Journal of the Effective Schools Project, Volume 18, 2011 Page: 43
79 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
and teacher tests." In hopes that
these veteran teachers would share
their grand wisdom from the many
years of practice, I decided to ask
the question, Why Projects? The
response was shocking. "Because
the students like projects, and if
they like it, they will remember it."
Wow, what a novel concept!
As time moved on, I began to
slowly ask questions and even ex-
periment with projects in my
teaching. What I discovered start-
ed the chain reaction that changed
my entire educational philosophy.
Project-based teaching allowed the
students to take charge of their
own learning. I realized that if my
students had some control over
their learning experiences using a
discovery learning environment,
they would retain more infor-
mation for a longer period of time.
The easiest way for me to empha-
size this point is to have you, the
reader, reflect on your school days
and recall your favorite learning
experiences. I am willing to bet
that at least some of those memo-
ries are connected with a project or
experiment. I would be surprise to
learn that you favored a wonderful
day of note taking or completing
the even numbered problems on
page 155 in your math book (evens
only because the odd number an-
swers are in the back of the book).
Based on my experiences observ-
ing seasoned teachers, I began to
recreate my lesson plans with an
emphasis on projects. I skillfully
dissected the TEKS and gathered
multiple resources. I also attempt-
ed to integrate technology into the-
se projects, hoping my students
would learn at least half as much
from my lessons as they were
learning in the classrooms next
door. In addition, I started to mod-ify my preparation process to in-
clude the idea of backward design
to further focus on the learning
outcomes and not just on the
teaching process (Wiggins &
McTighe, 2005). Backward design
philosophy required me to deter-
mine what I wanted my students to
know and do and determine how I
would assess their learning before
I began to create a lesson plan. I
found that if I would focus on
what I wanted the students to learn
instead of what I wanted to teach,
the students were more successful
and engaged. I began the lesson
planning process with three ques-
tions: What is it I want the student
to learn? How will I know when
they have learned it? How will I
respond when a student experienc-
es difficulty? (DuFour, Eaker, &
Dufour, 2005) I realized when I
had answers to these questions, the
typically mysterious phenomenon
called "learning" would appear.
As year two began, I had fully in-
corporated discovery learning pro-
jects into my classroom, but I still
did not understand the true bene-
fits this type of learning culture
created for me and my students. I
soon realized that the hands-on
projects afforded me time to reach
EVERY student based on his or
her own level. Accelerated stu-
dents performed on a higher cog-
nitive level, while the special
needs of other students could be
met with modifications and ac-
commodations. I found that I had
more time to interact with individ-
ual students because I was not
standing in front of the class blab-
bering out my knowledge to the
students. Instead, I was a resource
able to guide each student in the
right direction and/ or depth of the
learning based on the project
guidelines. My students began toI found that if I would
focus on what I wanted
the students to learn
instead of what I wanted
to teach, the students
were more successful
and engaged.43
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Tarleton State University. Effective Schools Project. Journal of the Effective Schools Project, Volume 18, 2011, periodical, 2011; Stephenville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth201694/m1/47/?rotate=90: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Tarleton State University.