Logan: Chapter 3 RR

One thing that I picked out of the reading regarding the big idea is to start off in steps and brainstorm ideas through one subject first and see how you can overlap it with a different content area. Looking at the picture can be very overwhelming and frustrating as a teacher because it’s hard to determine the starting line.  One thing that should be considered while trying to find the big idea is to think about the real world and how this project can benefit the students and possibly the community.  “Thinking about real-world contexts helps to reveal the interdisciplinary nature of a project” pg. 46.  

It’s interesting to see the comparison of a regular assignment and what a 21^st century assignment looks like, explained on page 48. We have all gotten assignments where we just write a report on a famous person and that’s it, we might have learned general information from that assignment but there was probably no “fun” behind it. Seeing how you can take that project one step further by using the skills of the 21^st century can enhance how effectively the students learn , how well the know the material and not memorize the material, and because they have more room to be creative they will also enjoy it. “Literacy boils down to learning to be independent, aware, and productive citizens”. Without sufficient literacy skills one will not succeed in life as they would have otherwise. In life we need to have the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, and communicate, these are all vital opponents on the 21^st-century literacy skills.

With PBL students have the opportunity to learn in and outside the classroom because of the real world content within the project. In order for projects to successful is have the ability to ask your students to dig deep. Asking higher order thinking questions will foster a well in-depth project that will push your students to think further. Making things visual and discussable will help your student to prioritize information, organize information, and foster group or classroom discussions. This also ties in to the function of Project Management: Planning and Organization, keeping their information together and well planned out to share with others. Sharing your ideas with the community only helps the involvement of your students, when they see that other people are interested in what they are doing that will create more enthusiasm and self-expression in the classroom. Reflection is a part of deep learning and thinking, it helps you to enhance what you already have or build new bridges to learn and discover more.

The concepts in this chapter will help me with my unit to create a well prepared 21^st century project for my students. This is what our own projects are about so it will be very beneficial to us.