Week 5 . Learning through projects

And we are already in week 5 !   It  seems  that  we  have  done a lot, but it is good to realize that we still have much more to discover and learn. We began the week by reading articles about Project Based Learning ( PBL ) and alternative assessment. When I started reading the article   "LessTeaching and more Learning " by Susan Gaer I remembered why we are here, why we are taking this course. We are learning, growing, getting ready to prepare a project that we will prove with our students. We are having  an online course, focused on a project This is the way we are learning and this is the way our students should learn, too.

                                                  

I  really  believe  that students have different possibilities to learn; they learn through games, music, poetry, they may reinforce difficult structures  with the use of technology, they get their knowledge in and outside the classroom; and the largely  proven and more traditional  methodologies can also  provide good results if we apply them considering the students, their needs, and making learning significant for them. However, the instance in which they really feel involed,  more motivated and willing to keep on learning is when  they work with their peers,  when the do hands-on activities,  when they are allowed to make mistakes, because they are part of their learning and when they see that all the differentl skills are needed  to support their work. Here is, then,  when PBL gains relevance and  we feel we need to include it in our classes. This leads us, then, to alternative assessment.

                                                        

As children have different abilities and they learn in different ways, we need to choose the appropriate assessment for the specific task that they are doing.  As it is mentioned in the article : " Practical Ideas on Alternative Assessment for ESL students " by JO-Ellen Tannenbaum, Montgomery County Public Schools ,  " Consideration is giving to the learning styles, language proficiencies, cultural and educational backgrounds and levels of students. " through the use of alternative assessment. We just need to be aware of the different possbilities and apply them in our classes. In my next post this week, I will talk about webquests and rubrics.