Projects–Step Two

Planning the Project

This is Step Two of teaching with projects–How to plan a project

To sum up, my previous post, this is where you should be:  You have decided your project goal.  If you are doing a group project, you probably have made project groups .  You have decided the topic and, if necessary, which groups will do each topic.   Next, you need a plan for the project.

Where do we start planning our project?  Well, first, you need three things–a calendar, your school calendar, and your assignment.

The project plan and assignment are the most important.  For the assignment, I mean what you expect the students to do.  I assume you thought about this in setting your goals, but perhaps you have not written it out in detail.  Well, now, you should.

For example, in my previous post, I talked about a project where groups of students would give a short presentation on their hometown.  I will assume we have groups of three.  They will give a 8-10 minute presentation. To define this further, I want them to talk about the location of the hometown, the state (briefly), the well-known businesses, the history (briefly), and whatever else they feel is important. (Here, I would give them some things they MUST talk about and others that they may talk about.)

In addition, in the project, I want them to make their own props, not use the computer.  (The reason for this is that I want them to be skilled at making and using everyday props before they take the added step of using a computer.)  This is an example of some of the extra things you might want to add for your project assignment.

In your case, decide what your assignment  is to be.  Things you need to decide are probably the length (not always necessary, but it gives the students a time frame to aim for), the topics that you want them to cover (including some mandatory topics as well as some choices is a good idea), and whatever else you want them to do.  (For example, if you want them to use powerpoint, put that in as well.  If you want them to use art, put that in as well.)  That explains what the students have to accomplish in the project in clear terms.

Next, you have to plan out the project.  What does this mean?

I mean that the project probably needs to be done step by step with a timeline.  This is to teach the kids to use time well and to plan by breaking up the project goals into specific objectives.  Basically, to keep the kids on track, you will need stepping stones for them.  Let’s see how this works.

For some projects, the first step is deciding a topic.  In my example, I did this, but you may want the students to do it, so if that is the case in your project, give them a deadline to do that.  You also should probably approve it, just so that silly or unrelated topics do not get chosen.  This will keep them aimed in a reasonable direction.  If so, you will  need to give them a date for that.

Let’s say you plan to assign the project on March 1.  You might want them to decide the topic in one week, for example, so you set  the date for that for March 8.  If they decide earlier, that is great, they can work on the next step.

Next, for example, you might want a date for the plan of the presentation.  In some cases, I would ask the groups to submit an outline of what they intend to do.  Look it over and make comments on it.  If they are missing required topics, write that on the plan, and so on.   Five days to a week after they decide the topic is enough here, depending on how much class time you give them.

Following that, you may want a date for the powerpoint, if you plan to use it.  Other things are a date to finish the scripts or notes they will use.  Finally, for beginning classes, you would want to give them a date to start practicing.

You have to sit down with the calendar and based on the number of classes and the time available, decide when you want these dates to be.  Remember, it is best to make them a little early since it is easy to move them back, but it is hard, and will cause resentment, if you move them forward.  All these dates and what is due need to be on the assignment print.  For complex projects, you could give them a calendar of the time line also.  They will need to refer to the project assignment as a guideline as they work on it, so they all need a copy.  It is good to post this also.

The first time you do the project, you will make mistakes.  That’s the way it is.  Write them down, and think about how to improve it for the next time.  Next time, adjust the project based on your experience.  Every time you do the project, you will get better at planning it, and your project will get better.

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Projects–Step One

Setting your Goals and Making Groups

Projects that accomplish specific learning objectives, also called project-based learning, is the best way to learn.  I’ve been using projects for more than 10 years now, but what if you are just starting out and want to use projects in your teaching, but you really have no idea how to do so?

First, you need to have a goal.  What do you want to do?  Do you want your kids to make something, like the classic diorama from history class.  Do you want them to give a speech?  A presentation?  Maybe even some kind of group project?  Or, perhaps a research paper?  Debate?

Think.  What is your vision, or goal.

In the typical “project-based learning” this is supposed to be a question, but it is not always necessary right away.  Rather, if you feel you must have a question, you can decide the question after you plan the project.  Anyway, before we start planning, you need a goal.

By goal, I mean that you should decide what you want this project to accomplish and you need to have some vision of what you want the project to be.  This will take some thinking.  That’s okay.  Do not rush this part.

What might be a good goal for your project?  Think a little here.  If you are not sure, read my post about setting and fulfilling your own teaching goals while achieving those of state standards or, depending on where you teach, whatever standards that exist.

Ideally, your project should teach the students a skill while also fulfilling standards.  Most projects will do these, but you will need to think a little about this.

Let me give you an example of a project and goals.  This will make things clearer.  I teach in Japan now, and our kids go overseas for a short trip.  A good project might be a self-introduction, but they’ve done that already, and frankly, it is not very challenging for them.  I want to challenge them to use the grammar they’ve been drilling into their heads in the other English classes, as well as do something useful.  In particular, I want them to learn to describe Japan, their homes, and as well as this, be able to understand the descriptions they hear when overseas of the other country and so on in English.

To put it simply, here, my project goals are that the kids learn intermediate grammar and structures by using them; learn to describe their homes; be able to understand others’ descriptions; and to gain confidence in their abilities to do all of these things.

What might be a good project for this?  Well, as I said they have done introductions, so they know how to do those.  In this case, for this project, I might have them do an introduction of their state or hometown.  Or both.

Group projects are infinitely more rewarding than individual ones.  You will need to decide if your kids are ready for being in project groups, but collaborative learning is much more effective than individual learning.   For projects, I strongly recommend groups.

Assuming that we have a typical class of 30 kids, I could either group them into project groups of 3, which means 10 groups.  Ideally, we would have 10 different topics.  You might also use a mix of 4 and three person groups, which would be six groups of four and two groups of three.  You would need to spend some time making project groups with a good mix of different abilities, motivation, and personality.  Making project groups can often be difficult, so maybe I will talk about that in another post.

Moving on, assuming you made the groups, if we are doing a description of a hometown or state for your project, you probably want to give each group a different topic.  This also requires some thought.  For example, in my case, assuming I am sending Japanese kids to the US to do a homestay or something, for the project, I would have the kids do a presentation on the states in this area–there are 5 or 6–and then others might do topics such as the town here, the economy, culture, and so on.  As with the groups, do not assign topics randomly.  Think about the skills and personalities of each project group and assign the topics based on that.

Now, you have project goals, project groups, and topics.  Before you begin, it is best to set all this aside for a day

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In the past, I talked about google docs, and why it is so useful for teachers who do a lot of work at home.  I have also talked about making quizzes in Google Docs, and how to make a quiz that literally grades itself.

Now, let’s take it a step further.  Let’s try something new.  Google docs is usually used for multiple choice, but you can have students put in long answers, such as sentence length answers for quizzes and even paragraphs.  You can then grade them.

I’ll start from the beginning here.

First, I am assuming you have a Google Docs account and know how to make a quiz.  If you do not, read my previous posts about them here for how to use Google Docs, and here for Google Quizzes.

Now, let’s start.

I will use the same quiz that I used in my previous posts–the Harry Potter one.  If you forgot how to get to the form from the spreadsheet, go to Google Docs, open the spreadsheet form file, then choose “Form” and “Show form.”

Go to the question form.

Let’s add a new question.  Click on the add question button in the top left of the form.  Then, choose paragraph.

I filled mine out like this:

When you are done, click “done” at the bottom, then, “save” at the top.

Go back to the spreadsheet.  You will see your new question here, in its new column.

There it is.  Now, any answers that are typed in the form, will appear in this column.  (This is useful for surveys and feedback on various projects by the way.)

Anyway, let’s say that you want to grade the students responses in this category as you did previously.  Of course, since this is a paragraph answer, it is impossible to do via the automatic grading method that I taught you earlier.

However, you can do grade your paragraph answer in Google Docs yourself.  Let’s see how.

First, in the spreadsheet, click on the column that has the paragraph answers, so that it is highlighted.  Then go to “Insert” in the menu.  Choose “add a column.”

What are we going to do with column?  Well, we will put the grade for the paragraph answer in it.

Assuming that some of your students have answered the questions, and filled in their answers, let’s start grading.

Read over the answer here, and put in a score that you would like.

I am going to make this paragraph worth 10 points.  In the top of the column, I will make it like this.  Here is a sample:

I decided to make this worth 7 points out of a possible 10.  I did not like the topic sentence much.  Anyway, we have a point total for the paragraph.

What do you do after that?  Just adjust the numbers for your points, just as you would in excel.

This is what I did.  I used the same quiz from my previous post.  I made a percentage from the points I gave in the paragraph.  I then averaged that percent with the percent from the multiple choice.  (A paragraph answer should be worth more points.)

Here is what it looks like.

The formula for J is:

=(G3/10)*100

The formula for K is:

=(I3+J3)/2

The other formulas, for making a multiple choice test that will grade itself are in my previous post.

Using this method, you can make several kinds of tests on the computer.  You can mix multiple choice and long answer questions.

Are such tests worth the time to set up all of this?  Well, it depends.  With a paragraph, paper tests are great because you can add comments as feedback, where as here, you cannot.  However, this kind of test could be used for things that do not require feedback, such as level check tests, skill tests, and so on.

Anyway, it is another tool for teachers.  There are always times when such tool can come in handy.

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Recently, I asked this question on a reading test that I gave to my students.  Most of them had some good answers, but some of them were pretty lost.

“What is learning?”

My colleague said that he thought learning was becoming able to do something or gaining knowledge that was practical.  Learning must be useful.

I agree.

Yet, does that mean that something like sudoku is not learning?  It depends.  You do sudoku for pleasure, or perhaps to exercise your brain, so that has some use, but it might be good to add the idea of learning being beneficial in some way to the idea of it being useful.

Thus, we have “learning is gaining knowledge of skill that is useful or beneficial.”

Now, things will get complicated.  Is studying learning?

First, then, we need to define studying.  What is studying?

Artha, my awesome Linux dictionary and thesaurs says that studying is to

“consider in detail and subject to an analysis in order to discover essential features or meaning”

Consulting my online dictionary, I get this: “application of the mind to the acquisition of knowledge”

Well, it seems that learning is not the same as studying.

To put it in math terms:

studying=gaining knowlege

learning=studying that is useful

You may wonder where I am going with this, but most of you know already.  Much of what kids are taught in schools, anywhere in the world, is not learning because it is not useful.  Yes, the students are studying, but they are not learning.

I remember studying calculus in school.  Unfortunately, I hated it.  I was bored by it.  However, I asked the teacher, a good fellow, with a teenager’s curiousity, “Why are we learning this?  I’ll never use this.”

He smiled and replied, “To teach you how to think.”

He admitted that it would probably not be useful.  However, it might teach me how to think.  Maybe.  Possibly.  I still have doubts though…..

That is one of the problems I see here in Japan.  Students are studying.  They are gaining knowledge.  Yes, that is great.  However, they are gaining knowledge that is not useful to them, to their future, or to anything really.

Is this education?  Is this learning?

Or, is it only studying?

And, of course, shouldn’t learning = education?

We need to think more about education.  It can make or break a nation.  A nation with people who have a good education (a learning) will prosper.  Those with a poor education will not.  That is simple and incontrovertible.

Unfortunately, most of the countries I have lived in do not have a great educational system that is  focused on learning.

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Who is your boss?

Most teachers would say ‘the principal’.

Or, perhaps, ‘the board of education’ or the ‘the superintendent’?

No.

Or, yes, in the literal sense, but no.

Your boss is your students.

You understand what I mean.  A teacher’s goal should be to give the students the tools they need to meet their goals.

To put it in other words, your students’ needs should be your goal.

In some ways, teachers have an clear moral compass.  Your students’ needs is the north on the compass.  Every thing else is a different orientation.

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What can we learn by playing video games?

If you are like me, you think of video games as sitting in front of the TV, controller in hand, shooting space aliens that are falling from the sky; perhaps driving a formula one car on a twisted race track–that kind of thing.  This is the first misunderstanding about video games.  Maybe you think that the kids are playing these games alone.

This is not true.

These days, the most popular video games are those that you play with your friends.

Why would you want to shoot down those space aliens by yourself if you and your friends can shoot them together?  Why would you play against the computer when you can play against your friend Jimmy?  Or when, for even more adventure, you can play against someone living halfway around the globe?

Games are social.

The second important point to remember is that many of the popular games today are MM, meaning “massively multiplayer.”  This does not just mean that there is a simulated world that people must explore, which probably teaches its own lessons, but in many of these multiplayer games, in particular the most popular, cooperation among players is essential.

Games require teamwork.

What does this mean?  In this great speech on Edutopia, a great website, by James Paul Gee, he explains.  In short, he takes popular massively multiplayer games and shows how the players learn real-world skills.  In his example, he talks about a role-playing game.  (Think of the old D&D game.)  Each player has a character that has a specific skill.  To accomplish the goals of the game, the characters have to work together, using all of their specific skills.  In addition, to succeed at the game, the players need to understand the skills of the other members also.

This is very similar to real life.

The idea of video games as a way to learn is not new.  It just has never been implemented well.  Now, certainly, we can say that kids are learning some useful things through video games and that the social element is promoting this.  However, more exploration in this area and more use of good video games to learn valuable skills would be nice.

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What is daydreaming?

Well, that probably varies a little among individuals, but a report on Scientific American, showed that daydreaming

Daydreaming is your brain putting its excess power to good use.  In other words, when you daydream, your brain is staying active by daydreaming since whatever it is you are really doing is not keeping it activated.has a purpose.

The researchers ran two tests on a group of subjects.  The first test was in order to see how much a person’s mind wanders (daydreaming)  while doing a simple task,  in this case pressing a button when they saw a certain letter on a computer screen.  The second test was to see how much working memory each person had, which was a simple memory test.

The results are interesting.  As they put it:

It turns out that those with a larger working memory capacity reported more distraction during the task. Indicating that our working memory strives to work at capacity. Such subjects had greater focus when tested with more complicated tasks.

What does that tell us?  If you are daydreaming, it means that you are not being challenged enough perhaps.  It also is not a sign of anything unusual, detrimental, or particularly bad.

So . . . for teachers, what does that mean?  In my opinion, four things.

1.  Daydreaming is not a bad thing nor should it be discouraged.

2.  The daydreamers are probably, in fact, your more intelligent students.

3.  The daydreamers in your class probably need more challenges in their education.

4.  If most of your class is daydreaming, you are doing something wrong.

Take a look at the whole article on Scientific American.  It’s worth the time.

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Why are you here?  Why are you teaching?  Why are the students learning?

Why?  The most important question you will ever ask your students (and perhaps yourself) is this.

Can you answer the question?

Can your students answer the question?

If they cannot, you have not convinced them that what you are teaching has value.  They do not see the purpose in learning what you have told them.

Do you believe in yourself enough to lead them in acquiring knowledge?  Are you a mentor, a guide, or are you a lecturer covering material?

Ask them Why?

Their answers will surprised you perhaps, and widen your relationship certainly.

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Do you like corn flakes?  Toast?  

Maybe you eat toast and corn flakes for breakfast sometimes, as do I.

They are not bad.  Sometimes.

How about every morning?

Imagine eating corn flakes and toast for breakfast.  Every day.  Every week.  Every month.

Sound horrible?

Stop it, then.

Do you sometimes feel that you are teaching the same class over and over and over and over?  Maybe you should consider some mix in your techniques.  Mix things up.

Do you use a warm up?  Mix in some new ones.  Try something different.

Use different props in class.  Get some help from other teachers to put on a skit.

Make use of the computer–make a powerpoint.  Use videos.  Make a Prezi.

Do more pair work.  Do more group work.

Assign a project.  Assign a pair project, or the best of all worlds, a group project!

Do you not have any new ideas?  Look at some good teachings sites.  Education World is a great one, as is Edutopia.

What is another way to approach a topic?  Can you pre-teach part of it in a different place?  Can you lead in to it in another way?  Can you link it to society to show how important it is, then lead into it?

Talk to other teachers.  They always have something, somewhere, that you can learn from.

Above all, use your imagination.

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What does that mean?

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