For the past several years our district has placed an emphasis on project/problem based learning as a lesson design to engage and empower learners. The very first year we were introduced to this lesson design the AP Language and Composition team here at CHS put together a very paltry attempt at a PBL based on the ideas of charity and humanitarian aid.
Learners read Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea and followed up with a PBL(ish) assessment. The premise: learners work for a small up-and-coming nonprofit organization (like Mortenson's) that was on the verge of going bankrupt. Put together a fundraising and advertising campaign for an organization of their choice (a real one, such as Falling Whistles or Nothing But Nets) that would raise as much money as possible with minimal to no money being spent. That first year was amazing. Learners created some amazing proposals with ideas I believed would have been wildly successful.
So, year two we pushed a little harder and expected our learners to actually DO part of their plan. Put together a letter writing campaign. Create a YouTube video with the plans of going viral. You get the idea. Slowly over the years the kids have gotten so into the project and have done such amazing things we give them more and more time each year. We spice up the requirements a bit more. We see just how far they are willing to go for a cause.
This year we went all out. A semester long project. A humanitarian aid organization of their choice. Groups as big as they want. One goal: Be the group to raise the most money and spread the most awareness.
Little did I know that this would be the year my kids would blow me away! Within 24 hours of introducing the project a group of 3 boys had contacted the city to get information on the legalities of hosting a 5K. They had also contacted friends at an insurance agency, a local store for runners, and someone who has organized a 5K previously.
Their mind was made up. A 5K in honor of a friend lost to suicide not 3 months before and benefiting the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Eventually the group expanded from 3 to 10 (they couldn't do it all themselves). They have sponsors, a custom designed t-shirt, water and food for the runners, flyers placed at both high schools in town, 150 preregistered runners, a dozen or more volunteers from local organizations to help keep it all organized, an article published in the town's local paper, a few articles published by our student media, and approximately $3000 to be donated to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the event hasn't even happened yet!
I am one proud teacher!
Every year I am impressed by what my learners do. But, this year the passion and enthusiasm my kiddos have shown has really proven to me that there is power behind allowing learners choice and voice within the classroom.
