Project:- Myself
Learning through Projects was the prime goal of the academic year 2012-13.With various ideas, thoughts and knowledge about project based learning; we began planning for a project that covered various academic and 21st century skills. After brooding over many propositions, we finally embarked on a project that would compel the students to think about themselves, introspect and contemplate. Thus, we propelled ourselves for a project called ‘MYSELF’.
When we started with the planning, the Driving Question that was created was ‘Who Am I’?
This brought the necessity to have our Need to Knows. The list was unending and vast, but finally we short-listed few important ones that would help the student at grade 7 and 8.
It required rigorous planning, discussion and pooling of creative ideas.
A mind map was prepared to project our thought process and bring some clarity.
The mind map charted the roles of a student/individual to know his/her roles as a family member, student, friend, leader and citizen. The roles are wide and complex,therefore we tried to pick up the important aspects having immediacy with the understanding of the pupil.
Our list of Need to Knows is as follows:-
1. What is my role as a family member?
2. Who is my good friend? Am I a good friend?
3. How shall I choose a leader? How will my decision affect the society and the country?
4. How can I become a good leader?
5. What is my role as a citizen? What idea do I have about citizenship (rights and duties, RTI and RTE, traffic rules)?
6. How does my body function? How do I take care of my body’s organ system?
We planned to have a ‘Myself Portfolio’ as our Product. This Portfolio was to have sub-products revolving around the Driving Question and Need to Knows.
The Audience would be the parents and teachers of the students as well as the students from the other units.
Due to lack of expertise, we did not plan as to what content should be covered before the beginning of the project. It emerged as and when we delved into a topic. Yet, we knew that we had surely to cover the 21st century skills which included:
1. Communication
2. Creativity
3. Research
4. Presentation
5. Problem Solving-a step towards Critical Thinking
6. Collaboration
7. Group Dynamics ( inculcating ideas from Seven Habits)
8. Rigour
9. Relationship
10. Relevance
Our students too had very little voice and choice because the project began without complete planning. There was no scope for involving students in creating rubrics.
The planning of assessment also failed and though our sub-products were evaluated, formative assessments having self-assessment and peer feedback were missing.
The gallery walk which is considered an important stage of students’ voice and choice and refurbishing of the project was also left out.
The students were divided into heterogeneous groups. There were six groups having twelve to fifteen members. There were three groups of std. 8 and three groups of std.7
Inspite of all such down toners, our Myself journey began with the phrase, ‘Me and my Family’.
The Entry Event took place in AV-4, where we showed them the picture of a ‘Doughnut’. The students had to describe it in three to four sentences. A quick survey of their answers brought us to the conclusion that they majorly focused on the ‘hole’ of the doughnut and not its other features.
A discussion took place with the students that why such an observation happened and it was found that we are always anxious about what we lack rather than what we have.
The same applies with our family. Our expectation from the family is ever increasing and unending and thus we fail to acknowledge our family members, fail to be tolerant and empathetic with them.
The idea of ‘Hole’ versus ‘Whole’ was brought up.
The students were asked to prepare a grid where they had to enlist their reactions in various situations with their family members. If it was negative, they had to mention the reason and remediation for it and if positive, they had to write the reason which made them act in such a refined manner.
The discussion of the same took place in the groups and the students got an idea of how situations are common in the households and how it can be mitigated if handled with understanding and a sense of responsibility.
To elaborate the same thought, the students of std. 7 were asked to write a Diary Entry describing their feelings when they had a row or some argument with any of their family members, how they ended it and what they learned from it.
The students of std-8 wrote a story based on the same theme. Both these products were evaluated.
The next step was to move from family to society and the immediate relationship that comes to a student is a friend.
The students created a mind-map to portray the kind of friend they would like to have and what qualities they looked for in a friend. The students prepared beautiful mind-maps on chart papers. All the sub-products were to be made on one-fourth of the chart-paper.
The students were happy with their work but were flabbergasted when they were asked whether they have the same qualities in them to become a good friend. The question kept them thinking.
In the second part of the same topic, the students wrote an acrostic poem on their best friend.
During this process, we observed that students either found new friends or their relationship with their friends got better.
‘I as a Citizen of India’
Under this topic we discussed with the students the importance of having a Constitution. The students read the Preamble of our Constitution. Later, they were asked to create a Preamble for their own class. The students did not only come with relevant ideas but also presented it in unique and artistic manner.
As we recently had our Prefect Council Elections, we posed few questions to them like what were the criteria in their mind for selecting a leader, did they consider leader a friend or a friend a leader, did they choose a leader for their personal benefit or they actually voted for a leader after noticing their capabilities. Again the questions left them introspecting.
The students were asked therefore to make a mind-map to chalk out the qualities to look into for a good leader.
Later, to get a better understanding about who a leader can be and to pull them out from the notion of a leader being only a politician, we selected different personalities who excelled in their respective fields and were leading the society with their resourcefulness. The list was as follows:
1. Aung San Suu Kyi
2. Ratan Tata
3. Sudha Murthy
4. Ila Bhatt
5. Kalpana Chawla
6. Neil Armstrong
7. Azim Premji
8. Man Mohan Singh
9. A.P. J. Abdul Kalam
10. Hansa Mehta
11. Shreedhar Rajgopal
12. Sam Manekshaw
The students were asked to research about them- their childhood, their struggle, their motive and ambition, their success, their failure and what made them what they are or were.
Each pair in the group had to pick up two personalities and make a presentation. The students researched about them from the net or from the books in the library.
During the presentation, the students were asked questions that tested their understanding about their work and if not satisfactory, they were asked to redo it.
After the presentations, the students were asked to select any one personality, imagine themselves to be the same person and write a phenomenal incident that took place in the person’s life in first person narration. The students enjoyed owning Ratan Tata or Neil Armstrong.
To further the role as a citizen, we discussed with the students about RTI (Right to Information).
A session was held by Amar Iyer Sir in AV-4. He made presentations, narrated his own experiences, gave pamphlets and discussed the utility of this Act.
Next, we discussed RTE (Right to Education) wherein Ms. Sujata Pahalajani, the head of the TMS unit following this Act was called to brief us about its functioning.
To introduce the students to Traffic Rules, an introductory session was conducted by Shekhar Sir where the students came to know that traffic rules apply not only for road transport but for all the modes of transport.
A test of students was taken to check the students’ awareness on traffic signs and signals. As expected the result was not so satisfactory.
Therefore, we planned a Guest Lecture of Mr. Jayesh Shah, the traffic inspector to bring forth the benefits of following the traffic rules and the perils faced for not following them.
Later, the students of Std.8 made a comparative study of traffic rules of countries like Korea, Singapore, Brazil and China with India. They made models or presentations on chart paper.
Std.7 researched about the history of various modes of transport and the traffic rules followed by each mode. There presentations were in the form of model-making.
Our Cultural Function reflected all the three topics. The students wrote scripts to enact RTI, RTE and a street play on Traffic Rules.
A slogan poster on Traffic Awareness was made by the students. The rubrics were discussed with the students first and they were guided about the appearance of the poster. They had to create slogans on their own.
To our astonishment the students made very creative and artistic posters replete with content.
In order to inculcate character Education and to make our students realize how fortunate they are and that, they have some duty towards the less fortunate, we took them to Bedi primary school which is a Government run organization educating the children of that village. The students had prepared interactive games to play with them. They were asked to interview the students about their routine and study habits.
On reaching there, we were warmly welcomed. The students enjoyed this interaction. They clicked pictures and video graphed the entire trip to make an Audio-visual presentation.
They even wrote a report of their visit to Bedi. The Guest Lectures and such field visit provided authentic learning to the students.
The next phase was to connect the students with their body and its organ system.
A group having six students was given two diseases to explore and research. This covered their content in Biology. They made presentations and their presentations were judged by doctors who were specialists in the respective organ system and its diseases. A science faculty of the school was also a part of the judgement. The doctors too made their presentations and sorted out the queries of the students and the teachers.
To wrap up the entire project we had a segment as ‘All About Me’. The students had to highlight their strengths and future aspirations, beautify and ornament it. This was the cover page of their portfolio. The students were indeed joyous to present themselves with grandeur.
The students also prepared a page where the created a CD pouch. We decided to capture all the reminiscences of ‘Myself’ project in the CD that would rest in their portfolio.
Contents of the Portfolio were:-
1. Diary Writing-std. 7
2. Story Writing- Std.8
3. Mind Map on Friend
4. Acrostic Poem on Friend
5. Mind Map on Leader
6. Text Journal on Leader
7. Traffic Slogan Posters
8. A CD pouch having a CD of Myself memories
9. Report Writing/Reflective Journal on visit to Bedi Village
10. Cover Page- All About me –Reflection on their self, especially highlighting their strengths.
The last and final step was the exhibition. We decided to have it in two parts- A presentation and a Gallery Walk.
The presentation was created and held by the students. It projected the entire journey of ‘Myself’ project. During the presentation, we gave guidelines to the parents to ask relevant questions to the students during the Gallery Walk. At the Gallery Walk the students answered the questions posed by the parents that checked their understanding and belief in the project. Notice Boards and blackboards were decorated with all the 21st century skills that the students had exercised.
The project turned out to be lengthy and crossed its deadline. It was advised to break the project into two to avoid its multiplicity.
On perusal, the content covered was Diary Writing, Story Writing, Text Journal, Script Writing, Report Writing, lexical set for friend and leader, poster making, preamble of their own class and presentations on various topics of Biology and the same were evaluated.
When we started with the planning, the Driving Question that was created was ‘Who Am I’?
This brought the necessity to have our Need to Knows. The list was unending and vast, but finally we short-listed few important ones that would help the student at grade 7 and 8.
It required rigorous planning, discussion and pooling of creative ideas.
A mind map was prepared to project our thought process and bring some clarity.
The mind map charted the roles of a student/individual to know his/her roles as a family member, student, friend, leader and citizen. The roles are wide and complex,therefore we tried to pick up the important aspects having immediacy with the understanding of the pupil.
Our list of Need to Knows is as follows:-
1. What is my role as a family member?
2. Who is my good friend? Am I a good friend?
3. How shall I choose a leader? How will my decision affect the society and the country?
4. How can I become a good leader?
5. What is my role as a citizen? What idea do I have about citizenship (rights and duties, RTI and RTE, traffic rules)?
6. How does my body function? How do I take care of my body’s organ system?
We planned to have a ‘Myself Portfolio’ as our Product. This Portfolio was to have sub-products revolving around the Driving Question and Need to Knows.
The Audience would be the parents and teachers of the students as well as the students from the other units.
Due to lack of expertise, we did not plan as to what content should be covered before the beginning of the project. It emerged as and when we delved into a topic. Yet, we knew that we had surely to cover the 21st century skills which included:
1. Communication
2. Creativity
3. Research
4. Presentation
5. Problem Solving-a step towards Critical Thinking
6. Collaboration
7. Group Dynamics ( inculcating ideas from Seven Habits)
8. Rigour
9. Relationship
10. Relevance
Our students too had very little voice and choice because the project began without complete planning. There was no scope for involving students in creating rubrics.
The planning of assessment also failed and though our sub-products were evaluated, formative assessments having self-assessment and peer feedback were missing.
The gallery walk which is considered an important stage of students’ voice and choice and refurbishing of the project was also left out.
The students were divided into heterogeneous groups. There were six groups having twelve to fifteen members. There were three groups of std. 8 and three groups of std.7
Inspite of all such down toners, our Myself journey began with the phrase, ‘Me and my Family’.
The Entry Event took place in AV-4, where we showed them the picture of a ‘Doughnut’. The students had to describe it in three to four sentences. A quick survey of their answers brought us to the conclusion that they majorly focused on the ‘hole’ of the doughnut and not its other features.
A discussion took place with the students that why such an observation happened and it was found that we are always anxious about what we lack rather than what we have.
The same applies with our family. Our expectation from the family is ever increasing and unending and thus we fail to acknowledge our family members, fail to be tolerant and empathetic with them.
The idea of ‘Hole’ versus ‘Whole’ was brought up.
The students were asked to prepare a grid where they had to enlist their reactions in various situations with their family members. If it was negative, they had to mention the reason and remediation for it and if positive, they had to write the reason which made them act in such a refined manner.
The discussion of the same took place in the groups and the students got an idea of how situations are common in the households and how it can be mitigated if handled with understanding and a sense of responsibility.
To elaborate the same thought, the students of std. 7 were asked to write a Diary Entry describing their feelings when they had a row or some argument with any of their family members, how they ended it and what they learned from it.
The students of std-8 wrote a story based on the same theme. Both these products were evaluated.
The next step was to move from family to society and the immediate relationship that comes to a student is a friend.
The students created a mind-map to portray the kind of friend they would like to have and what qualities they looked for in a friend. The students prepared beautiful mind-maps on chart papers. All the sub-products were to be made on one-fourth of the chart-paper.
The students were happy with their work but were flabbergasted when they were asked whether they have the same qualities in them to become a good friend. The question kept them thinking.
In the second part of the same topic, the students wrote an acrostic poem on their best friend.
During this process, we observed that students either found new friends or their relationship with their friends got better.
‘I as a Citizen of India’
Under this topic we discussed with the students the importance of having a Constitution. The students read the Preamble of our Constitution. Later, they were asked to create a Preamble for their own class. The students did not only come with relevant ideas but also presented it in unique and artistic manner.
As we recently had our Prefect Council Elections, we posed few questions to them like what were the criteria in their mind for selecting a leader, did they consider leader a friend or a friend a leader, did they choose a leader for their personal benefit or they actually voted for a leader after noticing their capabilities. Again the questions left them introspecting.
The students were asked therefore to make a mind-map to chalk out the qualities to look into for a good leader.
Later, to get a better understanding about who a leader can be and to pull them out from the notion of a leader being only a politician, we selected different personalities who excelled in their respective fields and were leading the society with their resourcefulness. The list was as follows:
1. Aung San Suu Kyi
2. Ratan Tata
3. Sudha Murthy
4. Ila Bhatt
5. Kalpana Chawla
6. Neil Armstrong
7. Azim Premji
8. Man Mohan Singh
9. A.P. J. Abdul Kalam
10. Hansa Mehta
11. Shreedhar Rajgopal
12. Sam Manekshaw
The students were asked to research about them- their childhood, their struggle, their motive and ambition, their success, their failure and what made them what they are or were.
Each pair in the group had to pick up two personalities and make a presentation. The students researched about them from the net or from the books in the library.
During the presentation, the students were asked questions that tested their understanding about their work and if not satisfactory, they were asked to redo it.
After the presentations, the students were asked to select any one personality, imagine themselves to be the same person and write a phenomenal incident that took place in the person’s life in first person narration. The students enjoyed owning Ratan Tata or Neil Armstrong.
To further the role as a citizen, we discussed with the students about RTI (Right to Information).
A session was held by Amar Iyer Sir in AV-4. He made presentations, narrated his own experiences, gave pamphlets and discussed the utility of this Act.
Next, we discussed RTE (Right to Education) wherein Ms. Sujata Pahalajani, the head of the TMS unit following this Act was called to brief us about its functioning.
To introduce the students to Traffic Rules, an introductory session was conducted by Shekhar Sir where the students came to know that traffic rules apply not only for road transport but for all the modes of transport.
A test of students was taken to check the students’ awareness on traffic signs and signals. As expected the result was not so satisfactory.
Therefore, we planned a Guest Lecture of Mr. Jayesh Shah, the traffic inspector to bring forth the benefits of following the traffic rules and the perils faced for not following them.
Later, the students of Std.8 made a comparative study of traffic rules of countries like Korea, Singapore, Brazil and China with India. They made models or presentations on chart paper.
Std.7 researched about the history of various modes of transport and the traffic rules followed by each mode. There presentations were in the form of model-making.
Our Cultural Function reflected all the three topics. The students wrote scripts to enact RTI, RTE and a street play on Traffic Rules.
A slogan poster on Traffic Awareness was made by the students. The rubrics were discussed with the students first and they were guided about the appearance of the poster. They had to create slogans on their own.
To our astonishment the students made very creative and artistic posters replete with content.
In order to inculcate character Education and to make our students realize how fortunate they are and that, they have some duty towards the less fortunate, we took them to Bedi primary school which is a Government run organization educating the children of that village. The students had prepared interactive games to play with them. They were asked to interview the students about their routine and study habits.
On reaching there, we were warmly welcomed. The students enjoyed this interaction. They clicked pictures and video graphed the entire trip to make an Audio-visual presentation.
They even wrote a report of their visit to Bedi. The Guest Lectures and such field visit provided authentic learning to the students.
The next phase was to connect the students with their body and its organ system.
A group having six students was given two diseases to explore and research. This covered their content in Biology. They made presentations and their presentations were judged by doctors who were specialists in the respective organ system and its diseases. A science faculty of the school was also a part of the judgement. The doctors too made their presentations and sorted out the queries of the students and the teachers.
To wrap up the entire project we had a segment as ‘All About Me’. The students had to highlight their strengths and future aspirations, beautify and ornament it. This was the cover page of their portfolio. The students were indeed joyous to present themselves with grandeur.
The students also prepared a page where the created a CD pouch. We decided to capture all the reminiscences of ‘Myself’ project in the CD that would rest in their portfolio.
Contents of the Portfolio were:-
1. Diary Writing-std. 7
2. Story Writing- Std.8
3. Mind Map on Friend
4. Acrostic Poem on Friend
5. Mind Map on Leader
6. Text Journal on Leader
7. Traffic Slogan Posters
8. A CD pouch having a CD of Myself memories
9. Report Writing/Reflective Journal on visit to Bedi Village
10. Cover Page- All About me –Reflection on their self, especially highlighting their strengths.
The last and final step was the exhibition. We decided to have it in two parts- A presentation and a Gallery Walk.
The presentation was created and held by the students. It projected the entire journey of ‘Myself’ project. During the presentation, we gave guidelines to the parents to ask relevant questions to the students during the Gallery Walk. At the Gallery Walk the students answered the questions posed by the parents that checked their understanding and belief in the project. Notice Boards and blackboards were decorated with all the 21st century skills that the students had exercised.
The project turned out to be lengthy and crossed its deadline. It was advised to break the project into two to avoid its multiplicity.
On perusal, the content covered was Diary Writing, Story Writing, Text Journal, Script Writing, Report Writing, lexical set for friend and leader, poster making, preamble of their own class and presentations on various topics of Biology and the same were evaluated.