Driving Question |
My inquiry began with the driving question, "What is the impact of aligning PBL to Common Core Standards in middle school text-based learning?" and has stayed consistent throughout my research. As I develop my capstone, I'm considering altering those words to make my question more user-friendly. My goal is to provide teachers with simple, research- and experience- based examples of how to effectively combine PBL and CCSS.
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Critical Friends- Model Capstonse |
Do digital tools have a place in early literacy? (Dearborn)
Dearborn’s website is clearly designed with teachers in mind as a primary audience. More specifically, her material seems directed at teachers in the lower grades, who have an interest in integrating technology and literacy. Ms. Dearborn is highly effective in presenting to this audience on every page. In her home page video, for example, she asks, “Are you tired of hearing your students complain about boring old reading logs…?” Later, on the tools page, she includes the headline: “Try one of these Web 2.0 tools with your students”. She directly addresses her audience again when on her inspiration page she asks, “ Can any of you relate to that lack of enthusiasm in your students?” Throughout her pages, Dearborn makes her ideas approachable by using a congenial tone in her writing, and incorporating images to break up the text. Her personal disclaimer on the inspiration page, disclosing her own newness to technology integration, is a fine example of “bridging the gap” to make her research approachable to teachers who may feel intimidated by technology. How do we harness the power of blogging to get students jobs, create authentic writing tasks, and strengthen our learning community? (Gottfried) Like Dearborn, Lisa Gottfried created a capstone that promotes student blogging as a means to build 21st century skills. Unlike the former, however, Gottfried’s audience seems to be educators who target an older student. This first becomes evident on her homepage, where she explains that blogs are ideal because they can connect students to “experts in the field who can offer… internships and jobs.” While most educators want to lead their students to career-readiness, it is mostly upper-grade teachers who would be interested in blogs that could lead to employment. This trend continues in Gottfried’s subpages as well; her rubrics and data collection are tagged grade 12 and grade 9, respectively. Furthermore, Gottfried’s work involves some strategies and arguments not just about how to employ student blogging, but also the “how” and “why” of using it as a whole school; she clearly has sights on a school-wide integration, rather than the whole classroom. This is evident at the bottom of her inspiration page, where she discusses “convincing the staff of the value of blogging”. It’s also suggested on her Learn More page, where she explains that by the end of her research, 320 out of 408 students were actively blogging. Given her language and fluidity discussing technology, Gottfried communicates well with an audience who is no stranger to tech, and wants to provide their older students with relevant 21st century learning. Is your classroom an academically safe place for all students? (Vale) Vale’s capstone is full of well-researched information, but it is not entirely consistent in its message. For example, Vale’s homepage does a terrific job, at first glance, of bringing in the viewer who has an interest in creating a positive place for young children. The pictures she has on her homepage of young, smiling children are immediately engaging. My impression was, “Great! This will be all about creating a positive classroom community.” However, the message veered off-path on certain pages. The Lessons page, for example, had valuable tools for flipped learning and digital citizenship. Instead, I was expecting to encounter specific lessons (flipped or otherwise) about how to create a more positive classroom culture. The How-To page got back on track with plenty of ideas and resources for emotional wellness in the classroom. However, I wonder if this page would have been more effective if it had featured only half the sources. Overall, Vale’s capstone could have used some “weeding” to keep the message more focused. |
About The Author
Teaching is my second career, preceded by a season of life working in the arts, vineyard management, and the wine industry domestically and abroad. Reading & writing skills, and a determination to learn, enabled me to pursue exciting, fulfilling opportunities. Moreover, my experience in those fields exposed me to numerous technologies- many of them new- that helped make work more efficient. So I came to the teaching field with an attitude of fluidity toward technology, for which I am grateful. Effective pedagogy, however, especially with disadvantaged students, was where I needed the most growth (and quick!). When considering TPACK, one might say I was heavy on the "T" and "CK", but working with a lowercase "p".
My first year of teaching was the last year my district taught California State Standards. As the sun set on the older standards, and began to rise again with the new Common Core, the age of Project Based Learning also dawned on my school. The saying goes, "There's nothing new under the sun," but if the approach my colleagues and I were asked to take wasn't brand new, it was certainly different. So different, in fact, that when I began my master's study, most of us had spent four years without consistent curriculum. Even veteran teachers were rewriting their plains month-to-month to try and strike the right balance between Common Core, PBL, and what they knew worked in the classroom. That's not to say that rethinking classroom practice is a bad thing. However, removing clarity and confidence from a multitude of teachers' practices, year after year, while students learning is in the balance is unsettling. The Innovative Learning program created space for me to sit still with my questions around PBL and Standards-based pedagogy, and seek out what research has to say about the two of them. Likewise, it has given me even more impetus to dig my heels in, and work through what actually works in my own classroom. I feel strongly that teaching "outside the box", in ways that will enable students to transfer their knowledge to any situation, will make young people available for possibilities they have yet to discover. I know that to be the case in my own life. This has fueled my drive to get Common Core and PBL right, for all my students. Because it matters. |