Assessing Projects from Greg Callaham on Vimeo.
Documenting and assessing Progressive Practices
High Tech Middle (HTM) is currently immersed in a bit of an upheaval of its teaching practices, especially in regards to what Project Based Learning (PBL) looks like, and the structures around it. Those in the know call this process “Projectopia.”
In brief, Projectopia started as a question regarding HTM’s traditional adherence to grade- and discipline-specific structures for projects with students. The question was, why do we do it this way? Is it actually the best way to teach our students and do meaningful work with them? Or would breaking down those barriers (by making projects multi-grade level and outside of traditional disciplinary distinctions) enable our teachers to create more meaningful projects that reached more students? And how can we know the answer to that question if we don’t try something a little crazy?
And so we ended up dedicating a 9-week block of school time to a “Projectopia” that consisted of classes determined by Advisory (multi-grade level groups with no connection to specific academic discipline work or traditional grades), full three-hour afternoons dedicated to Projectopia-focused time, and all-staff agreement to try push even stronger student voice and choice in the process. From there, teachers were free to build out whatever projects they wanted to do, structured however they wanted, to retain a sense of teacher autonomy and creative power.
Coming up with the structure of Projectopia involved a number of all-staff discussions, workshops, surveys, debates, and more - a story for another time - but now that it has begun, it seems like that might have been the easy part. Because the question that we have to answer now is: how are we really going to know if the grand experiment that Projectopia represents actually works? And with so much variation between projects, how can we pull out best practices, learn from our mistakes, and objectively determine if Projectopia should become a regular part of HTM teaching and learning culture?
That’s where this Put it into Practice comes in.
(click the link below to download the full reflection)
In brief, Projectopia started as a question regarding HTM’s traditional adherence to grade- and discipline-specific structures for projects with students. The question was, why do we do it this way? Is it actually the best way to teach our students and do meaningful work with them? Or would breaking down those barriers (by making projects multi-grade level and outside of traditional disciplinary distinctions) enable our teachers to create more meaningful projects that reached more students? And how can we know the answer to that question if we don’t try something a little crazy?
And so we ended up dedicating a 9-week block of school time to a “Projectopia” that consisted of classes determined by Advisory (multi-grade level groups with no connection to specific academic discipline work or traditional grades), full three-hour afternoons dedicated to Projectopia-focused time, and all-staff agreement to try push even stronger student voice and choice in the process. From there, teachers were free to build out whatever projects they wanted to do, structured however they wanted, to retain a sense of teacher autonomy and creative power.
Coming up with the structure of Projectopia involved a number of all-staff discussions, workshops, surveys, debates, and more - a story for another time - but now that it has begun, it seems like that might have been the easy part. Because the question that we have to answer now is: how are we really going to know if the grand experiment that Projectopia represents actually works? And with so much variation between projects, how can we pull out best practices, learn from our mistakes, and objectively determine if Projectopia should become a regular part of HTM teaching and learning culture?
That’s where this Put it into Practice comes in.
(click the link below to download the full reflection)
callaham_progressivelearningpitprevisedfinal.pdf | |
File Size: | 432 kb |
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