PBL? Connections? Start with interests....and a Freebie!

I absolutely believe that people learn best through real-life, hands-on experiences. How does a nurse learn to care for the sick? A nurse can pass every medical exam with flying colors but if he/she isn't able to have compassion at a patient's bedside, make instant life-or-death decisions, or learn the correct way to put on a pair of surgical gloves, then that nurse just isn't going to be successful.

As a teacher, my best teaching skills haven't come from hours of lectures and acing assessments, they have come from being in the classroom, hands-on with students. Children are no different. Children need relevant, applicable learning situations. They need to be taught inside the action and feel like part of the experience with personal responsibilities connected to their learning. Teachers have a duty to create classrooms full of research-based, engaging strategies where students are able to take ownership of their academic growth. Agree? Yes! Absolutely, and lucky for us, this amazing strategy already is a thing and has a name, "Project-Based Learning." In PBL classrooms, lessons are guided by student input and projects are ongoing and applicable to each child's growth. This is what I believe in and what I strive to achieve in my classroom. However, it's one thing to want something and another to put it into action.

Graphic Source

I began brainstorming and working on this in my Kindergarten classroom. See what I thought were project-based learning blog posts here and here. Although my students grew and learned a lot from these lessons, they were mostly whole classroom projects rather than actual project/problem based experiences. I also realized throughout the course of the year that while these whole class projects were wonderful, building a PBL classroom is a process that must evolve as your children come up with new ideas on their own while exploring different learning topics. So, there is sort of an artfully calculated spontaneity to PBL that teachers should strive to harness. I decided to keep scanning articles and blogs to find new and better ideas for this year's venture to 2nd grade and while doing so, I came across this Edutopia article on Student Engagement, by Rebecca Alber. In it Rebecca explains that teachers should get to know their students through interest inventories and then, "as their teacher, research any unfamiliar TV shows, films, singers, or video games that multiple students mentioned. Then ask yourself, "How might I integrate these interests in my daily lessons and units?" This made so much sense to me that I decided to make my own interest inventory to give the first week of school. You can pick up a free download by clicking on the picture or by going to my TpT store here.

I plan to use this to find interests my students share. I want to know what lived experiences I can build off and teach from and what new experiences we can create in the classroom. With this information, I can develop, as educator Lisa Delpit coined, "culturally responsive teaching" and use it to allow students to make deeper connections with their learning. I will be able to familiarize myself with students' entertainment and pop-culture interests and build driving questions around these things. Knowing about the interests that drive my students will help me guide and plan situations in which students become part of and want to take responsibility for their own learning. In turn, I also find out ways to motivate individual students and I, essentially, become the hippest teacher around...isn't that the real goal, anyway?