Below are some general ideas for school projects (final projects and on-going ones students may work on throughout the year) that teachers may use to formulate their own. The project ideas may be shaped and edited to the needs and requirements of each classroom and can be large-scale or short-term.
Student Blog
A good way for students to have a collection of their own thoughts and writings is to have them blog. Setting up their own blog gives students a lot of agency and creative freedom as to what the blog may look like as well as the material it may contain. Teachers can use student blogs in a variety of different ways such as recording student checkpoints, facilitating student discussion through the comment sections, encouraging metacognitive writing through the blog format, and teaching students digital literacy.
Resource links
Teaching With Blogs, from ReadWriteThink (link to webpage)
Teacher Tips for Blogging Projects (link to pdf)
Blog About a Teacher Who Used Blog Projects in Her Classroom (link to webpage)
Link to Research n Ramblings, a Blog I Created Specifically for School (link to webpage)
Crash Course for Edublog (link to YouTube video)
video essay
Video essays are able to take place of physical essays in the sense that they have the same kind of structure: introduction, body paragraphs with evidenced claims and transitions in between, conclusion. Arguably, video essays also take more time than written ones do because of the technological requirements. Teachers may have to take more time giving crash course tutorials and structural tips in order for students to know what they are doing, but the payoff is worth it. Students are often more capable than teachers think they are and can surprise both adults and their peers with their creativity and willingness to learn, granted the subject seems enjoyable and interesting. Video essays can be a way to keep students interested. Teachers may show students the abundance of ways video essays may be conducted and ask students to give their literary analyses in this format. The video essay takes advantage of the digital age and people’s want to consume the most easily accessible forms of information. Video essays are not forms of entertainment, but a way to pass on ideas and argue certain points and opinions just like written essays. A video essay project still needs a written component such as a script, but the medium gives students more freedom to put a creative spin on the classic essay.
resource links
Criteria for a Good Video Essay (link to YouTube video)
“On the Form of the Video Essay” by M. Freeman (link to webpage)
Survey Project
Survey projects are a great way to teach students a valuable lesson in how statistics work, how people formulate opinions, and allow students to explore a question or topic they may be interested in but unfamiliar with. Assigning a survey project can be either large scale or small scale. Students can be assigned to conduct a survey for their own class or another class period, conduct a survey for teachers to do, or conduct a survey with a community partner.
Resource links
Statistics Survey Project (link to pdf)
“Turn a Good Survey Into a Great Survey” from Snap Surveys (link to webpage)
Design a Survey, from Science Buddies (link to webpage)
20 percent project/genius hour
“GOOGLE engineers are encouraged to take 20 percent of their time to work on something company-related that interests them personally. This means that if you have a great idea, you always have time to run with it”
(Mediratta & Bick, 2007)
Students are often told what to do. In fact, most of class time is spent following a set agenda, taking notes with a test in mind, or performing to a rubric or a set of guidelines. However, some believe that people work better when allows to participate in something they are passionate about. This is why Google allows their employees time in their workday to dedicate themselves to a passion project, and their workers are happy to do so. Similarly, students who are involved in something they enjoy could help them be more engaged in class and happy to be at school. Taking 20% of class time could look like taking a few minutes (10-15) during class one day a week to let students work on their passion projects. Because of the nature of the 20% strategy, teachers have the option to either have the students create something in relation to class content such as writing their own short story of the first chapter of a novel, creating a podcast about a class novel, or creating a comic depicting a scene in a play read in class. Alternatively, teachers could allow students to create whatever they would like to as long as it can be done in class (eg. students ought not bring their entire art supply kit or 3D printing machine).
resource links
The Google Way: Give Engineers Room, from NY Times (link to webpage)
The 20% Project in Education (link to webpage)
20% Project Ideas (link to pdf)
Research and Ramblings 