Reading Reflection #4

    There are many pitfalls in project design but there are many ways to over come them. A potential pitfall would be having a very long activity/project but very little learning being done, this would be a waste of time for the students. The project should be "right sized", if the reference material is easily found the task is lower-order, at the level of recall and understanding. Other potential pitfalls would be, technology layered over traditional practice, trivial thematic units and overly scripted with many, many steps. This is why it is very important to go back to what we have learned in the chapters before and really put those ideas into practice when coming up with a project, so you don't end up with a pitfall in your activity.
     All good projects share the same distinguishing features when it comes to the main framework of the project. The best project share the same qualities and they are: loosely designed with the possibility of different learning paths; center on a driving question or are otherwise structured for inquire; are realistic and therefore cross multiple disciplines; get a 21-st century skills and literacy's, including communication, project management, and technology use. The book also explains many more but I believe to be the most important feature is have students learn by doing. Being hands on and working together is one of the most important ideas to project based learning.
      Good project ideas are everywhere and can be almost anything that will get the students working and learning together through project design and based learning. An idea can come from the classroom, a book being read in class or something the students really would like to learn more about. There really is no one single place or book that all your ideas will come from. To have a good, even, great project idea you need to have an open mind, even take many ideas from other teachers.
      The book breaks the ideas of designing your project into many steps, the first thing you must remember is that your project exists within a context. The school calendar, curriculum sequence you must follow as a teacher and well as students interests are all things you must keep in mind when putting together your project. The first idea would be to revisit the framework of project based learning. Come up with a project sketch, this should go into great detail and really explain what your project will be all about. Creating an asset map would also be a very good idea. This can really get the project going and break all your ideas down. The book really helps to break these ideas down into great detail but overall its very important to have a good framework of ideas down and how you will go about your ideas, to really start the basic design of your project.
    I believe this chapter concepts relate best to our projects in class. This chapter has been the most helpful to me by showing me the pitfalls to good and bad ideas, how I can start my project and what are good ideas. The best projects part of the chapter was really helpful to read and gave me a really great understanding of what I need to think about when starting my projects for this class and in the future.