Makerspaces, STEAM labs and fab labs are popping up in schools across the country. Makerspaces provide hands-on, creative ways to encourage students to design, experiment, build and invent as they deeply engage in science, engineering and tinkering.

Students at Marist High use the Fab Lab for STEM designing and creating ....Hands-on..great engagement. 

EFFECTIVE GROUP MANAGEMENT

^{What can be done to move the group along to the} 

^{goal of being a high functioning group?}

^{From the PLT on Group Management I gained a lot of insights on different ways of doing group norms and monitoring student progress.}

At PMH, Group contracts and Team management logs are used. However, regular checking and updating is definitely work in progress as said by students who have been interviewed lately.

• Group norms could vary depending on the EI of students

Check this out:

 http://www.edutopia.org/blog/key-effective-teams-schools-emotional-intelligence-elena-aguilar

• Assign a group leader
• Groups complete a group contract at the start of the project.
  Include a discussion database where students exchange ideas/questions
• Use Team Management log OR project pacing chart and review regularly
• Incorporate daily log for students who need reminders to stay on task
• Use Peer feedback as often as necessary.

Benchmarks in PBL projects : The Benchmark Focus is the Newtech Network approach in structuring PBL projects. At Parramatta Marist High, projects in Science are designed with a Benchmark Focus where students are to attain different levels of learning required to complete and work towards their End product.

- Benchmark Focus can be...
 Skills based where students gain necessary skills to complete their end product. eg. First hand investigations, Report writing, Experiment design etc.
Content based leading to skills where the activities can let students gain multiple skills.
eg. Ipad activities on specific content eg. Food chain/Food web

Varying Benchmark focus to suit the project and students can allow students to progress to Benchmarks at their own pace.  Allowing the freedom to choose Benchmarks will cater to differentiated instruction.

Benchmarks in Projects should serve as a Checkpoint and tell the learner and the teacher the level of learning attained.

GROUPING IN PBL

Purposeful grouping works best in my teaching experience in the PBL pedagogy.

 What it does best .....

-     -  differentiates instruction for diverse learning needs.

-       -Teachers can design lesson plans that sets up all students for success.

-       -Grouping students based on preferred learning styles will allow them present differently.

      Teachers will need to have a CLASS PROFILE  to enable them to create effective groups.

-        WE NEED TO KNOW THE LEARNING STYLES OF OUR STUDENTS 

I BELIEVE THAT KNOWING OUR STUDENTS AND HOW THEY LEARN IS PARAMOUNT TO ACHIEVING EFFECTIVE GROUPING LEADING TO EFFECTIVE LEARNING

The 2015 Professional Learning Teams at Parramatta Marist High aim at creating effective PBL processes for enhancement of student learning.

I have found PBL a great tool for student engagement and deeper learning.

The challenge is to allow students to take ownership of the learning by way of providing them with effective processes …….

How can we use the Knows/Need to knows to drive the teaching learning process????

What we do effectively…

-     -  checking prior learning and inquiry in Knows/Need to knows list

-      - Engage students in effective  teamwork

-     -  Allow students to use team management logs 

The following article by H.Weller  outlines the need for a discrepant event in teaching to grab the learner’s attention and initiate inquiry.

Why use a discrepant event in teaching- (H. Weller – EDW 471/SMS 491 – Spring 2008)

What do PBL'ers do with the N2K's generated by students?????? 

-     -  settting off and sustaining sparks of creativity is important  and hence the K/N2K's – have  to be revisited every second lesson

-      - Teachers will have to plan projects and anticipate K/N2k ‘s and create activities that will cater to a wide range of learners

-   - Incorporate N2K's arising from classroom activities, workshops(field trips, practical activities,tutorials)

-   - Revisit rubric and make changes if necessary based on feedback on formative tasks.

-      EMPHASIZE AND REEMPHASIZE THAT THE

NEED TO KNOW LIST IS A LIVING  DOCUMENT.

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