Sandra Iturbides, M.Ed Katia Zorogastua, M.Ed

World Language Teachers

Objective

World Language teachers will be able to explain what Project-Based Learning is and how it works for motivating struggling students. This is a rough draft

21st Century Skills •  Communication •  Collaboration •  Critical Thinking/ Problem Solving •  Creativity/ Innovation •  Information Literacy •  Technology Literacy •  Flexibility/ Adaptability •  Initiative/ Self Direction •  Social/ Cross-cultural skills •  Productivity / Accountability •  Leadership/ Responsibility

What must students know and be able to do in World Language?

World Language Linguistic Content Cultural Context

•  Communication: interpersonal, interpretive, presentational-oral and written

•  Control: vocabulary, syntax, structures, and grammar

•  Concepts: How language works, its purposes, and its nature

•  Contexts for Communication •  Control: The information

needed to understand the cultural contexts

•  Concepts: How people relate to one another in various cross-cultural settings

Project-Based Learning: A Definition

A systematic teaching method that engages students in learning essential knowledge and life-enhancing skills through an extended, student-influenced inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks.

What is Project Based Learning •  PBL is curriculum fueled and standards based. •  PBL asks a question or poses a problem that ALL

students can answer. Concrete, hands-on experiences come together during project-based learning.

•  PBL allows students to investigate issues and topics in

real-world problems. •  PBL fosters abstract, intellectual tasks to explore

complex issues.

How Does PBL Model Work In a World Language Classroom:

•  Language-based outcomes shaped by the need to know. •  Students learn the target language in connection with the cultures of the people who speak it. •  Vocabulary and linguistic structures are acquired as students listen and read in the target language while doing research. •  Students practice speaking and writing while interacting with peers, the teacher, and others.

What are the Benefits of Project Based Learning •  Recognize students’ inherent drive to learn. •  Engage students in the central concepts and principles of a

discipline.

•  Highlight provocative issues or questions that lead students to in-depth exploration of authentic and important topics.

•  Require the use of essential tools and skills, including technology, self-management, and project management.

•  Use performance-based assessments that communicate high expectations, present rigorous challenges, and require a range of skills and knowledge.

•  Encourage collaboration in some form, either through small groups, student-led presentations, or whole-class evaluations of project results.

How Does Project-Based Learning Work? PBL offers a great opportunity to provide students a context to grow in these skills: •  Critical Thinking •  Communication •  Collaboration •  Creativity

Students Develop Needed Skills •  Information Searching &

Researching •  Critical Analysis •  Summarizing and

Synthesizing •  Inquiry, Questioning and

Exploratory Investigations

•  Design and Problem-solving

How Do We Start Project-Based Learning in the Classroom: •  Question •  Plan •  Schedule •  Monitor •  Assess •  Evaluate

The Teacher’s Role:

In a project-based classroom, the teacher is a facilitator, not a lecturer. Instead of being the source of all knowledge, the teacher is a collaborator who helps students themselves gain the information and skills they need to succeed.

Student’s Roles •  Set goals •  Explore and ask

questions •  Work well with

peers •  Stay

accountable to self, peers, and teacher for project outcomes

Question •  Start with the Essential question. •  Questions should be consistent with curricular

standards and frameworks.

•  Take a real-world topic and begin an in-depth investigation.

•  Make sure it is relevant for your students. •  Ask open-ended questions that are challenging.

What is global warming? Should we be worried about global warming in our town?

• Good beginning. • Topic is central to both earth science and current events.

• Brings the Driving Question home. • Students can anchor their investigation in local geography, climate, and ecosystems.

Plan •  Plan which content standards will be

addressed while answering the question.

•  Involve students in the questioning, planning, and project-building process.

•  Teacher and students brainstorm activities that support the inquiry.

Well-designed projects ask students to: •  Tackle real problems and issues that have importance to people beyond the

classroom. Projects emanate from issues of real importance to students and adults in the community and answer the age-old student question “Why do we need to know this?”

•  Actively engage in their learning and make important choices during the

project. Projects make room for student choice and creativity while still demanding student mastery of essential content, enabling students and teachers to interact as co-learners in the experience, rather than in the traditional student-teacher relationship.

•  Demonstrate in tangible ways that they have learned key concepts and

skills. Projects provide opportunities for students to produce observable evidence that they have mastered rigorous curricular standards as they apply their learning and solve the problem at hand. Projects and exhibitions also provide extensive evidence of process work and self-directed learning.

Schedule •  Teacher and students design a timeline for

project components. •  Set benchmarks. •  Keep it simple and age-appropriate.

Monitor •  Facilitate the process.

•  Mentor the process.

•  Utilize rubrics.

Assess •  Make the assessment

authentic.

•  Know authentic assessment will require more time and effort from the teacher.

•  Vary the type of assessment used.

Evaluate •  Take time to reflect, individually and as a group.

•  Share feelings and experiences.

•  Discuss what worked well.

•  Discuss what needs change.

•  Share ideas that will lead to new inquiries, thus new projects.

Student Choice and Creativity that empowers and inspires the students to own their own learning and engage deeply in the project.

Tackles Relevant Issues and importance beyond the classroom.

Exemplary Models by other students, teachers, or professionals, to set criteria for high-quality work and set strategies to attain them.

Incorporates Hands-On Work, such as: art, technology, or processes- related to the discipline.

Lasting Learning of a deeper learning skill, idea, or way of thinking that is relevant to students’ lives, their futures, and transforms who they are as human beings.

Mirrors Real-World Work of professionals in craft, process, or skill (e.g. historians, writers, mathematicians, artists). Moves Beyond Classroom in purpose, audience, or contribution to community.

Free Project Based Learning Technology Tools 1.  Mindmeister 2.  Glogster 3.  Myhistro 4.  Animoto 5.  VoiceThread 6.  Fotobabble 7.  Audioboo 8.  Capzles 9.  Dipity

National Foreign Language Week • March 9-15, 2015 Showcasing WL Project-Based Learning

Questions?

If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn. Ignacio ‘Nacho” Estrada

Exit Slip 2 new facts you found interesting 1 fact you already know Questions you still have