Taking learning beyond traditional textbooks
Have you ever heard students moan and groan whenever you ask them to pull out their textbook? Or maybe you even hear your own child talk about how boring school is every single day.
Well here is a little fun fact…we as teachers can change that boring culture of the classroom. One way to do this is through what’s called Project Based Learning. In this approach, students are challenged with solving real world problems while developing cross curriculum skills while working collaboratively with a group. Watch the video below for a further explanation:
As you saw in the video, this approach starts by the teacher posing a guiding question. This question could have students solving a problem or answering it in some sort of creative way. There are many routes you could take this project in your own classroom.
One way I’ve thought about using PBL in my own classroom is with a social studies lesson. I teach 4th grade social studies which focuses on Texas history. Anything historical can get boring if you go the ‘ole textbook route and read the information the whole time. Learning is completely enhanced and changed for the better when students can take ownership of it in this project approach. I have thought about posing this question to my students: “What was life like for the early Native American tribes in Texas?”
My plan for my student groups would be for them to choose one tribe out of a list I would provide for them, and they would create blog posts. What?! Students writing blog posts during class? You read that right! The students would research what life was like in terms of what they ate, how they hunted, where they lived, how they worshipped, and more. They would then turn this information into daily life posts to update on what a day in the life of their tribe was like.
I have even considered looking into my students using ChatGPT to formulate their posts into certain formats (even crazier, right?). This would give each student group the chance to read about the life of the Native American tribes without having to get it straight from a textbook. It’s more modernized in a way for them to understand and connect with the learning.
Again, I have not tried this out yet, but that is one simple way I personally am trying to take my classroom from being boring to something exciting for the betterment of my students.
Hopefully soon I can give an update on how it went when I give it a try.
