Banned Books Project

Our PBL Project is based on the banning of books. We chose this topic because we believe that it will engage the students in a discussion based on morality, factual evidence, and their own personal opinions. By asking the question, "should certain books be banned in high school curriculums and/or libraries?" we can then ask the question "why?" This in turn will push the students to  back up their answers.

1) Driving Question (12.5 points)

Should certain books be banned in high school curriculums and/or libraries?

• Does the DQ warrant in-depth study? Yes, because it is an issue that has no “right” answer, and it holds several possible viewpoints that the students can take into their debate.

• Is the DQ an authentic and relevant issue/problem for my students? Yes, because high school students can be directly affected by issues affecting high school curriculums or libraries.

• Is there more than one plausible solution to the DQ? Yes, students could easily find different solutions to the question and back them up and argue for them. We chose this question to promote possible different answers/argument

• Does the DQ provide opportunities for students to evaluate, analyze, present, and defend their solutions? It does because the question is presented in an open ended way that allows for multiple positions to defend by the students in their discussions. To introduce the question, we would give some examples of popular books that have been banned, why they were banned, common reasons why books are banned, and pros and cons of banning books in general.

2) Grabber (22.5 points)

9 Books from Your Childhood that are banned ~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQq3MOwMTvA

• Does the story, article, video, announcement, or role play other resource hook the learner into asking more questions about the topic?

• This video grabs the students’ attention by relating the topic back directly to them. The video itself reflects back to our childhood and outlines the ridiculous reasons popular children’s books were banned.

• Does the grabber capitalize on novelty and / or high emotion situations?

• This grabber, in particular capitalizes on novelty situations as well as high emotion situations. Although the idea of banned books is not a new idea or a novel occurrence, the banning of books is out of the ordinary and questionable. To ban a book means to take away the knowledge that book has to offer; this is how it capitalizes on emotional situations. Books can be seen as memories or mementos of a certain time period of one’s life. For example: Where The Wild Things Are was banned for being too rebellious for children. It was feared that this book was “too much” for children to handle. However, as a kid, we remember reading this book almost every night with my own mother. This in turn came as a shock to us when I found out that this book had been banned from elementary school libraries in some US cities.

• Does the grabber establish authenticity & relevance?

• The grabber does establish authenticity and relevance to our situation. By creating a video that is both intellectual and humorous the students becomes engaged in watching the video and actually listen to what the video is saying. By establishing this relevance to the situation at hand, it allows for the teacher to go right into the lesson planned while the idea is fresh in the students minds.

• Make sure to explain how this grabber would be used.

• This grabber will be used as an introduction to the driving question. Although we want the students to be unbiased, we must get the attention of them and we want them thinking about their favorite books, or if their school ever banned a book they might’ve read. The question we want them to be left thinking is, “was the reasoning behind the ban logical?”

3) Culminating Activity (65 points)

• How is the activity authentic?
  -It’s directly relating to the high school students curriculum. The ban on books reflects the school’s moral standings as well as the students’ ability to learn about certain ideas. This activity will test the student’s power to defend their opinion in addition to setting up a clear cohesive argument.

• Does the activity provide students with the opportunity to present and defend problem solution? Yes, after each separate group comes up with either their pros or cons (depending on which side the group was assigned), they can then come together to weigh the two for each individual book as well as books as a whole. Their solution will depend on whether there are more pros or cons to banning each individual book as well as books as a whole.

• Does the activity require student collaboration? The activity requires collaboration because individual groups will work together to gather either pros or cons to banning specific books. Then, the different groups will bring their pros and cons to the table in order to measure which each book has more of. At the end, all the students should be able to come together to judge whether or not the feel as though books in general should have the potential to be banned.

• How will I judge what students have learned from the activity?

• You will likely need to create a rubric for this step and example materials.