motivating students through project work

Motivating students through project work

Adam Stępiński


What do we need to bear in mind?

http://www.dvolver.com/live/movies-588855


http://dvolver.com


Boosting students’ engagement


Developing learners’

autonomy


Autonomous student

motivated 29% responsible 19%

self-confident 16%open-minded 13%

creative 7%


Autonomous teacher

supporting 29%flexible 23%

innovative 21%enthusiastic 10%

reflective 8%


What are the teachers like in your school?


What are the students like in your school?


What would you change in your

school?


- What does learner’s autonomy mean for teachers?


- What does it mean for students?


- How can we promote and develop student’s autonomy in our projects?


- What can it be limited by?


Inter-disciplinary

projects


Unfinished sentences

The big number of learning areas / school subjects in an interdisciplinary project will result in ...



An autonomous environment will lead to ...



Forming specialised teams (groups of students) working on specified fields and acting as experts in that particular area will benefit because ...


Unfinished sentences If we link school /

subject matters with ethic issues and students’ everyday experiences, this will ...


Unfinished sentences Students’ words ‘We

are responsible for all the things we do / don’t do” mean that ...


Unfinished sentences Feeling the freedom

from the constraints of the curriculum will lead to ...


Unfinished sentences When students face a

challenge and they will successfully cope with it, they will ...



A greater possibility of modification of the instructional methodologies incorporated in the project (including visual, auditory, tactile and kinesthetic) will result in …


Developing students' key competencies


communication in the mother tongue , communication in foreign languages, mathematical competence and basic

competences in science and technology , digital competence, learning to learn, social and civic competences, sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, cultural awareness and expression.


How often do you use a computer?


Do you have this at home?


New subjects in the future school

Which would be useful to learn about?


I would like to become after graduation a person...


What sort of skills and competencies do students want for themselves?

Are they really important?


Structure of an interdisciplinary

project


Clues from the comic stripshttp://pixton.com/pl/comic/8zlb51vm/new http://pixton.com/pl/comic/f1mrwcq0/new http://pixton.com/pl/comic/r7e9rh2j/new http://pixton.com/pl/comic/61tid5g5/new http://pixton.com/pl/comic/hfv9eb5q/new http://pixton.com/pl/comic/1za446dz/new

http://pixton.com/pl/comic/8zlb51vm/new

http://pixton.com/pl/comic/f1mrwcq0/new

http://pixton.com/pl/comic/r7e9rh2j/new


http://pixton.com


Balancing between the educational and enteraining

dimensions of the activity


Use of media resources

and attractive means of

communication


'Living Darfur' by Mattafix

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQwCCm-H-sU

'Zombie' by the Cranberries

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ejga4kJUts


IRIN Films http://www.irinnews.org/filmtv.aspx

'Facing History and Ourselves'

http://www.facinghistory.org/


http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/

www.missioneurope.eu


Some e- tools to motivate

students

www.pixton.com


http://dfilm.com http://voicethread.com


http://prezi.com/ http://edu.glogster.com


www.myebook.com


www.surveymonkey.com/


http://digitalhistory.unl.edu/


The Exhibit toolhttp://simile.mit.edu/exhibit/

An example:http://www.simile-widgets.org/exhibit/examples/presidents/presidents.html


The Timeline toolhttp://simile.mit.edu/timeline

An example:http://simile.mit.edu/timeline/examples/jfk/jfk.html


We need to ‘pump up’ students’

motivation all the time


Ice breakers from

the Modules

http://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/inspiration/

modules.htm


My beloved ice breakers


Unfinished statements

Would you rather…or…

TV interview


Some ideas for motivating projects incorporating History, Social Studies

and Geography

http://www.spicynodes.org/a/4ec51a9da2dd98004d7325c39639c525


www.spicynodes.org


Some clues to consider while working on an interdisciplinary project:

1. when you decide on the topic, make sure that the project will stimulate your students to act creatively,

2. (in my opinion) it’s better when a project refers to different subjects and fields of learning,

3. make sure that the topic, activities, ways of communication are interesting for your students,


4. while formulating the topic and deciding on the content:

-try to make them simple and catchy, -try to refer them to your students’ life and experiences, -don’t concentrate too much on the educational aspects

(the project should attract, not scary off) 5. give your students as much autonomy as possible, 6. your project should make a change (ways of work,

ways of thinking, gaining new skills and abilities, establishing new relations),


7. allow them to decide on the electronic media and technology they would like to use in the project,

8. make sure that the project will let your students brainstorm ideas and discover solutions by original thinking processes,

9. try to match all the things you do within your project with students’ interests,


10. vary activities balancing carefully between the educational and the enjoyable ones,

11. divide your work into smaller chunks (stages),

12. try to follow some order: from specifics to more general matters or the other way round,

13. try to incorporate songs, documentaries, movies (the participants belong to ‘the media generation’),


14. let them use various computer applications (your students are also called ‘the Google generation’),

15. make sure that all the participants work on/create something together (not just add their materials),

16. you can appoint your students as experts in their national issues (social matters, history etc.) while your partners will have a similar role in case of the issues of their countries,


17. evalute your activities (e.g. on a special forum on the project site),

18. make sure your students create something of value


May your projects be

motivational, inspirational, engagiging,

creative and funny!

motivating students through project work

Documents

students autonomy

commotivating students

project workwhat

project workcommunication

project workhttp

interdisciplinary project

project workhow

project workdo