A PBL Project

For years upon years teachers assign projects at the end of a unit for students to demonstrate knowledge and understanding. The project is about the unit. That's what I do with my kids. It's the tried and true way.

Then... I decided to change it up a bit.  I decided to make the unit about the project instead of the project about the unit.  It took some serious preparation on my part.

The kids were assigned to create a children's book on Greek Myths.  The duration of the project took one month, with each student responsible for one Greek Myth to convert into a children's book.  Then all would compile it into a larger book.  All of a sudden, the students saw a reason for reading The Odyssey, for learning how to determine point of view, how to describe characters through action and dialogue.  It completely eliminated the "Why do we need to read this?" or "Why do we need to learn this?".  There was a goal, to complete the book and everything that was taught or read was to help complete the project.  Along the way, they certainly learned all they needed to.   They had a great time making the book.

They have asked me to do another project like this again.  I am going to try to come up with another project for an "end of the year" project.

I realize it is different from the traditional approach, but sometimes, it's a good thing to break away from tradition.  If anything, you will learn whether it will work for your class.

I have put the short story project on my TPT store.



Cheers!

Ms. Bergin

Oh the Struggles...

Just one and a half weeks to Spring break. It cannot come soon enough! We are all dying for a break to just refresh and recharge for the final days of the year.

My class finished Romeo and Juliet today and  I am so happy.  It always seems a struggle to get through the play with the language!  We are working on projects in relations to  the play.  My kids are rewriting the ending of the play - what would ultimately have happened if all had gone according to the first plan the Friar made.

They are required to make a video either through goanimate or through toonboon and share their videos with one another. I am so excited to see the different endings they come up with!  This activity is definitely an activity that is keeping the students engaged during the last few days before break.  It seems difficult to get students to do their usual routine now that the weather is getting warmer, the end of the year is in sight, and spring break less than two weeks away. Time to spice things up!

How do YOU keep your students learning during the days leading up to spring break?

Cheers!
Ms. Bergin

Connecting the students to the world

Hey y'all!

I have been terrible at blogging this year!  I've just been too busy this year to keep up :(

In an effort to incorporate more informational text, I often have "Article of the Week" in which students read an article that I have printed for them and we discuss the current event the article is about.  Then I try to connect the article to the text we are reading - not always an easy feat I might add!

My 9th grade ELA team and I decided to take the AOW one step further and make it GLOBAL Article of the week (G-AOW).  This has to be one of the best ideas we've come up with.  Each month, we dedicate to a different continent and each student gets to choose a country within that continent.   Each week, my students are required to look up one article that falls underneath a specific topic - sports, hot topic, politics, arts/entertainment, science/medicine, etc.  Only one article per week, and if they chose a sports article the first week, they can't use another sports article for the rest of the month.  Since I teach ninth graders, we focus on annotating and creating a PPT of what we have learned.  Students are able to share what they learned by inputting 4 most interesting facts about their country in a Google Form and it is embedded into an interactive map that is then posted on my class webpage where students can check it out and see what current events are happening in countries they were not assigned.

The product is available in my store now!






Until next time...

Cheers!

Ms. Bergin

New Semester, New Kids!

Hey y'all!

I'm at the start of the new semester with a new crop of children to teach!  We are starting off the semester by learning how to annotate.  I developed an Annotation Guide, both in English AND Spanish due to the amount of ESL students I have in my class that know little to no English.  In addition, I created a rubric that goes along with the guide.

Some students are off to a fantastic start with annotation, and others need a little more assistance. I believe that learning annotation at the start will help the rest of the semester go smoothly in terms of reading a text that may be difficult (Odyssey, Romeo and Juliet, etc). 

Stop by my store between 1/27 and 1/30 and receive 10% discount on several items!
teacherspayteachers.com/store/colleen-bergin

Cheers!
Ms. Bergin 

Class Website

Hey y'all!

I've been so busy with prepping for second semester and my new crop of students and doing tons of research on PBL, rubrics, etc and building a class website.  (I LOVE google sites!!)

A class website can be so beneficial in helping students keep track of their due dates, get missing assignments if they were absent, obtain the reading if they can't bring the text home.  My students have Chromebooks that were issued to them, so it is super easy for me to upload assignments, readings, etc to the website and they just need to refer to the website to remain caught up.

Check out my website when you have a chance.  http://sites.google.com/a/ucps.k12.nc.us/english-i


If you do not have a class website, consider establishing one (can be extremely basic!) and it will help not only your students, but helps with teacher evaluation if you get rated on technology usage. Just make sure you keep it up to date.

Ms. Bergin

T'was the week before Christmas Break...

And all through the school students and teachers alike are anxiously awaiting for the final bell on Friday!

While I may still be relatively new at teaching, one thing I have learned with the week leading up to Winter Break is you can't really do your usual routine.  It more than likely won't work.  This is an ideal time to be a little more laid back and have fun with your lessons.  Continue to make them rigorous, but make them fun as well.  Your students will be forever grateful that you did!

Here are some suggestions to do with your class:

• Projects (Have the project due on Friday - all they do is present :))
• Have group work for each day - do jigsaw, gallery crawl, presentations, 
• Watch a movie of a text you just finished and have students compare text to the movie (Many school districts do not approve of movies, but if assignments that go along with it are rigorous and involve students comparing media to text and discussing differences, it is CC aligned!)
• Choice board - great for introducing a new unit in a fun way or or use a Choice board as a test and give students projects in the choice board that they can complete in the course of one or two days.

Keep in mind that it's not that students don't want to learn the week before a break, they just have other things occupying their minds that they are not as likely to be invested in their academics.  We just need to step up our lesson plans and make it interesting, fun, and engaging.

Cheers!

Ms. Bergin

The Nuggets of December

Hey y'all!

We are in the midst of the Holiday season!  One week left to Christmas break, or the more politically correct title, "Winter Break".  I cannot believe how fast time has flown.  It seems only the other day I had wrote on the blog, just to find out it was last month.  Oh boy, I truly need to step up on the blogging. :)  

My students have been working feverishly on their Romeo and Juliet projects, and I am so excited to see the final product on December 20th.  As I have mentioned in my previous post, there are three sets of projects - a movie, a newspaper, and an advertisement.  As I work with the students on their projects, I realize that  I truly love teaching best when students are working on projects, not doing basic run of the mill "old standard teaching".  Gone are the days where sitting in rows and kill and drill methods are effective. Kill and drill methods can be effective, in some aspect, but not for all.  Gone are the days where students are capable of sitting in desk and listening to lectures, doing cornell notes, whole class discussions, etc.  It's all about group work, collaboration, using laptops, and utilizing 21st century skills.

I have been doing intensive research into Project Based Learning, more commonly known as PBL.  An effective PBL classroom has the students choosing a project to do and the teacher revolves any mandatory mini lessons around the project.  For example, if a class decides to write a novel, the teacher can teach theme, characterization, point of view to assist them in creating their novel.  I am blown away by High Tech High, located in California.  They are truly an exemplar at PBL.  I can only hope that as I move towards PBL in my classroom, that I become as good as the teachers at High Tech High!

I have backed off on editing papers myself and started allowing my students to edit one another's papers.  It gives me my time back, and allows the students to learn from one another.  I developed a Critique packet that has several different methods of critiques, based on Ron Berger.  My students LOVE it. It gives them a chance to talk out where they're going with their papers, get (extremely honest) feedback on how to improve, what they do well on.  To students, they take to heart what their friends say, not necessarily what the teachers say.  This also teaches the 21st century skill of collaboration. Look for the packet on TPT, coming soon!

Happy Thursday!

Ms. Bergin