I’ve
always been a believer that in teaching and learning all the verbs should be
handed down to the students by the teacher. Some of these verbs are
respond/answer, act/perform, investigate/research, design/strategize,
achieve/accomplish, and present/display among a list of so many. Students in my
classroom are expected to "learn by doing". I realized that my definition of PBL
is the same before and after watching the video An Introduction to Project-Based Learning. Now, instead of calling such learning as “student initiated
projects/activities” I’d be using the universal term for it.
I
can therefore conclude that I have been teaching through PBL in my classroom
for quite some time now. One example of which is, my students for the past 3
years have been publishing children’s books. These were sold at ASF to raise
funds for scholars. They were taught the process of book writing and were expected to write an original story with a moral lesson. They were to do in
depth research about characters and settings. They also worked with an editor
through Skype or communicate with him via email and share their project through Google doc. We also did a classroom activity called the “Travel
Fair,” where students took the role of travel agents. They were to act as a
citizen of a country assigned to them and learned everything there was to know
about that country in order to promote it.
As
part of Unit of Inquiry final projects, students in 4th grade at ASF
are required to come up with an opera, where every aspect of it is an original
creation of the students. 5th graders also work on an exhibition,
showcasing a comprehensive study of current issues that leads to solutions to
global problems.
