So, you just found out that your child has been enrolled in Mrs. Mondragon's Language Arts and Social Studies Class, and immediately you are thinking: PROJECTS. Well, contrary to all the buzz and rumors, projects in my class are not really that bad. You will soon learn exactly what projects entail, but I'd like to take a moment anyways and provide you with some background in understanding why I assign projects as well as my own definition of "projects."
Jean Piaget was a Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children in the 1930s. Piaget was also the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development.
“By utilizing Piaget’s theory, educators focus on their
students as learners. As a result of this focus, education is learner-center and constructivist-based to an extent.
Piaget’s theory allows teachers to view students as individual learners who add new concepts to prior knowledge to construct, or build, understanding for themselves.Teachers who use a learner-centered approach as a basis for their professional practices provide experience-based educational opportunities. These teachers also contemplate the learners’ individual qualities and attitudes during curriculum planning.
Educators allow learners’ insights to alter the curriculum. They nourish and support learners’ curiosity. They also involve learners’ emotions and create a learning environment in which students feel safe.” (
Jean_Piaget)
Although Psychologist, Lev Vygotsky’s, theories may differ from Piaget, his basis of a social constructivist theory in his theory of the “Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)” have been highly influential in the classroom as well.
“
Proximal simply means
next. He observed that when children were tested on tasks on their own, they rarely did as well as when they were working in collaboration with an adult. It was by no means always the case that the adult was teaching them how to perform the task, but that the
process of engagement with the adult enabled them to refine their thinking or their performance to make it more effective. Hence, for him, the development of language and articulation of ideas was central to learning and development.”
(Vygotsky)
Many theories that are practiced by teachers today derive from Piaget and Vygotsky’s theories of Constructivism. So, what is Constructivism?
“Constructivism is basically a theory -- based on observation and scientific study -- about how people learn. It says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. When we encounter something new, we have to reconcile it with our previous ideas and experience, maybe changing what we believe, or maybe discarding the new information as irrelevant. In any case, we are active creators of our own knowledge. To do this, we must ask questions, explore, and assess what we know.”
In the classroom, the constructivist view of learning can point towards a number of different teaching practices. In the most general sense, it usually means encouraging students to use active techniques (experiments, simulations, real-world problem solving) to create more knowledge and then to reflect on and talk about what they are doing and how their understanding is changing. The teacher makes sure she understands the students' preexisting conceptions, and guides the activity to address them and then build on them.
(Constructivism)
Although I would love to believe everything the Constructivist Theory claims simply because it just sounds great, I personally do not believe it to be realistic and practical to teach in an all-exclusive Constructivist classroom. Structure and routine are vital for learning as well as direct instruction at times which is contrary to what true constructivists believe. As Psychologist, John Dewey argued, “in order for education to be most effective, content must be presented in a way that allows the student to relate the information to prior experiences, thus deepening the connection with this new knowledge[…yet,] “too much reliance on the child could be equally detrimental to the learning process. We must take our stand with the child and our departure from him. It is he and not the subject-matter which determines both quality and quantity of learning.” According to Dewey, the potential flaw on too much reliance on the child is that it minimizes the importance of the content as well as the role of the teacher.
Thus, in my classroom I will use direct instruction at times (more in the first semester), provide examples while also modeling expectations to complete tasks. I will also provide my students with a well-structured environment with firm procedures and routines to ensure the classroom is safe, secure, and in order. However, through projects students will have the opportunity to construct and apply their own knowledge on the content discussed in class. Therefore, students will typically receive a project after a unit has been covered in class through notes, reading, discussion, etc. After hearing and discussing a topic, it will be required of the students to make sense of this topic in his/her own language and ability, hence the "project." They will be given a rubric that although outlines the criteria for grading, can be somewhat vague in certain categories, such as “creativity." I want students to feel free to interpret their knowledge using whatever materials they feel best explains their knowledge on the given topic. Purchasing items is NOT required. I prefer student to tinker with objects they have at home to make their "projects" meaningful. The simple task of gathering materials is promoting critical thinking and problem solving. Putting things together to assess whether the items will work to construct knowledge and understanding on a given topic is what is being required NOT the type of material being used. Students will always be given more than one night to complete projects, which is where the problem occurs! If students do not use every day given to complete the project, the project will then become a burden and everybody in the household will feel the frustration and stress. Please make sure to manage your time wisely. Projects help students learn how to budget and manage their time, meet deadlines, and teach responsibility; all skills they need to succeed in middle/high school and in the real world.
In addition to projects, students will be given plenty of opportunities to construct their own knowledge through Socratic Seminars, Interactive Notebooks, Philosophical Chairs, research, technology use, and WICOR strategies.
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Teacher A: Back in the day
Teacher B: Today! |
We are currently studying Ancient Mesopotamia. When starting our unit, I always start by examining the geography of a civilization. When studying the fertile valley of the Mesopotamians, I tell the students that Date Palms grew (and still grow) along the rivers. The dates contributed to their stable food supply. After learning about date palms, I give my students some dates to taste. It is always a fun experience for me, as I watch many of their faces make a grimace look and quickly get up to throw away the date. For a few, they really appreciate and enjoy eating the date. Regardless of their reactions, I enjoy watching them experience something different in the classroom. 
Total time: 25 minutes ( prep: 5, cook: 20)
