Myth: The School Year is Winding Down
There
seems to be this myth circulating that the school year is winding down. Here in
NYS we have an entire month left of school so that is the furthest thing from
the truth. What contribute to this myth however are the NYS testing
schedule and our own local assessments. For many outside the classroom
these "summative" assessments would seem to indicate the end of the
academic year, and that is reasonable to assume because they are supposed to
be, well summative. The problem is these assessments are given in April
and May and we still have an entire month of instruction left. The rub
then is this, how do we convince students and families that what we are doing
in the last months of school is just as important as what we were doing leading
up to the state and local assessments? It is important that we finish the
year strong and end the myth that the school year is winding down. We
need to be sending our students out with a willingness, dare I say an
eagerness, to look for their own learning opportunities over the summer.
Project based learning
engages students in exploring real-world problems and challenges.
Students see the connections between what they have learned in one
discipline and its application to another. It allows significant
opportunities for active learning and collaboration. Project learning
promotes critical thinking and decision making, and it helps to teach
persistence. Students are motivated and engaged, and often seek out
additional resources and information on their own. These are precisely
the learning habits that we need to form in our students. If the learning
that takes place in these last months of school has students taking control of
their learning, applying the skills and concepts that have been learned, and
breaks down the invisible barrier between the classroom and the world outside
its doors we will have gone a long way in convincing others of the myth that the
school year is winding down.
In The
Classroom
Recognizing
the waning enthusiasm of my students, and detecting the impending restlessness
that comes with June, I wanted to go big for the last month of school and try
something new. I came up with an idea to change the architecture project
that was designed to assess student understanding of geometry concepts. The
standards assessed remained the same, but I wanted to incorporate the project
with what the students were studying in English language arts, social studies
and science. I wanted my students to see the connection between different
disciplines. I believed that if students took more responsibility for their
learning and applied the concepts and skills they had learned in all their classes,
they would demonstrate deeper understanding and greater levels of engagement.
I
approached my colleagues about trying thematic and project based learning for
the last month of school. We decided to use the Middle Ages as our
backdrop, and address our content standards through project based learning.
Students are presently researching and writing papers on the Bubonic
plague, how it spread and its impact on life in Europe. They
are researching medieval manors, creating scale-drawings (floor plans) and
building models of castles. This upcoming week students will be
challenged to design, build and launch a trebuchet providing them with an
opportunity to learn through experience about technology in the past.
The use of project based
learning has been very rewarding. I have observed students exploring,
making judgments, and interpreting and synthesizing information in meaningful
ways. There has been improvement in many students’ abilities to work with their
peers, and the level of excitement and engagement is nothing short of amazing.
The myth that the school year is winding down is just that, a myth.
