Reflection on Chapters 7 and 8

Journal Entry #4:  Reflection on Chapters 7 and 8

            Chapter 7 in Moursund’s text was all about assessment.  It was very interesting to learn that assessment with PBL is very different from the traditional assessment of tests and quizzes.  On page 65, Moursund (2003) asked, “Are the testing methods valid, reliable, and fair?”.  This is a question that teachers should be asking themselves before giving an assessment.  This is also a question that the developers of standardized tests should also be asking themselves.  I am a strong believer in the idea that the word “fair” does not necessarily mean “equal”.  In order for an assessment to be fair, it must meet the needs of the individual learner.  In this way, assessment should be modified for different learners if necessary to remain fair for each individual. 

            Assessment is very important, and it is done to obtain information for important decisions, to motivate people, and to emphasize accountability.  However, I think that it is vital to not let one of these reasons become too important and over-power the others.  The over emphasis on some assessments can actually have negative effects.  When schools are “failing” certain requirements for standardized test scores, teachers frequently teach to the test, and teach students for the wrong reasons.  Students will then end up learning just to pass a test instead of learning to learn and become more knowledgeable.  Higher order thinking skills are less likely to develop when teachers are teaching just to pass tests. 

            This chapter emphasized the importance of making the students aware of the stakes of a particular assessment.  This is necessary so that students know what to expect.  I think it is sometimes better to conduct many low stakes assessments and fewer high stakes assessments in order to reduce student anxiety.  As a tutor for SATs and ACTs, I am personally familiar with the high level of anxiety that students have over taking these tests.  The stakes for these tests are very high, and some students struggle with relaxing enough to allow themselves to truly showcase their talents during these tests. 

            When reading this chapter, I debated with the idea of assessing my students on cooperative learning and collaborative problem solving.  Of course, I think it is important for them to be able to do these things well, but I am undecided about whether this should affect their grade in math.  I finally decided that some self-feedback and peer-feedback would definitely be beneficial for the processes, and that it would not need to have an impact on the students’ formal grades.

            I thought about my own PBL lesson while reading about the different formative and summative evaluations.  Students will receive formative evaluation when their complete their project proposal, the computer model of their product, and the plan for the real-life model.  They will also receive formative evaluation through the ongoing teacher and peer feedback received.  The students will receive a summative evaluation after their final project presentation.  I really like the project planning table displayed in this chapter, and I think I will modify this to use with my PBL lesson, having some of it already filled in, and having the students fill in some of it themselves. 

            To me, Chapter 8 was shorter than Chapter 7, and a little less interesting.  It focused on the future of IT-PBL.  Since the book was copyrighted in 2003, some of the information was out-dated.  In fact, we can see how some of the information has already come true (10 years later).  My former high school, Paramus Catholic High School, is the largest Catholic High School in New Jersey.  It is currently my younger sister’s high school (and will be my other younger sister’s high school next fall), is now REQUIRING all incoming freshman to purchase a tablet (iPad, Kindle, Nook, etc) for school purposes.  This shows how far technology has advanced and is continuing to advance.  It also shows how schools are adapting and changing to meet the newest technological trends.  Basically, the future of IT is rapidly increasing and will continue to do so, and the future of IT-PBL will hopefully be adapted into the school culture as easily and quickly as possible.

Reflection on Chapters 5 and 6

Journal Entry #3:  Reflection on Chapters 5 and 6

            “If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” This quote by Laurence J. Peter was displayed at the beginning of Chapter 5 of Moursund’s text, and is perfect for this chapter and where I am in the process of the project.  I am so happy to have recently completed the outline of my unit, because it gives me an overall picture of what I am working towards.  To see the whole project laid out really shows me where I am going, and puts a final picture in my head.  I am glad that Dr. Carr assigned the unit outline as one of the first assignments to be completed, because I think it will definitely help to ease the anxiety of the rest of the assignments. 

            In my unit, the students will be creating geometric piñatas and exploring volume and surface area in the process.  I will have the students create and submit a proposal for their piñata before the actual creation of the piñata begins.  I think this is a good way to make sure that the students are on the right track, while also allowing the students to plan ahead, think about time constraints, explore materials and resources, and assign roles or tasks for individuals.  This idea of planning ahead is something that is so important, and is stressed in Chapter 5.  Luckily, the students that I am working with have frequently completed STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) projects in groups, so they should be used to complex projects.  However, it is always important to allow students the time to work together and plan out the project.  There was a project planning table on page 49 of the text that I really liked!  I think I am going to develop a sheet similar to this for students to fill out along with the proposal for their project.  I really liked the idea of the milestones, to break down the project into more manageable pieces, and to allow the students to see their work progressing. 

            Chapter 6 focused on the lesson planning aspect of project based learning.  For this course, we have to write two lesson plans.  My first one is an introduction to the unit, while my second lesson plan involves the PBL project.  I broke down the project into different lessons at first, but I am not sure if that is going to work for writing the lesson plan, because I am going to want to include all parts of the project.  I may have to do some adjusting and make the whole project into one lesson with different parts.  I have to think more about how to address this issue.

When writing the goals for the lesson, I need to remember to consider not only content goals, but educational goals in general as well as instructional technology goals.  I also need to think more about the prerequisite skills that I want my students to have, compared to what they may actually have.  While reading this chapter, I decided that I want to add a few things to my project.  First, I want the students to be able to self assess and reflect on the process and their progress along the way.  I also want them to be able to explain their own contribution to the project.  Due to this, I want to add an online journal, possibly a blog for the students to add to along the way through the process of the project.  I think that the blogging aspect of the project could be done as homework assignments after each day. 

Finally, this chapter opened my eyes to the fact that I may have to allow students more time to complete tasks than I initially expected.  Students need time for every aspect!  I wanted to add an extra day for finalizing the presentation aspect of the project, allowing students to plan out how they will present their piñatas.  I also wanted to add a day after the presentations before the piñata destruction to allow for grading and showcasing.  Time is an important aspect of any project, and students need to have ample time to do their best work, while also fitting into the time restraints of the project.

Learning Styles Inventory - Results

Learning Styles Inventory - Results

A learning style inventory questionnaire was given to the twenty-six seventh grade students at St. Anthony School.  This questionnaire consisted of sixteen questions with three choices each.  Each student completed the form and then calculated the total number of a’s (visual), b’s (auditory) and c’s (kinesthetic) to determine the learning style that best fit him or her.  The results varied greatly, and some students “tied” between different styles.  Therefore, I struggled with deciding how to interpret, analyze, and display the results.  The figure below displays the results in a Venn diagram, which allows for the overlapping part or “ties” between more than one learning style to be shown.  When counting the “ties” as results for both learning styles, the visual learning style was the most popular with fourteen students favoring that style.   Next, the auditory style had twelve students favoring it.  Lastly, the kinesthetic style only had seven students favoring this style. 

When examining the sheets, I realized that many students’ numbers were very close together and maybe only one or two away from a different style.  Since the results from the students did not clearly point to any one learning style, I wanted to analyze the results in a different way.  I examined the numbers questions that were answered with a, b, or c from the class as a whole.  This would give me a better idea of the dominance of one or more learning styles from the class as whole.  The figure below shows the percentage of questions from all the students that were answered as a, b, or c. 

The results from the learning styles inventory showed me that the seventh grade students at St. Anthony’s School learn in many different ways.  There is no one learning style that dominates any of the other learning styles.  It would be best to teach these students in ways that can address all three different learning styles examined here.  Not only do the students vary from each other in their learning styles, but the learning styles also vary within the students themselves.  Overall, these students can benefit from teaching using different modalities.

Reflection on Chapters 3 and 4

Journal Entry #2:  Reflection on Chapters 3 and 4

            Chapter 3 in Moursund’s text discussed topic ideas for PBL lessons.  The chapter gave interesting insight into different projects for a variety of subjects and topics.  I agreed with its discussion of examining curriculum goals and standards and deciding which goals fit well with PBL.  Thinking of all of the different math goals for middle school aged children, I believe that goals involving volume and surface areas of 3d figures are perfects goals to develop a PBL lesson around.  Three dimensional figures are part of every student’s world in some way or another.  A PBL lesson can definitely be built around these goals.  This is what I am going to accomplish by the end of this course.  In this way, I am building my PBL lesson around appropriate goals of the typical curriculum. 

            The different topic ideas discussed in Chapter 3 opened my eyes to the many uses of PBL in the classroom.  These ideas also showed me how PBL impacts so many different educational fields.  For example, I realized how something as basic as creating a holiday mailing list has so many educational components.  Also, the discussion of the math uses of PBL related to me.  I have definitely heard students ask “When will I ever use this?” in math class.  I want to give the students a project that they will find fun and useful in the real world.  It is important to stress to students that the things that we learn in mathematics today (different formulas, etc.) were developed in response to some sort of problem or obstacle that people faced in the past.  It is important for students to learn problem solving techniques through practice so that they can be able to approach new problems in a variety of successful ways.

            I agreed with the viewpoint of technology displayed in Chapter 3.  Students love technology!  They rarely care if the teacher is an expert in using the technology, because they love to learn by trial and error.  Students also love to show the teacher something new that he or she did not know before.  The teacher’s lack of knowledge of technology will not bother the students.  The teacher should feel comfortable learning from the students, because they probably have a lot to share.  Moursund (2003) states that “Student may discover that part of what you are teaching is now out of date and may be irrelevant because of a progress of IT” (p. 32).  This is okay!  Teachers need to embrace the knowledge of their students, and learn from them.  Adaptation is necessary and vital when dealing with technology, because new technology is so rapidly developed.

            Chapter 4 in Moursund’s text discusses the arguments in favor of PBL.  Unfortunately, not much research is done on PBL because it is not easily experimented on.  We learn about the successes of PBL through personal experiences and stories.  However, we do know the things that PBL encompasses, and the research in favor of those components.  PBL increases higher order thinking skills, problem solving skills, collaboration, cooperative learning, and much more. 

One of my favorite types of lesson plans that I created as an undergraduate were “inquiry-based lessons”.  In this type of lesson, students “discover” a new formula or concept.  Usually I would guide the student through examination of different patterns and allow the students to derive certain formulas.  When the students are discovering the formula themselves, they will better understand the logic behind the formulas and will most likely remember the formulas more easily.  PBL is similar to inquiry based lessons, because the students are usually discovering something.  This was reiterated by a quote by Moursund (2003) that I fully agreed with: “Students who learn their lower-order knowledge and skills in a higher-order skills environment will retain them better” (p. 39).  If PBL has been observed to increase motivation, attendance, problem solving techniques, and resource management, then I don’t see a reason not to employ this technique in my own teaching practices!