Visit 1: Getting off to a Great Start

Today was the first day with the consultant for Project-based learning initiative. It was such a pleasure to meet each of the teachers and their classes. We definitely got off to a great start!

Each of the classes is planning a video-related project. It might be nice to connect the three projects with an overarching essential question, such as: How can we create videos that both entertain and educate our peers about important topics? Let us know what you think!

Each of the participating teachers has come up with a general theme. While we may working on the exact wording of our essential questions and related subtopics, here is what we have so far:

• Lorenzo: Students will be creating Spanish language videos related to cultural foods from selected Spanish-speaking countries. These will be posted on a wiki using a "Food Network" type format with information, recipes, and these videos.    Suggested essential question: How can we teach teens about the food of Spanish speaking countries?
• Del Vecchio: Students will create various segments for a Science-based news program highlighting current events related to specific scientific topics. Suggested essential question:  How is our world influenced by scientific principles and discoveries?
• Ranney: Students will create video mash-up videos using old and outdated media from the science library.  Suggested essential question: How can we update our current science multimedia library to be relevant, interesting, and informative for future classes?

Teachers: Add a comment to this post to update or revise the above descriptions and/or your class essential question.

 
For the first day, we introduced the projects scope to students and showed some sample student-created videos. In Ms. Lorenzo and Ms. Del Vecchio's class we discussed elements of video production and asked students to reviewed elements of movies. Some student responses can be found in the following two images:

In Ms. Ranney's class we began a discussion of copyright and fair use policies. Students watched the video A Fair(y) Tale, which is both an example of a mash-up and an informational video about fair use laws. All classes will need to explore these topics in more depth over the course of this project. Additional information, handouts, and resources can be found here.

Just a reminder that our next session will be on Dec. 10.  In order to be ready for this, here are some of the tasks teachers need to work on:

1. Rubric: During planning sessions with teachers, we discussed creating rubrics specific to the project. It is important that each teacher determine how students will be assessed and what elements the final product must include. You can find information about rubrics here. Or look at these sample documents: Sample rubric for how to video or Sample Rubric for wiki page.
   
2. Groups/Topics: You can pair students or create small cooperative groups of 3 to 5 students, depending on what your final product will be. Each group should have a specific focus topic that relates to your essential question. (Ms. Lorenzo has already done this)
3. Schedule: We still need to plan out the final presentation date and determine 7 additional consulting dates between now and the presentation. Ms. Del Vecchio and Ms. Ranney need to coordinate ideas and submit them to TechKNOW. TechKNOW will get final approval of dates from Dr. May.
4. Join/Post to this blog: I've sent an invite to each teacher and I hope you do more than read posts. Everyone is encouraged to post to the blog. Let us know what you are doing and how you are doing it in your classes.
   

Finally, we will post finished products on individual teacher wiki pages. Ms. Lorenzo already has her wiki site begun. Ms. Del Vecchio created a wiki site, but still has to put content on it. Here is a handout with some basic instructions.  Ms. Ranney has enough to do for now. We will get her wiki going later in the project.

We look forward to seeing you all on December 10. Let us know if there is anything else we can help with before then!