I think I have hit the first road block, and I am not sure
how I will manage it just yet. I realized today that if I want the students to do
a good job with the United States and Israeli Law, I am going to have to give
them more time in class to do it. My original design was to split my 70 minute
period roughly 50/20 Gemara/everything else, but while the students are
learning the Gemara and the Rishonim nicely they are not moving fast enough on
the other side to produce quality work in the time frame I want to spend on
this unit. In fact, when I switch to the 20, I have some groups who ask if they
can review the Gemara to make sure they can read it properly.
(Don’t think they are abnormal for opting to do Gemara review
instead of individual research. I have each student create an MP3 recording of themselves
reading the Gemara, which I grade for reading/translation/comprehension. To
make sure they aren’t reading Artscroll on the recording I require a signed
note from a parent or another student in my class that they witnessed the
recording from a clean Gemara. I do this because my first rule of PBL was no
examinations, but I need to assess skills somehow.)
The way I see it I have three options: First, allow lesser
quality work than I initially hoped to receive. I really don’t like this option
but it might be the easiest. Second, take more time from Gemara learning for the
State law research. I am torn about this option: on the one hand it is very
hard for me to give more time from learning Torah to study general studies, but
on the other hand this research should cause them to enjoy the and remember the
Torah learning more. Third, spend longer on this sugya than I originally planned.
This option gets more complicated with the Yomim Noraim break that I don’t want
interrupting a sugya.
I have not figured it out yet, but this is the first hiccup.
Any thoughts out there?
I think your best option is number 2. Assuming you would not be shifting the tide for too many classes, you want students to produce the best work possible. I didn't do the PBL work you are doing this year, however when I taught this stuff last year I spent time on many different secular cases regarding secular law and the laws themselves. I can only share with you that over the summer two different students e-mailed me cases and commented on them based off what we had learned. Ultimately, you want each student to produce their best work; the work that they would be most proud of.
ReplyDeleteAgain, awesome that you are doing this.
I'd be more inclined toward #3. A basic premise of PBL is depth over breadth. Especially the first time through, I'd give it the time it needs to create a quality product, even if it means slowing the pace and running through the yamim noraim. You can reflect on it afterward and make adjustments for the next time if necessary. Better that way than have the kids produce something they can't be 100% proud of or confuse the tafel with the ikkar.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible to change your design of 50/20? Maybe spend a full day with gemara and give them the that evening and daytime to work on their research. This still might mean that you have to do less gemara, in order for them to review and get down the gemara. However, then they will come in the next day, fully ready and mentally prepared to spend the entire time on the secular view. You can do every other day, or 2 days gemara, 2 days research, Friday for either or. Maybe get a sense from the students where they want their focus to be, if they really want to, “review the Gemara to make sure they can read it properly”, then maybe shift the design to accommodate that need and have less research.
ReplyDeleteAnother option could be to have half of them do research and the other half do the gemara and then have them teach their information to the others.
Also, I do agree with my colleague, RJG, that in the end if they come out with 80% of the sugya, instead of 100%, but the other 20% is filled with modern day application that will make the 80% feel like 100%!
This is better than America's Got Talent! Keep it comin'
First of all- this is all great stuff! The blog, the comments, the projects. Great job Aaron!
ReplyDeletePlease cross post your blogs in the PBL group on hschinuch! It's a way of getting responses from other teachers who are either trying out PBL or at least are interested in it.
Two thoughts:
1) Similar to Avi- I don't know know what your original plan was but I was thinking that you may want to "spoonfeed" them more of the American law side of the project. Instead of having them do research and find the relevant law on their own, you could give them the relevant cases and ask them to integrate it into what they learned from the sugya. This could save the time it takes to find relevant sources. No doubt, the process of that research is valuable but I think time considerations are important. Another valuable alternative might be bringing or skyping in a lawyer to give a "shiur" on the American law side of things. This gets them the information they need in an efficient way and also exposes them to the idea of going to people as outside experts- something that I think fits nicely in the PBL framework.
2) When I attempted a PBL unit last year one of my biggest mistakes (among many others) was letting the unit take too long. In my experience even advanced high school students run out of steam at a certain point and want to start something new. The original excitement of great essential questions and a new way of learning wears off and student's are wondering when they are moving on. Especially if you have sukkot break in between, I could see students not wanting to come back to a project after a two week break.