Digital+Divas

How do I ensure that students meet standards—and meet enough of them to make the effort worthwhile—in open-ended activities and projects?


 * Concerns || Solutions ||
 * Meeting the standards with open-ended activities and projects || Rubrics and checklists ||
 * Making sure standards and projects align || Careful planning and editing ||
 * Presenting the project || Reflections and feedback ||
 * Off target || Questioning skills ||

Which challenges will be the most difficult for you to overcome? What steps could you take to implement some of the solutions you are considering?


 * Challenges || Solutions ||
 * allowing the students to take charge || assigning roles and time management projects ||
 * getting parents involved and on-board with project based learning and assessments used || brochure, effective communication, provide for parents tools for assessing students ||
 * allowing students more freedom || assigning roles and time management projects ||
 * time consuming/planning on teacher's part ||  ||

What are some ways that you can integrate the use of Curriculum-Framing Questions into your classroom and student projects?


 * Create questions around the content you are covering
 * Allow students to create questions about their interests in the content
 * Model questioning in small group and one-on-one interactions to encourage students to question each other
 * Release control and let students answer broad questions in a way that interests them
 * Pose reflection questions
 * Be consistent with questioning and do not give up or take over their thinking
 * Questioning can be used to assess prior knowledge, what is being learned, and what has been learned after the project through assessments, surveys, reflections, products, and discussions.

How can you teach students the skills they need to perform higher-order thinking when they create projects? What types of questions, prompts, and scaffolds can you use to encourage students to think deeply and not simply copy-and-paste answers?


 * Model higher-order thinking and be consistent with questioning
 * Progress questioning from simpler to more in depth throughout the project or discussion
 * Pose questions that don't have one specific answer
 * Encourage students to question each other while working on projects or in groups
 * Connect the questions and content to your students' interests
 * Encourage them to express their ideas not just what they think we want to hear