Kathy

Project Ideas I will be looking at two projects one for my classroom and one for a group of students that I work on the Future Problem Solving Program with. Our class unit will be investigating Fresh Water as this links with our Environmental Education topics this year and with the Murray impacting on local community it is a relevent issue for our students. Our Future Problem Solving Program incorporates fairy tales for the junior division and I want to use Jack and the Beanstalk as a base. I am also looking for online visual interactive tools more suited for Junior Primary students that links with the Visual Ranking Tools

I can see that you are well under way and the ideas are forming. Steve

I found it difficult to find a simple concept for my class to be able to use as many have lower level literacy skills being in Year One. In the end I created more of a mind map of the flora and fauna connections. I have decided that this is something we could do with our buddy class so the Year 6 students can assist them. I also thought this would be a useful way of working with the visual ranking tool as the older students could assist them with identifying the words and help with ranking. I will keep the map in there but will have to see how independent the students are going to be using the tool. The tool will certainly help the students reinforce the concepts and word lists associated with our topic. I still have a lot of questions about how to utilise the tools with junior primary students. I know you shouldn't use a tool if it doesn't fit but I like the way they do create discussion. They have created discussion between the participants here so it would certainly create discussion with students. I do like the fact that planning this way pushes you to look at where it all fits together and the plans help you to make sure that you are covering different ways of thinking and assessment. I also like the fact the projects push the thinking back onto the students as it gives them the ownership of the topic and would assist in guiding their own learning.