Taking time to reflect after a project gets finished can help
your students feel accomplished and make the learning stick. Thinking ahead to
how you will wrap up your project will help culminate activities to celebration
the journey, and remind learners of what they have gained along the way. After
reflection time, it may be a good time to think about rewarding the students
with a celebration or praise of some sort. Celebrating a project once it is
accomplished is very important to show students their hard work paid off and
that you are proud of their performance. A celebration can be big or small, and
you will be able to decide by scaling it to the size of the project. Showing
student’s work and putting on a party is a great way to celebrate learning and
build your schools identity as a place where kids learn through projects. It is
important to remember that all celebrations should not be all seriousness. Make
sure that project celebrations include the following:
-An opportunity to look back one more time
-Acknowledgement of how hard work and commitment contributed
to the success of the project and a culture of excellence at your school.
-Appreciation for those who helped.
-A display of learning
-An opportunity to showcase projects to colleagues,
administrators, parents and others in your learning community.
To ensure that everyone is included and having fun, you
could have students create and present their own categories and awards, the
sillier the better.
I like how you focused on project celebrations because I think theyre so important after both teachers and students have put such hard work and time into their projects. I also learned how important it is to think ahead because it makes things so much easier to plan when you do. The celebrations will be much more successfull if theyre connected and planned out.
ReplyDeleteI think it is very important when leading such a huge project to think about who you will wrap up the project. Reflection is so beneficial to students. They may not realize it, but reflection is forcing them to think critically about their project and what they learned. After the reflection is over celebrating the project is also a great idea for wrapping up. However, we want students to know we aren't celebrating the project being over, but rather the work and learning that has been done.
ReplyDeleteAs you said in your first sentence, reflection is a key component in making content stick for students! I love your idea of creating silly awards for the student's creation, I can see this being really fun for them!
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