Growth & Gratitude:
Strengthening Project-Based Learning to Enhance Student Voice and Community Partnership
Peoples Academy Middle Level 2019-2020:
Jessica Dambach
Elizabeth Emerson
William Fishell
Jennifer Macdonald
Sarah Magoon
Liz Sanner
Joe Speers
Tom Steele
Stephanie Zuccarello
With 6th Grade Students:
Aurelia Speers
Zoey Irwin
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Overview
Common Guiding Principles:
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What we set out to do at MGI...
How does PBL impact our community? We implemented project-based learning to address content area standards through a cross-curricular approach. By building identity, creating a sense of belonging, and developing community partnerships, we personalized a path for learning that was equitable for every student. By scaffolding the process and providing exemplars, students were given an opportunity to reflect and take action.
Lower House PBL Overview
Driving Question for 1st Trimester: How does a community thrive and grow?
Key Takeaways
Expedition
“Expedition is a course that has students thinking and acting like scientists as well as problem-solving and processing the world around them. Themes are created and implemented through project-based learning opportunities. Students will be responsible for having a role in investigating, discovering, and cooperating as a team. Expedition classes are co-taught and co-designed by all Science and Humanities teachers and supported by our math teachers.”
Decoding Your Student’s Schedule
Class | Learning Targets Addressed | Schoology Course (where HW and materials are housed) | Mastery Report |
Expedition | Science | Humanities | Science |
Expedition | Global Citizenship | Humanities | Humanities |
Reading & Writing Workshop (RWW) *this may be a different teacher than appears on the mastery report | Literacy | RWW | Humanities |
Math | Math | Math | Math |
Expos | Expos | Expos | Expos |
Challenges
Guiding Structures & Scaffolding
Scaffolding:
Cross-Curricular Connections
In order to make cross-curricular connections we weaved the themes of basic needs, thriving, chemistry, and growth and gratitude throughout. Additionally, in Reading Writing Workshop, we chose books to connect to our themes.
Grade 5/6 Math Connections
Statistics:
I can represent, interpret, and solve real-world and
I can display data in a dot plot and/or histogram and describe the distribution.
I can summarize data
and use the information
to make mathematical decisions.
Launch: An important way to get a project off the ground.
~Memorable ~Brief ~Often dramatic ~Cause the students to wonder
Our launch to our first PBL allowed our students to evaluate
the term “thrive” after watching 2 videos.
1) Downtown Morrisville
2) The nature trail in our school’s backyard.
Due to our first launch being less impressive than we thought, we designed a more creative launch for our second PBL.
A plane ride to South America!
Exhibition: Where students have the opportunity to showcase their learning.
Students decided on one project for Morrisville in 2050 that would help the community thrive. They created proposals, presented them in a Town Meeting format, and displayed them for a vote at the Exhibition.
~Team Adventure~
Exhibition
Students developed inquiry questions and formed affinity groups in order to research their projects. Students created displays to present at the Exhibition.
~Team Quest~
Student Feedback
Throughout our PBL process, we collected student feedback through:
Successes | Challenges |
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Examples of Student Work
Community Maps
Identity Projects
Seedfolks Connections
Upper House - 8th Grade
Lamoille River Stewardship Unit
Driving question:
How can we ensure that the Lamoille River remains a vital part of our community?
Our PBL, Lamoille River Study Unit project was around human-environment interaction that takes place along the river. Students explored the symbiotic relationships between humans and the land. Students looked at the impact they have on the river and how the river impacts them. We built a sense of community by partnering various Morristown businesses and agencies. The focus was centered on Science, Global Citizenship and English-language arts targets. We weaved in the importance of relationships, sense of belonging and identity.
Upper House Unit Overview
Learning Experiences:
Essential Question: Student Takeaways
“Our project will help educate others which will help the community know more about the river which will hopefully make it remain a vital part of our community.”
-Keira and Kiley
“We will educate students on the river and they will have that information on the river and share it with other people.”
-Falon and Lucy
“We can teach people about the past of the future and that could make people more engaged.”
-Corey and Timothy
Student Perspectives
and
Q&A
Thank you for coming!
joe.speers@lsuu.org
sarah.magoon@lsuu.org
jennifer.macdonald@lsuu.org
elizabeth.emerson@lsuu.org
stephanie.zuccarello@lsuu.org
thomas.steele@lsuu.org
jessica.dambach@lsuu.org
https://tinyurl.com/rkuxwan