PBL BLOG

2003-05-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

Needles (sic) to say, I've had kind of a weird semester. Still, I practiced one big PBL technique again (students-teaching-students) in my Poetry of Rock class, and it went very well. I still need to schedule in more time for it, though, which includes time for better assessment of student learning. I had everyone in the class write a minute paper after each group-teaching session to demonstrate what was learned. But I need to clarify the specific learning goals for those teaching sessions, and then make sure the minute papers (or whatever) provide evidence that those goals were met.

I also had group members evaluate each other following their presentaions, and this went pretty well. One group did have some discord, which could have been prevented had I provided materials and ideas early on about how to avoid such discord. In the future, somewhere in the middle of the planning phase for these presentations, I might engage the whole class in a discussion about how to deal with conflict within groups--or, better yet, have a speaker come in to address this. Suggestions for speakers?

Would like to hear from more of you--What did you all do for PBL this semester?

2003-03-18T11:20:00.000-08:00

Hi--I don't know if anyone is still checking this (ever)--I know I have been remiss (a gentle word for lazy and checked-out), so I'm sorry. It seems if I were to be a better cheerleader, writting compelling and witty things here everyday, you'd feel compelled to check and respond. (But of course, at best, I'm witty one day a month, and compelling even less regularly.)

So how's the semester going? I am loving my first year class. The students are active, funny, good writers, generally smart and analytical. We are just moving to our second unit——child's play--where we'll write about children's culture. Their research will go toward writing and producing a children's book, as well as evaluating a children's movie and researching and analyzing a toy or game. We'll do a lot of hands-on stuff in terms of looking at toys.

My 320 and grants classes are very problem-based, and the students are doing well (though I'm not comfortable saying they like the classes). But I've been happy with their work (websites for a business in 320, proposal for a business in the grants class).

I'd love to hear about how things are going for you all. --Betsy

2002-12-09T08:31:00.000-08:00

My semester has gone fairly well. (The results aren't all in at this point, though. I'll know much more when I see all of my 110 final projects.) The big question for me, as for Kevin, is whether our particular, semester-long, course-based problem worked. I'm guessing at this point that I've had moderate success. Some of the small PBL activities I used were maybe a bit more than moderately successful. All of it, as far as I can tell right now, was a good start and definitely gives me a lot to think about and improve.

I'll probably offer some thoughts here over Christmas break.

I'm sold (as I figured I would be) on PBL, though I think it does have its limits. Was talking with Betsy recently about some probs she had in a class full of verifiably nonsocial personality types. (Kara Stack or someone went into her class and actually tested the students.) This might make for an interesting paper: what happens to PBL methods when you get students who simply don't/can't interact? I guess no method or pedagogy works 100% well, 100% of the time; people are just too weird and unpredictable.

I think the "investment" issue, along with relevance, is huge. A topic really has to matter to students for it to work well. If it doesn't matter to them, at best a class can only be a so-so experience for everyone involved. One big problem I think is that our students, along with everyone else these days, are just overwhelmed with pressing obligations, jobs, etc., and things like blogging can get pushed out of their schedules if it just isn't vital enough to them. Which doesn't mean they can't or don't want to use it--just that it can't compete with other things that have priority in their schedules and lives. (Blogging was an element of the experimental 110 that Kevin, Sybil and I cooked up.)

Nuff.

2002-12-04T09:15:00.000-08:00

How did everyone's semester go? I think I can say that the "problems" I posed to my students only partially engaged some of them ; ). What did work was my problem-based assignment called "the stretch." Students had to stretch themselves and learn a "new literacy" skill, or improve a new literacy skill they have just started working on. They got to define "the problem;" they got to work on a problem that interested them.

Betsy's presentation at the luncheon in Nov. touched on this issue. When her fall class got invested in the problem, the course was an overwhelming success. When the spring class got only mildly interested in the problem, the course had an engagement level and outcomes similar to a "regular" class. That actually seems like good news.

2002-10-31T20:16:00.000-08:00

You're in a convolution groove, Kevin. Makes perfect sense, actually.

2002-10-31T10:51:00.000-08:00

Cindy, interesting that you hit on the coverage problem--not one we comp. people often worry about, but other disciplines do. PBL challenges most people to worry about coverage. The standard response: students are learning to learn and learning to collaborate in your class, and that is better than not learning how to write when we assign all the writing they don't really engage with.

Could I be more convoluted?

2002-10-30T08:01:00.000-08:00

Apropos of nothing: Phyllis Diller Pedagogy.

2002-10-30T04:31:00.000-08:00

I took a look at the assessment thing, but didn't actually use it--only because there was too much going on in class recently and I've been falling chronically behind on my schedule. It looks perfectly useful, though.

My 110s are doing another round of group teaching sessions right now, and I think they (and I) are getting better at it. It's one of the most PBL-flavored activities we've done so far, and is turning out to be much more interesting than I would have thought. Each group was given a topic related (sometimes a little distantly) to the next two paper projects and a slew of open questions. They were then told to simply "teach" that topic to the class (I'm simplifying, but that's the gist). I gave them a lot more time to plan than I did before, and it's going pretty well.

For one thing, it's bringing a whole additional level of performance into the class picture and makes a variety of demands on the students. I'm astounded (happily) at how REAL the audience issue is in this "writing" activity. They seem to be truly presenting for their classmates, and not just me for once. (My paper assignments have suffered from the "audience problem" for years--can't get them to imagine any audience but me, which is understandable, since in reality I AM their main audience, even though I'm always trying to make them pretend that they're writing for someone else to give them practice with real, nonacademic or at least real, non-Ms. Peabody Teacher audiences.)

It's kind of touching too how each group, when "teaching," makes such an effort to involve the whole class in interactive stuff. All I had to say was, "Well, you might not want to stick with straight lecturing, because you all know how boring that is!" and I only had to say it once. It obviously RESONATED for them. (It also made me realize that the whole "repetition and emphasis" thing regarding instructions flies out the window when something just hits home for them. In other words, sometimes I have to repeat a bloody instruction a gazillion times, and even then they still don't always seem to hear it or apply it. When I say something that just makes immediate sense to them, however, suddenly they aren't deaf or daydreaming--I say it once and they've got it.)

Another kind of miraculous thing going on here: they are actually taking responsibility for their membership in the group. Not all, and not always well, but even the relative non-participants (slackers) seem more plugged-in and aware of the hazards of procrastination or missed classes. And it's not just me they have to say "sorry" to--it's several other people, their own peers.

Some other strong points of this exercise: they are showing off some pretty decent media skills. We've seen 3 really nice Power Point presentations so far, and one guy (son of Lonnie Hass in Math) put together a video of himself acting in a mock game show! He played the part of the host and the contestants, and spliced it all digitally together so that he's on the screen with himself in every scene (dressed differently, depending on how dumb or not-dumb the contestants were).

This is getting long--more later, maybe. Oh, one last thing: I'm still worried about the "coverage issue." Specifically, I worry that this exercise takes so bloody long that we're not getting other things done (especially writing!). In the future I might somehow integrate more writing into the whole thing, and I'd possibly turn it into an entire unit in itself.

Anumlik.

2002-10-28T06:23:00.000-08:00

How many of you used the formative assessment? I haven't looked at my results yet--too scared. But also some of my students were having trouble getting logged on, so I said I would leave it available through the middle of this week.

2002-10-27T21:03:00.000-08:00

This blog is facing the same challenges a variety of blogs face--non-use. Blogs are definitely a challenge to our time-management, information-management skills.

2002-10-15T11:26:00.000-07:00

I want to praise Cindy for a while. She already explained some of her inclass work (10/7/02 if you want to track it down), and on a different blog we share, she explained another really effective activity: presenting students with questions about the text/course, then revolving the leadership/recording duties within small groups so that each person has to take an active leading and recording role.

Hope that does your activity justice, Cindy. I was just lamenting on the other blog that I "know" about many of these effective classroom techniques, but I seem to not deploy them. I just keep falling back on: "okay, let's discuss." These kinds of structured activities sound effective!! Gotta make myself do more!!

2002-10-10T11:00:00.000-07:00

Ineke,

I'm pretty sure that, when you click the right-side "Post" button, your message will be saved but not published. Only when you click "Post & Publish" will your message be viewable on our actual blog site.

As for the left-side yellowish "Posts" button next to the Team icon: I believe that just allows you to switch what viewing mode you're in. It doesn't actually affect your entires. If you want to be in the usual edit mode, viewing and making entries to the blog, you click "Posts." If you want to view or manage team members, you click "Team." And so on. It just switches views.

Hope that helps.
Cindy

2002-10-08T12:28:00.000-07:00

Betsy, I've finally signed on to the PBL Blog. Some blogging help needed by this novice. Would someone tell me when to use "post" and when to use "post & publish"? When should I use the yellow "posts" button that sits next to the team icon? Can I save? Does this work like a chat room or?
Ineke

2002-10-07T11:31:00.000-07:00

Yeah, those are good questions (and our own "problem" to solve, I guess!). I did virtually no correction that first time around--some of them seemed so nervous and funny about getting up in front of the class, I didn't have the heart (at least, not during the actual "teaching"). I wound up sometimes adding a few additional comments about whatever piece was being presented, and always asked a question or two to be sure that everyone in the group could respond at least reasonably, but I didn't actually correct anything said.

Next time I would be more involved in the planning stage, I think. That is, as each group is doing their summary and then planning how to teach the piece, I'd listen in more and offer more direction. (I was very hands-off this first time. It's hard to know sometimes how much to barge, sidle, or otherwise join in on group work. I always feel like I'm just interupting the flow of their discussion, unless they specifically ask for help or seem to be just sitting there doing nothing.)

I guess it depends on exactly what is being "taught" too. This week I'll have each group develop their own claims about some fiction they read--I'll ask them to present and support one or several debatable assertions about a given chunk of the text in order to help the rest of the class understand it better, understand it in a new way, and prompt argument. Very different from the last version of this project, really, where actual "mis-teaching" was more of a concern.

Anyway, it'll be interesting.

Hey, this is nice. I'm getting some of my prep done while just blabbing on this blog!

2002-10-07T08:21:00.000-07:00

I am trying a teach exercise similar to Cindy's next week. And I do agree that the process is worth the inaccuracies--I mean, I'm not teaching brain surgery, so no one will DIE if they are a bit off (we're reading some approaches to writing summary). AND yet, how do we teach them to read accurately? How much did you intervene to correct, Cindy? Any one else? I mean, if we take the joy out of it, it's shot anyway--how can we help them find the balance between being accurrate and careful, and having fun, making the learning pleasurable? I'm trying to do it--no answers, though.

2002-10-06T13:29:00.000-07:00

I think we've entered one of the slushy parts of the semester--the thrill is gone, no holiday in sight, tests mounting, colds going around. . . Not an excuse for students being underprepared; but a reason. Add to that: 2:00 on a Friday = the pits.

I had my 110s teach each other some essays a couple weeks back. It was interesting. Fairly successful. And very time-consuming. Each group was assigned one essay; they had to first summarize it in their blogs, then devise a way to teach the essay's central claims to the rest of the class. Their presentations were decent and inventive (if not always 100% accurate in their accountings of the material). It was touching how they attempted to involve the whole class and avoid lecture--little PBL-converts in the making! Everyone in the class then had to summarize *all* of the essays they had been "taught." I was surprised at how many of them enjoyed the whole project. I'm planning to try something similar again later this week. I think it's like other PBL activities in that it helps develop collaboration and problem-solving skills which may be transportable out of the classroom, though the downside is the accuracy or coverage thing again.

Holy cow, Jo; you've got FIVE this semester? Didn't realize. (Is one of those 189?) Good idea--having the class talk about what an A, B, C, D mean. Think I'll steal it.

More later. Thanks for the links Betsy.

2002-10-04T14:55:00.000-07:00

Hi, all.

I had a terrible class yesterday!!! Students were unprepared, (Actually, 8 were very well prepared, 6 were under-prepared, three were absent, and the final six were not prepared). Therefore, the small group work wouldn't work. I gave them a quiz and sent them away. I felt pretty bad--I knew they weren't entirely feeling obligated to each other--again, my fault I think for too much time in the computer lab too early. I've had lots of one-on-one time with them, which is great, I know them, but they only feel accountable to me (and then only sort of) rather than to each other. I need to figure out how to get a balance early enough in the semester so I know them, they feel committed to their groups, AND they've had enough lab/library time to do research. (I think I need to teach five days a week for 10 weeks--oh, brilliant!) HELP!!!!

2002-10-04T11:22:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Just to let you know I have signed on. I will share my use of PBL in my 120 classes soon--

Louise

2002-10-04T06:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, I managed to get back on. Betsy, ignore my plea for help.

I've been using PBL in 110. Originally, I had been scheduled for only one section, the night class. But now I have two. My group at night is smaller and seems to be coming together better--fewer absences might account for some of that.

Before I turned their first papers (from assignments I had them design) back, we did a little project on just what an A, B, C, etc. would look like. I was hoping to avoid the "How did I lose 15 points" conversations. We'll see if that helped.

For the second assignment, I went back to the ideas the classes generated at the beginning, tossed out a few ideas I saw as workable for the second project, and then wrote up the two most students wanted. That was this week.

The real fun should come on the next project, the annotated bibliography. The groups will be responsible for choosing, refining, researching and reporting.

Thanks for the links. I have to find time to read a book Eunice gave me, make Clara's Halloween costume, work on the FEC subcommittee, and so on, and so on. Of course, I also have five classes to teach--minor detail.

2002-10-01T17:58:00.000-07:00

Because I know you don't have enough to do and read right now:

Just wanted to send a link describing 25 or so web articles about PBL—mainly classroom successes.

And here is a link about some of the disadvantages of a PBL approach. The article offers some ways of dealing with these disadvantages. (Main issue—coverage, just as several in our group have discussed.) Be sure to follow the "assessment" link on this site if you are still concerned about that issue.

2002-10-01T17:36:00.000-07:00

Hi, guys,

Sorry to ask you in and then be absent. . . Glad Kevin answered the basic questions. Everyone in the group has been invited in. Whether or not they join us is optional. I was just wondering how the PBL stuff is going. Here's what I'm finding: I had thought I would be doing PBL in my 110 class and not as much in my 358 class, and as it turns out, it's the opposite. I *think* I would call what's happening in my 110 Project-based Learning. While I try to get them sharing info on writing, etc. in groups, that isn't happening any more than in a regular 110 section, I'm pretty sure, because I know most of our teachers are pretty sold on active learning strategies. But in the 358 class, the students are doing about a problem a week--and I have (sort of--not perfectly) figured ut how to frame some of the issues we're dealing with as problems. The students are working very, very, hard in that class, and mostly w/o complaint. No so of my first year students who are all over the place--some working very hard, others, who knows? I spent too much time in the computer lab and undermined group dynamics, I think. (They are becoming search wizards, though, on the upside.) So basically, I'd say my results are mixed. What are others finding?

N

2002-09-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

Post puts the message "on hold". Post and publish sends it to the server and publishes it on the web. While I am here, let me plug my weblog, where I just entered a link to George Lucas's Education Foundation--I think he supports problem-based learning.

2002-09-30T06:54:00.000-07:00

Why did I get a little edit button?

2002-09-30T06:53:00.000-07:00

That was surprisingly easy. What shall we discuss? What's the difference between Post and Post & Publish?

2002-09-29T22:02:00.000-07:00

whoever agrees to sign up, I'm guessing. Hi Cindy and Betsy.

2002-09-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

Hey--I'm signed in!

Betsy, will the rest of the PBL group be on this blog?