Project and experimental type lessons are clear examples of constructionist/constructivist learning theories. Using an Excel spreadsheet as Mrs. Omar does in Pitler et al.’s book (2007) to figure out how much interest someone would earn within various investments situations lets students find out results on their own with the teach doing the work for them. By using these real life examples I feel that students get so much more out of the content we teach. Dr. Orey explains in the video that PowerPoint is another great tool to create constructionist lessons, by letting students create a presentation to showcase their knowledge and understanding of the academic content. Every fall as we wrap up our Native American unit, I have my class split into groups and study a specific tribe of Native Americans. The group members break up which facets of the tribe they want to report on (food, shelter, men’s roles, women’s roles, etc.) and turn their knowledge into a PowerPoint presentation that they show to their parents. It really impresses their parents how they not only retained SO much information from their research but they also learned technological skills by creating a presentation.
Projects like these that support constructionist/constructivist learning generate enthusiasm in schools and let students see that their effort really pays off!
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8 years ago
Erica, I liked the different ideas you posted about different project ideas. I agree with your point that Dr. Orey discussed about PowerPoint is another great tool to create constructionist lessons. I use a PowerPoint project to wrap up my unit on habitats. Each group is given a different habitat and the students are given a template of how to create their project. The students then need to present their projects to the rest of the class. This project allows the students to work at a variety of levels and the students work hard to produce a quality assignment.
ReplyDeleteErica,
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you on the comment you made about Dr. Orey's power point example. I am going to have my students create a web page next year based on a novel that we have read as a class. Once the students complete that web page I will post the links to the class web page so their parents can see it. I agree that these types of projects will generate enthusiasm in the school and hopefully the students will enjoy them so much more.
Erica,
ReplyDeleteI think the great thing about PowerPoint is that it easy to use for a wide range of students. I have my 3rd graders do PowerPoint presentations on different athletes during our Olympics unit and they love it! I've never had them present them to their parents though - that's a great idea. Students tend to put forth more effort when they know who the intended audience is, so I might get even better results if they know we'll be inviting parents in for a "screening."
I also use PowerPoint to make books with my students. It's so much easier for them to format a book using PowerPoint than Word, because each slide becomes a page and they don't have to worry about the layout or page breaking.
Howw do you work in a time for the parents to visit and watch the PowerPoints?