Problem Based Learning
Problem Based Learning Project
Unit: Ways to be an admirable citizen.
Persistent Issue: Citizens feeling a need for improvement in their community.
Central Question: What are ways that we can make our community a better place to live and so its members feel satisfied?
Lesson 1: Grabber and Introduction
Introductory Grabber: To begin the lesson, we will begin by showing a video that depicts the unit we are currently teaching. This video demonstrates some of the ideas children have on what we can do as a society to collectively make the world a better place. Not only does this video introduce our driving question, but it also gets the students thinking about the overall project that they will be working on. This video can also help transition to a more in-depth discussion in regards to the driving question. The grabber capitalizes on the emotion filled responses that the children in the video provided, because of this the overall feel of the grabber video is very authentic.
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDdrwen96qw
Lecture: Instructor explains why the video was shown and what the video represents. Informs the students the answer to the question in a way that they can understand it. Students take notes based off of the information they are given.
Culminating Activity
INTERVIEWS:
Students will conduct two different interviews:
Take home interview for a family member asking specific questions. (recorded on video)
Interviewing a citizen of our community in our own classroom asking open-ended questions about the topic being discussed (ex: bringing someone’s grandma into the classroom and holding a “panel” type situation).
Take home interview questions for a family member:
What makes you a good person?
What does “being a good citizen” mean to you? What does it mean to other members of your family?
What would you recommend we do in order to make the world a better place?
TO GET FULL CREDIT:
label the person you interviewed (mom, dad, brother, sister, etc), the date of the interview, and place of the interview.
Make sure the sound and visibility of the video are clear.
Introduce yourself and state why you are conducting this interview.
Do not interrupt the person who is being interviewed; be polite.
Thank them for letting you take their time to interview them.
(see rubric for more specific details)
The students have one week to complete this task. On the second day of the project, the principal’s grandmother, a citizen of our community, will come into the classroom and sit at the front of the room. Students are required to ask her at least 5 (total) questions that reflect the overall driving question. This resembles a “panel”. The students will write down notes based off of what she answers. This part of the project requires participation and respect. Be polite and respectful to the guest. Take this seriously because it is a part of your overall grade. After the interviews have been conducted by each student individually, at the students’ pods (group of 4 desks) they will team up and discuss their answers from their separate interviews. Then, they will work together to pick out the three most important or effective answers to the driving question based on their results of the interviews from each person in their group. Once they have their conclusions, they will present their results to the class. This is a simple presentation that can include at least one of the following: powerpoint, poster, video, or creating a scene to represent their results (acting out what they think being a good citizen is or means). (see rubric for requirements)
Rubric
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=CustomizeTemplateDownloadFile&
Look here to follow exactly what to do in order to receive full credit.