences. First, start by having the students share ideas. Each person’s opinion in the group must matter and be heard. Helping Students Collaborate

Helping Students Collaborate Ideas are broad on allowing students to be heard. In one video, the teacher had the 2 youngest in group A switch groups with the 2 youngest in group B. The new groups now talked through ideas for a period of time before returning to their original groups. When the original groups were back together the younger students shared what they had talked about with the other group they had been with. This allowed the students to hear other ideas that they maybe had not thought of up until that point. Helping Students Collaborate

Helping Students Collaborate An important part of collaborative learning is obviously student participation. Teachers encourage student participation by finding the way to get students to “take off the mask.” The mask is the invisible mask students wear because of peer pressure. In your school and in your classroom, the focus must be on establishing a climate and culture in which students leave their masks at the door. Helping Students Collaborate

Helping Students Collaborate The teacher must facilitate discussion in the groups. The teacher must help resolve conflicts in the groups. The teacher must create an atmosphere in the classroom that allows all students/ideas to have worth and value. The teacher must keep students involved and invested by being prepared daily and fresh with content. Helping Students Collaborate

Helping Students Collaborate Resources http://bie.org/blog/resource_list_collaboration_ in_pbl - This is a resource list with several different links to information involving collaboration. http://bie.org/object/document/6_12_collabora tion_rubric_ccss_aligned - This is a resource that gives a rubric for the students collaboration that is aligned with CCSS standards. Helping Students Collaborate

As teachers we have to design learning experiences that give students a Voice and Choice. This allows for collaboration between the students, rather than following a set of directions. This will keep students motivated and engaged with the project because they will be able to shape its outcome. Voice and Choice

For example, a project focused on the issue of water resources might lead your students, in partnership with students across the world, to exchange research data and best-practices from culturally specific responses to those issues. Making choices informed by others’ voices allows students create to final products, whether presentations or action plans, that bring new ideas to the table in their own communities.  Voice and Choice

This kind of cross-global collaboration means we have to be ready to support our students as they encounter some of the more challenging aspects of this process. Negotiation, conflict resolution, and interpersonal communication: these are the essential skills we need to think about to support Global PBL. But competency in various content areas is also very important to success. So think creatively about your content standards, too, as a means to the end of helping students make their world a better place via Global PBL. Voice and Choice

Voice and Choice Resources http://bie.org/blog/what_should_global_pbl_lo ok_like http://bie.org/about/what_pbl - Students are allowed to make some choices about the products to be created, how they work, and how they use their time, guided by the teacher and depending on age level and PBL experience. Voice and Choice

Guiding Students to becoming experts The teacher must commit to leading the classroom from the shadows in PBL. But the information that is in the standards must be covered and mastered. It is the teachers job to guide the students to becoming experts, not tell the students the answers. This is a very difficult task for the traditional teacher. Guiding Students to becoming experts

Guiding the Students to becoming experts Some tips for guiding the students to becoming experts Using rubrics and examples of old projects help students understand the quality of work that is expected of them. Formative assessment is key to ensuring student mastery. Give students time to revise and polish their work. Projects must be authentic and realistic. Create a culture of quality in the classroom. Guiding the Students to becoming experts

Guiding the Students to becoming experts Resources http://bie.org/object/google_hangouts_archive d/guiding_students_to_high_quality_work - Great video that goes into great detail on the 5 tips listed on the previous slide. Guiding the Students to becoming experts

Facilitating multiple investigations or pathways Many times in classroom discussions or group investigations teachers want to act as a facilitator. But teachers often times end up reciting instead of facilitating. Recitation involves the teacher asking predetermined questions and the student responding then the teacher evaluating the student’s response. Facilitating multiple investigations or pathways

Facilitating multiple investigations or pathways In contrast to recitation, quality discussion, according to the University of Washington's Center for Instructional Development and Research, involves purposeful questions prepared in advance, assessment, and starting points for further conversations. Facilitating multiple investigations or pathways

Facilitating multiple investigations or pathways Teachers are also advised to: Distribute opportunities to talk Allow discussants to physically see each other Ask questions that "may or may not have a known or even a single correct answer" Foster learners talking to peers Encourage students to justify their responses Vary the types of questions Facilitating multiple investigations or pathways

Facilitating multiple investigations or pathways Teachers in a PBL classroom must be prepared to ask questions they were not ready to ask. Teachers must use follow up questions that are appropriate and that expand on the pathway that the student’s ideas have gone. Facilitating multiple investigations or pathways

Facilitating multiple investigations or pathways Resources http://www.edutopia.org/blog/rethinking- whole-class-discussion-todd-finley - Information on leading classroom discussion but also great follow up questions to facilitate group investigations. Facilitating multiple investigations or pathways

Student Resources