Week of April 24: Personal Projects begin . . .

Many years ago, when my husband, Tony, was the science teacher at Miquon, he did something that he called an Independent Science Project with the fifth and sixth graders. It was essentially self-selected and was meant to be done at home. His definition of “science” was very broad — I think rightly — so that the actual projects spanned an extremely wide range of activity. Students were expected to keep a journal that described what they were doing, what they were learning, and what kinds of problems they had to solve. For some students, this was a great success, and for others it was an endless opportunity for procrastination, last-minute hasty effort, and disappointment.  Since specialists see students only twice a week (and sometimes just once if we are closed for a holiday or in-service), it was very hard for Tony to keep the procrastinators on track.  At some point, after hearing him voice his frustration about collecting, reading, and responding to the student journals in a timely and helpful way, I suggested that it might get moved into the students’ home classroom. He agreed that daily oversight would be better for the students that needed it,  so the Independent Science Project was reborn as the Personal Project.

Over the years, it’s gone through many evolutionary changes, but it’s essentially the same in its intent: we are giving students time to create or explore something new or to go deeper into an interest that they already have. We place tremendous value on supporting students’ interests, and this is one of the times in which they can be truly self-directed and fully in control of their work.

The first step, after they choose a topic and clear it with family and teachers, is to do a three-source inquiry that is meant to broaden their understanding of what they have chosen. It may lead them to change their topic completely, to narrow or enlarge it, or to affirm that they are going to like what they have selected. The sources might be websites, videos, books or magazines, and/or interviews. They write up a summary of the notes they have taken from the three sources and comment on how it has (or has not) affected their interest and their plans.

The next step is creating a written plan that lays out in some detail what they intend to do through the three weeks that the project runs. Mapping out the days, the times, and the specific goals will help them stay on track and, if necessary, make some adjustments to their working time or their anticipated outcome. We remind students that they will be doing some kind of presentation at the end of the three weeks. Keeping that in mind as they work will enable them to do such things as take photos of the doghouse they are building as it gradually comes together instead of just telling us about each stage.

This year, as always, we have a delightfully-varied collection of topics. Students’ choices include: composing music, cooking of several kinds, researching basketball and improving their own skills, dog training, photography, choreographing a trapeze routine, doing several kinds of art projects, learning to use a piece of software, and tracking imaginary investments in the stock market. We should have some very interesting presentations when all of this comes to an end later in May!

 

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