Kindergarteners can get into technology too!!!

In this video, titled: “Five-Year-Olds Pilot Their Own Project Learning”, we follow a Kindergarten class in Alabama as they learn using project-based learning and technology. The school is a primary school that teaches 3-5 year old children. There is a SmartBoard a some classroom computers in the classroom and available to the students. The video goes over many different ways technology in incorporated into the classroom, as well as project based learning. The video goes over all content areas, reading, writing, math, science and social studies. There are several teachers shown in the video and it looks like a lot of their learning was done in a small group setting. The main task in this video was a unit on Brazil, however there are several other projects going on in the video that demonstrate project-based learning and technology. You can find the video here: http://www.edutopia.org/kindergarten-project-based-learning-video.

The grade level this video focused on was Kindergarten, however I think these lessons shown in the video are appropriate for a K-2 classroom. The video showed how project based learning can be done throughout all the content areas, Math, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies. The students got to explore topics that were interesting to them. At the beginning of the video the students wanted to explore Brazil, they used technology (SmartBoard) to view Brazil on a map and they talked about how large it is, they even researched it on the internet to get more information on the country they are so curious about! At another part of the video the students used technology in the form of a Microphone to share a story about themselves, then the class votes about whose story to write and draw about.

There were several learning experiences the students and teachers were doing in this video. One of the experiences that was shown in the video was when their class pet died and the class decided to have a funeral for the praying mantis. They created a tombstone for the pet, they also wrote speeches to say at the funeral, the students even created invitations for the praying mantis’ funeral. They used the SmartBoard to keep track of what they have done for the funeral. The teacher used this interest that the students had in organizing a funeral for their class pet to teach all subjects, math, reading, writing, science, and social studies. The students create an interest and the teacher helped them facilitate their learning. Because this is a Kindergarten class, the teacher guides the class a bit more than an upper grade, but the students fostered a curiosity and then did research to gain more information.

Since there were several tasks addressed in this video, I’m just going to focus on one project. The Project I chose to focus on for the Brazil project part of the video. There are several Engaged Learning Indicators that this video was strong in. This video is challenging, the students were asked to research and create something based on what they find interesting, in this case it was Brazil. Another strong indicator was Authentic. The students participated in real-life scenarios and they participated in adult/professional roles. The task was Student-Directed; the students were interested in learning about Brazil. The task was also Multidisciplinary, where the students learning about Brazil spanned across their curriculum. The student role of Producer was a strong indicator of Engaged Learning. The students produced a “real-life” trip to Brazil and they even visited an airplane and then recreated what they saw for their “flight” the Brazil. Because this is a younger grade level, the teacher roles were present more in this project. Two strong indicators of Engaged Learning under Teacher Roles were present in this project, Facilitator and Guide. The teacher in this task was a facilitator because she facilitates discussion on Brazil, but she allows the students to really talk and decide what they are going to learn about. The teacher was a Guide in this task because she helped the students with their project without telling them what to do, she was a guide and a mediator for the kids. Another indicator that was strong was the teacher role as Co-learner/Co-investigator. One part of the video show a teacher researching something with the kids on the SmartBoard. She was willing to explore outside of what she knew and she wasn’t afraid to lead her class in researching what they want to know about Brazil. The last strong indicator of Engaged Learning that I observed in this video was Performance-based assessment. The students created a trip to Brazil complete with ticket takers, passports, pilots and airport security. This was a great real life connection to taking a trip to Brazil!

There were some indicators that I were understood, but not found. The first indicator was the Standards-Based indicator. Because the curriculum was mentioned and teaching across the curriculum, I understood that there were standards that are being followed, however they were not mentioned in the video. The second indicator was understood but not found was the Collaborative indicator. I understood collaboration among the students was going on because in order to complete this project they have to work together, although this collaboration was not highlighted in this video. The student role of the students as Explorers I understood that the students decided on which country to decide on, however from other parts of the video, I understood that the students decide what they learn.

There were three indicators, however, that I did not see in the project. The student role of Teacher was not found in this project. I know it must be difficult to have Kindergarteners as teachers, but I think that they would make great teachers to other Kindergarteners. They could teach the others about their expertise. An example would be, the boys who created the airplane could teach the others what they did to create it and why. The last two indicators that could be strengthened were under the assessment component of Engaged Learning. They are Seamless ongoing assessment and Generative assessment. The video did not show this assessment part of the project. The teacher could go around to the students and give them feedback on their project as they are working on it. I’m sure the teacher was doing this behind the scenes, because this is something we do all the time in our classrooms, but it would have been nice to see it done in the video.

I think that this project is pretty authentic. I don’t think is as authentic as the “Kids invest in Funds” video. It would be difficult to find a project that is as good. Since there were a few indicators not seen in this project, I believe that it is authentic. It could be more authentic if the project included more assessment. That is where the Brazil project was lacking, in its assessment.

This project is academically rigorous. Higher order thinking is involved because the students are creating something. They had a curiosity about Brazil, and they did the research to find out more about it. When the boys were creating their airplane for their trip to Brazil, they recalled a trip to see a real life airplane, and used that information to drive what they created. The students were able to analyze what they saw and learned and apply it to their “real-life” scenario. On Blooms Taxonomy, this project falls on the highest level of thinking, creating. The video wasn’t clear on which standards this project was following, but I know that there was definite Engaged Learning going on with this project.

On a scale of 1-10, I think that the students were at a 10 for motivation and excitement. Because they were able to choose what they wanted to learn about and created a real life scenario of a trip to Brazil, they had an invested interest in what they were learning.

Technology was crucial to this project. With Kindergarteners, it is difficult to teach them how to look up things in an encyclopedia, so the internet here has become a great research tool for the Kindergarteners to use to gain more information about Brazil. Technology was also used to show the students what Brazil looks like. I think that it would be possible for the students to complete this project without technology, but it would not be as engaging or exciting for the students. I think that the use of technology in the Brazil project shows students how important technology is to us and it is a great beginning to a lifelong use of technology. I don’t think this video does anything extraordinary with technology that will inspire other to use it, however it shows that it’s a necessity in the classroom, for all grades and ages. Technology could have been used a bit more in this project. The student could have created a PhotoStory movie or a PowerPoint (using Scholastic Keys) of what they have learned about Brazil. I know that with the little ones it’s difficult to envision using technology, but because they are such a young age, I think that it is the best time to begin using technology since that is where education is shifting towards!

I would say this project’s LoTi level is 4B, Integration (Routine). The reason I decided the LoTi level is 4B is because while watching the video I got a sense that technology was being used in a routine manner, that it was used the same way they teacher always uses technology. Technology (via the internet and SmartBoard) help provide the students with rich context for understanding, however technology did not go beyond the classroom, as described in the Expansion (5^th) LoTi level.

I think this would be a good professional learning model for teachers and administrators. This video show the importance of performance based learning and how engaged the children are when they are in the learning process. The teacher in the video talks about how excited the kids were and how into their learning they get when they get to choose what they want to learn about. Something as simple as letting the kids vote on whose story they want to write about is a great example of empowering the students to take control of their learning! The only reservation that I may have about using this video as a professional learning model is that it does not emphasize the use of technology as much as I think it should have. It’s a great video for modeling performance-based learning, but it could use more technology.

This was a great experience for me. It was fun watching and sorting through many of the videos on Edutopia.org. Some videos were great for modeling performance-based lessons or projects, however there wasn’t technology involved, so they weren’t appropriate for this assignment. Watching these videos, even the one’s without technology gave me lots of great ideas for beginning my Engaged Learning project. You see how meaningful engaged learning is for the classroom and for our students. We want our students to be excited and motivated to learn, and watching these videos shows how easy it can be to create this type of learning environment. These videos even motivate me to change the way I do some of my lessons! This website and these videos are great resources for teachers to gain ideas and motivation to help their students learn!