PBL Penguins!

During the 2020/2021 school year, the new strategy and goal for teachers has become how to create the most normalized learning environment regardless of COVID protocols. After a year of impacted learning experiences, everyone seems to be at a breaking point and even my most veteran teachers are having times of struggle to help our students learn.

Traditionally, the grade 1 students in our school do a big penguin research unit that brings together their reading, writing, and learning strategies that they have learned throughout the school year. But this year has been different – student literacy ability is significantly down compared to other years, and the spread of learning ability is far more diverse within the classroom.

I was able to work with my Grade 1 teachers, and team-teach our modified Penguin project this year! I worked with my teachers to develop some wonderful activities that allowed for differentiation based on students ability, and provided opportunities for students to work on their literacy abilities regardless of their level going into the project. We also incorporated some digital work for all students!

I worked with the teachers during the first week of March, and they had some follow-up activities they were going to do with their students over the following days. Earlier this week, I visited the class, and a small handful of students showed me their final projects, which included some typed activities, labelled drawings, and some written personal reflections, which they read to me. To see how far the students grew in the course of 2 weeks was spectacular and I’m so proud of them. The teachers were able to create a learning opportunity that was fun, engaging, and effective, regardless of the safety protocols in place for COVID. I found it very enjoyable to be a part of the development and learning process working with the grade 1 classes. Now that the project has concluded, I have discussed the project with the Grade 1 teachers and they are already discussing how they can tweak and improve it for next year, which for me, is exciting that they see the value in project based learning. Great success!