Freshmen Project 2 Finished! Reflections & Reading with Community Partner

The freshmen have finished "Project 2: Becoming Published Authors"! Thank goodness!!! I need to learn how to keep these projects to 6 weeks max if not shorter! The kids complained they didn't have enough time, but I need to find the balance between enough time and too much time. I was ready to move on and have been for a few weeks. Although, I don't feel that way about the senior projects.

Reflection Writing: 
Yesterday I had the kids do some small reflection on their jobs (Publisher, Illustrator/Liaison, Lesson Planner) and what was good/bad about those. Then they got into groups with people who had the same job and discussed.

Today we reviewed how to write a reflection today looking at formatting, content, and the purpose. We created a short bullet list in each class that discussed the things I would be looking for and why we write them. I'm a little disappointed in my kids and their discussion skills thus far. I just don't think they're at the level they should be. That is part of the reason I'd like to create tighter, better planned projects so that we can really dig in and focus on those types of skills. I can definitely see how the project will change for the better next year. The kids will write a 1+ page reflection on their experience during this project focusing on the following four questions. They can go beyond these questions, but I should see them discuss each of these at some point in their reflection paper.

• Your favorite part of the project overall, why?Pieces of the project that you struggled with (beginning - end), how did you overcome these problems?
• What skill do you think you bring to the table in your group? What are you good at that a group would need?
• How could you have collaborated better with group members? What is a "group skill" you need to work on?
• What two things do you want to improve or work on during the next project?

Those are due on Friday so we'll see what I get. I'll post some of the better written ones here, without names of course. 

Baker's Youth Club -- Community Partner, Wrapping Up Project 2:
To wrap up this second project we had the books published at Hardesty Printing in Warsaw, Ind. I have four students that are going to Baker's Youth Club tonight at 5:30 to read to the kids and play through a few activities that they planned.  I'll post some pictures as soon as I get home. I think I'm going to spend some time writing my own reflection to share with the kids and I will post it here as well. I'll probably do that on the drive to my PBL Conference in Fort Wayne tomorrow since I don't have to drive.

Until tomorrow.