Hello everyone out there!
Today I am in Federal Way, Washington.
I have been having a productive time. Many aha's and lights going on in people's minds, including mine. One perennial question perhaps worth pursuing here is "What is the difference between a project and a unit or a theme?"
so... today's topics for review:
1. The difference between projects and units? 2. The role of the teacher Since yesterday's interesting in-service event I have been struggling with one or two new approaches to answering this question. I'd be curious to know what teachers think of the following: In a thematic unit the teacher tends to direct operations whereas in a project the teacher takes on more of a guidance role. For example in relation to time. In a unit the teacher tends to plan the amount of time to be spent on the study and tends also to sequence the parts. In a project on the other hand the overall length of the study may be a matter for negotiation with the children and there need be no prescribed order for learning about different aspects of the topic. Each child may learn in a sequence which makes sense to him or her and can start with his or her interest. To put it another way, each child can get to choose his/her own starting point for their way into learning more about the topic.
Information about the topic is conceived of as a web of connections between subtopics rather than a flow chart with a temporal sequence leading from one subtopic to another.
The only sequence the teacher needs to plan is that of the work typical of the three successive phases of the project, and the schedule of field work opportunities, site visits and visits of experts to the classroom. The order of these key events may or may not cause the children to become interested in some subtopics in a particular sequence.
The example we referred to in thinking about this was a study of insects. In a unit the teacher may sequence the study of certain subtopics week by week. e.g.:
...or something like this.
In a project the teacher is more likely to encourage each child to follow up on what interested him or her most about insects after the initial field work in Phase 2 (setting up a vivarium, hearing a bee keeper or a pest control officer talking about their work).
Question: What would happen if each child chose something from each of the categories of information in the first week? Answer: A gradual elaboration of the children's knowledge could take place over several weeks. During this time there could be some quite interesting connections made by the children between the different strands of knowledge involved in the study.
Question: How do the children know what other children are investigating and finding out?
Answer: Through the teacher and the children reflecting back to the group all of the work that is going on. This can be done through class discussion sessions and through display of children's work on the classroom walls.
Question: How could the teacher keep track of the different strands of the investigation if they were all going on at once?
Answer: She could make a note of which children were involved in each area of study and how their investigations were progressing. These records could be made on the large scale topic web on chart paper on the classroom wall. Each entry would include names and dates and be situated on the web in the appropriate area. Collections of work (representations of various kinds) could be sorted day by day and displayed on different bulletin boards for all to refer to as the project evolved.
In this scenario the children would be able to stay with their strand of inquiry for longer and become class experts in relation to the information they were particularly interested in. Each child could link what they were learning about to the work of other children as this was made known to the class (through class discussion and display of children's work).
On the subject of sequence, I have also seen thematic units begin with definitions. These are often provided by the teacher. This seems to me like explaining the punch-line of a joke before telling the joke, just so the listener will understand it. The problem is that this process spoils the effect of the joke. Once a child has reviewed their experience and personal knowledge of their neighborhood in the first phase of a project the definition of a 'community' will make a great deal of sense and the children can work on the refining the definition for themselves... collecting examples of what is and is not 'a community.'
Another Example: Topic 'Food': Once children have found out some things about food, what kinds there are, where it comes from, how it is prepared, good food and bad food, what it does for your body... then is quite time enough to offer them the cultural definition of the food groups. They will then be quite interested in the reasons for this classification.
2. The role of the teacher in a project:
A guide: the teacher helps children decide on their interest and on how to pursue it. S/he makes suggestions, offers alternative choices, helps with planning, and implementing plans... (Does it make sense to have all the children doing the same work if their interests are different?)
An orchestrator: brings out the work of some of the members of the group at different times and fades the work of others into the background, all with an ear on the whole effect, the development of the unity and coherence of the composition. (Does it make sense to display several examples of the same piece of work or to have children share their work in a class discussion if they have all done the same things?)
Head of a research team: plans an investigation with team members all contributing in different ways and on different fronts to what is being learned by the whole group. (Does it make sense to have the members of the team all researching the same kinds of things? ...at the same time? Wouldn't this seriously limit the amount and types of information the team could find out about? Yet all members of the team need to be kept in touch with the work of the other members and in the end reporting on the work in the third phase of the project is collaborative.)
Just some thoughts...
***
The discussion has been very quiet this week...
I am leaving my report of the people who recently sent us introductions till next week. Meanwhile please do introduce yourselves with a brief paragraph so we can know what kinds of experience and interests members of this group might have.
Have a good week! ...and keep sending your ideas and reflections on any aspect of project work you are concerned with.
(Mar 18 '96)