motivating students through project work adam stępiński

Motivating students through project work

Adam Stępiński


A few words about myself …

http://www.voki.com/mywebsite.php

www.voki.com


Try to make

your project different

from students’

school daily routine


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 ...



If we link school / subject matters with ethic issues and students’ everyday experiences, this will ...



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



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



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


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://topdocumentary

films.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

http://sunrise651.edu.glogster.com/what-do-they-like/


www.myebook.com


www.surveymonkey.com/


http://digitalhistory.unl.edu/


The Exhibit tool

http://simile.mit.edu/exhibit/

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


The Timeline tool

http://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


www.spiderscribe.net

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/spider/index.html


www.teachertraining

videos.com/


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,

19. inform parents about the project and see how to involve them,


20. mix pupils from partner schools in pairs or in mixed groups to ensure that each pupil has at least one partner,

21. integrate the project into the curriculum by doing the work during teaching hours so that it is a natural contribution from pupils (and not perceived as extra work).


May your projects be motivational,

inspirational, engagiging,

creative and funny!

Thank you for your attention

Adam [email protected]

motivating students through project work adam stępiński

Documents

students autonomy

commotivating students

project workwhat

project workcommunication

project different

interdisciplinary project

project workhttp

project worktry