reading reflection 3

No teacher should begin planning a project without having the core concepts and processes in place. This is talked about in chapter three as "the big idea." Look at the teaching guides and curriculum standards for your subjects and ask: "What do these add up too?" You really want to look at what you want your students to get out of project.

We also need to think about how these projects will help students develop 21st-century. This involves thinking about the important skills, attitudes, and habits of mind projects might involve. Students should be challenged to "stretch their intellectual muscles." One way to make sure this happens is to follow Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.This focuses on the fact that kids remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create.

Today's learners need to be prepared for the world beyond school. This involves teaching 21st-century skills and literacies. This includes digital-age literacy, inventive thinking, effective communication, and high productivity. Literacy is defined as the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, and compute using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Today's learners need to be independent, aware, and productive citizens.

Chapter three lists eight essential learning functions. The first is ubiquity. This includes learning inside and outside the classroom, and all the time. This involves giving learners the tools to learn wherever they are and with whomever they want. The second function is deep learning. This means going beyond "filtered information. Higher order thinking is engaged when students have to "navigate and sort, organize, analyze, and make graphical representations in order to learn and express learning. Third is making things visible and discussable. This is as simple as " a picture is worth a thousand words." The fourth function is expressing ourselves, sharing ideas, and building a community. We need to find ways for students to use the Web to express their ideas and build society shared interests. The fifth is collaboration-teaching and learning with others. Projects naturally invite collaboration. Working well with others is essential in the real world. The sixth function is research. This is a necessary skill with 21st-centry projects. Help students organize what they need from the Web. Seventh is project management. This includes planning and organization. This helps students manage their time. Lastly is reflection and iteration. Ideas should be looked at from all sides and all points of view. 

All of the concepts in this chapter should be reflected in our projects. We should have the big idea in mind before we begin our projects. We need to think about how our projects are related to the real world and how we can get the students to acquire 21st-century skills and literacies. Our student will be using the Web and should know how to organize the information they find. We as teachers need to engage higher order thinking to engage our students so that a deeper learning environment is created.