Reading Reflection #3

Problem vs. Project-Based Learning

           I really enjoyed reading about the fundamental differences between project and problem based learning approaches and how each of them are woven in and out of place-based learning. This class is actually the first within which I have had the pleasure of studying the place-based learning approach. I've had quite a bit of experience with both project and problem-based approaches, however the continued exposure does help to solidify the fluency with which I practice them both. And through self-reflection, I do incorporate elements of place-based learning, however unknowingly. Realizing that there is actually a name and research behind this approach to teaching is very exciting to me. I have the distinct pleasure of being madly in-love with the community within which I live and teach. I have always wanted to live and work in Athens, GA- even before I knew I wanted to be a teacher. There is a rich history that lives in Athens. The University of Georgia was founded here back in 1785 and people have been coming here to expand the lens by which they view the world ever since. There is art and music here. There is love and passion for: others, learning, and learning about others. The two callings of being a teacher and living here in Athens collided into my life around the same time about 5 years ago, and I had no idea at the time, the purposeful and meaningful direction my life would soon take. Having the opportunity to learn about these important and effective learning approaches has unleashed countless ideas for my own classroom. As a second grade teacher at an in-town public elementary school in a big university town, I have a unique and diverse population of students. Mostly it is split in half. Half of my students are upper-middle class and from highly educated parents who are artists, academics, and entrepreneurs, some being two or all three of these roles at once. The other half is of a lower socioeconomic status, mostly living in government subsidized housing projects. Now the issue of race is not always clear-cut, but a definite and obvious trend exists. The lower class students are black and the upper-middles are most often white. Now of course, this isn't always the case, but in my experience, it is about 97% of the time. Why? It's so painstakingly obvious, even to seven and eight year olds. They make friends with one another easily but don't often play together outside of school. Strong friendships are formed and then seem to fizzle by middle school because like-kind attracts like-kind, despite our best efforts to mix, mix, mix! 

                Part of our second grade curriculum is to teach about the Civil Rights movement in Georgia, using historical figures like Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and Jackie Robinson. These individuals led fascinating lives and did important work and we analyze important relational and cultural shifts that occurred in our society as a result of their struggles and efforts to impart change. These same struggles and efforts occurred within our own city during the civil rights movement, and even to people who attended our very school! Through reading more about place-based learning, I am discovering ways I can bring this content to life for my students and allow them to create products that will benefit the entire community and help to bridge a racial divide that still exists even today. Project ideas I have had within this particular unit are publishing a book for our media center library that can be checked out by students and community members, publishing a digital storybook timeline in the form of a website that is essentially a digital archive of stories from people who attended Chase Street before, during, and after integration. Some problems that I think will arise as a result of their project work are: How can we learn from the mistakes of our ancestors and improve race relations today and in the future? How can we tell other people's stories with respect, consideration and empathy? Of course, I am excited to see what problems my students discover on their own as I encourage them to be problem finders and not just problem solvers. 

Project Idea #2 - A Place-Based Learning Project

Discovering Our Place in the Past 

A Diary of Chase Street School During the Civil Rights Movement in Athens, GA

Initial Design: This project is going to be designed around an existing second grade social studies unit on The Civil Rights Movement in Georgia. Typically, we teach our students about important events and people that helped to orchestrate the critical changes that took place in our society during the 1950s and 60s, especially within the southern states. The school is Chase Street Elementary, an urban public elementary school in Clarke County, GA. I have decided to modify this existing unit to include a place-based learning project of creating a scrapbook documenting accounts from the Civil Rights Movement in our hometown of Athens, GA. Students will collect their information through researching, interviewing, and documenting accounts of people who were alive during the 1950s and 60s and lived in Athens at the time. Originally, my project idea was to cast a wide-net and focus on documenting stories of the Civil Rights Movement within our town as a whole. As a university town, our city boasts a rich history full of important personal narratives about the integration of not only the public school system, but the University of Georgia as well. However, after further consideration, I decided that focusing our storytelling to the integration of our exact school was definitely the way to go. Chase Street School is rapidly approaching its centenarian and also boasts a wonderfully rich and extensive history. 

How Learning Environment is Applied to Teaching Situation: Luckily, place-based learning is already at work to an extent in my existing social studies curriculum mandated for me to teach to my second graders. Our entire year is dedicated to studying the geography, history, and culture of our home state, Georgia. In the spring, we study the Civil Rights Movement in Georgia, along with key influential people like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Several weeks ago, Online Athens released a short film/mini-documentary interviewing some Athenians in regards to their experiences during the Civil Rights Movement. Fast forward several weeks and I am finding myself wrapping up a Memoir Project in our writing block where we spent some time interviewing an adult in our life and retelling a story from their childhood. My students did incredible work. It dawned on me that I could extend this particular skill further into our Civil Rights unit in the spring and that is how the idea for the Diary of Chase Street School During the Civil Rights Movement was born. 

Objectives and Timeline: The final products will be both a digital and hardcopy scrapbook or journal that will be shared with the school and broader community. I am envisioning a timeline format, where personal narratives attached to a particular date are recounted, photographs are shared and annotated, and maybe even the inclusion of recorded video interviews. There is already a large amount of interest surrounding the history of our school. Namely, random citizens will stop in to "take a look inside" their old school. Each person has many stories to tell about their time at Chase Street School. Parents of former students have since started a website to help document the school's history, but so far, no class has added much to it or done anything like what I am proposing to do in focusing on the Civil Rights Movement. My intentions would be for this project to take about four weeks. 

Activities:

Week 1: This week will be spent asking important questions and writing them down. Who do we know that we could interview? Who can we enlist the support of for gathering people who would be willing to share their stories? How can we get the word out? What important questions should we ask the people of the Athens Civil Rights Era? I hope to spend this week brainstorming ideas, writing down our questions, our plan of action for interviews, etc. Also, we will decide together what we want our final product to look like and who we want to share it with. 

Week 2: I hope this week would be spent primarily doing the field research. Ideally, I would be able to have special guest visitors to our classroom (through reaching out to parents and community contacts) each day to share their stories while my students fill in story planners, take notes, record interviews, etc. Students would take on the roles of journalist/archivist/historian. 

Week 3: I see this week being spent writing drafts of all the stories and artifacts we plan to include in our final scrapbook/timeline project and revising and editing as needed. 

Week 4: The final week would be spent publishing the stories in a digital format, printing hard copies of stories and photographs and putting finishing touches on both the digital and hardcopy versions of our timeline scrapbook. Students would also spend time this week creating media that would advertise our final product to the community. 

Resources and Materials: Besides pen, paper, computers, and an internet connection, humans are the primary resource for this place-based learning project. My plan is to first reach out to parents and school family to request contacts of older adults who were alive and attending Chase Street during the 1940s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. I would hope to have at least two very different but good accounts of what life was like at Chase Street before the school was integrated and then several stories from the 60s and 70s which were the years just before and during integration. I hope that as the word gets out, more and more people will want to come and share their stories with us. I hope to enlist the entire second grade's help with this project so that we can recruit as many accounts and stories as we can with the hopes of sharing an important part of our school's past.