What my kids are doing is soldiers diaries.. From different countries that they have chosen. Soldiers share their " Trench experience " And some of them have used that feeling of " Being locked " As in the lockdown.
LOOKING AT THE ABOVE, you may wonder what is a teacher asking the students to do ..AND how is it different than any creative project-based task?
it is different and that is because of the following reasons :
- it was conceived during the #Covid times Lockdown conditions
- it has been designed and led by the students
- the rubrics, checklist all set by the students, so much so that they decided the submission date and they looked at the extension that they wanted to give to the submission.
We worked on #covid times and lock down.we started with developing an understanding of the covid ,the history and geopolitical aspects to it ,the racism surrounding it and then looking at the lockdown.Incidentally,at that time we were to start the topic " why do nations go to war and why is peace keeping difficult.".. So we did start with that ,but didn't leave the #covid out of the lesson... During discussions with a resource person, a UN observer and our own prior knowledge,students started looking at world war 1,they developed a deeper engagement with the topic and as we talked about the trench warfare many of them drew parallels to the " locked in " period of the #covid times.
Very interesting explorations followed post that and we assigned roles to each student as a country representative. They researched and brought their information to class.
The summative ,I normally give with such an approach is an ongoing project ..which is research based and students are able to elaborate upon their learning in their different ways. So a journal it was decided, the students co crafted the rubric ,set the deadline and evaluated their own knowledge and understanding of the topic. We used seesaw as the tool to express their thoughts.
The zoom classes,parlayideas,and seesaw were very beneficial for this process of teaching and learning . The students were not only able to apply their choice and express their thoughts once, but at several occasions such opportunities were given to them to discuss, debate ,and write .These were the formatively assessed activities and were marked on the wizemen.
I am sharing this with you because after attending the PBL session with Suzie Boss earlier this year ,I had set the application of the same in my proposed action plan.
I am happy to say that I was able to advance in that direction very effectively and students ,ALMOST all of them have responded very very well.
