A PBL experience al azar

Just when I had thought I had planned everything out so nicely, I was hit by a few curveballs in class today. Today I learned a lot about myself as an educator, as well as some of the thought processes of my students.

I started my unit today on Daily Routine and reflexive verbs. The bulk of the lesson today was dedicated to introducing the students to the concept of reflexive verbs. The last 30 minutes or so was dedicated to my PBL, which proved to be the greatest learning experience.

I had spent so much time brainstorming the three project ideas for my students before today. I thought I had everything nicely managed, what with an introductory list, a timeline, a calendar for students to keep track of dates, and even a little reflection piece that they are to add to at the end of each class period. Though I thought I was prepared, their questions threw me for a loop. Let me explain the project first...

In thinking about PBL, and how it would look in a foreign language classroom, I decided to ask the students what would interest them as a potential final project for a unit. In my current classroom students are used to doing somewhat straightforward oral assessments of the language; a simple paired interview-type activity that guides students to repeat certain memorized phrases. I decided to ask my students what they would be interested in doing as an oral assessment. Something alternative. I went through each row in each class and asked the students to think of some sort of project they would be interested in. I received a wealth of ideas, from video projects, narrated PowerPoints, to pantomime (not really a good way to assess oral proficiency, but I put it up there anyway). After this brainstorm, I took the students ideas and decided on three possibilities as a basis of design for the final project of my work sample:

 Video            PowerPoint      Show n' Tell

The last one would permit students to create a book, scrapbook, or poster of their daily routine. 

So, I spent all of this time creating the guidelines for this project.  But I failed to fully think about one essential element: group work.  In explaining the project options to students in the classes, I was frequently hit by the question: "Can we work in groups?" "How big of a group? I wanna work with like 4 other people." I was stumped at the moment, perhaps to the fact that I was so nervous, and had a packed lesson as is. I asked myself after school was over, "I want them to work in groups.  It's an integral part to PBL. But how will this work out for the PowerPoint project? Or the Show n' Tell project? The video?" 

After some intense contemplation, I realized that YES they can work in groups....for the video project.  That one is, by far, the most time consuming choice for a final project. But I must clarify to the students that they, as an individual, must meet the oral proficiency requirements that are set as the base of the whole entire project. Two people can talk on video, but each must meet the proficiency requirements. This needs some more contemplation, and luckily I have tomorrow off as far as teaching, so I will probably be adding another entry here tomorrow.