Project-Based Learning

 Project-Based Learning and Collaboration, Discussion, and Argumentation

Young Author’s Project - Write a Book!

Each year, Rafe has his students complete a year-long project.  Students must write their own, original book--with their own characters, their own plot, and their own setting!  Students work independently, with each other in editing sessions, and get one-on-one support from their teacher, Rafe.  He doesn’t know what kind of book students will write, but he helps guide them by asking smart questions, allowing students to help each other in small editing groups, and does not prescribe many limitations on what the book they write must be about.  In the end, Rafe allows his students to retain control of their own learning in a project-based learning space by also allowing students to collaborate, discuss and edit each other's writing.  Students are then able to construct their own knowledge, and develop deep knowledge.

“If a child writes that a character was scared, ask him, ‘How scared was he?  Was he as afraid as a balloon near a porcupine?’  Show the kids how much fun writing can be.  It’s a project after all, not an assignment.” (p.60).

“Most teachers set some ground rules about the subject matter of these stories--lines that students are not allowed to cross.  Some do not let their students write gory stories...The important thing is to be flexible and to use what you learn as you go forward...I give my students thirty- to forty-five-minute chunks of time two or three afternoons a week in which to write their books.  During each session, I meet with five or six children.  I ask each child to tell me what he is writing about.  He shows me what he has written.  This way, I can help him with grammar and spelling mistakes as the book is being written...From time to time, I divide the class into small groups of three or four children who share their stories and edit one another's writing.  This is good for all of us.  The editors learn about writing by helping others get better.  The writers get helpful advice  And I save time…Writing these books might be the only thing the children get to do with complete control--from the characters to the language to the plot twists…” (p.59-60)  

Here, Rafe uses guided improvisation, allowing the student to direct their own learning path while putting up guiderails in the form of questions and one-on-one attention (Sawyer, p.64).

Source:

Esquith, R. (2007). Writing. In Teach like your hair's on fire: The methods and madness inside room 56 (p. 58-61). New York, NY: Penguin Books.

Sawyer, R K. The Creative Classroom: Innovative Teaching for 21st-Century Learners. , 2019. Print.