Project Work in a First Grade Classroom

I feel that this article is one of the more interesting ones we have read so far. Project learning does sound like a good approach to learning, and it seems like the students gained a fair amount from it. The quote in the beginning from the teacher who was also a mother struck me. She said she felt like projects were a luxury, and students had to earn their way there, and they had to learn the more basic skills before they could do project based learning. I understood where she was coming from, and that idea did seem to make sense until I read about the study that had been done. The children began looking at problems in different ways and forming more coherent, and less generalized thoughts and ideas. Instead of saying “I love my dog,” they moved on to talking about how baby chicks walked, or how they were able to peck out of an egg. Clearly the lesson made an impact on them. I believe that project based learning isn’t just important in elementary classrooms, and that high school teachers should be doing it as well. It seems simpler to engage children in this than high school students, but I feel as if hands-on learning is really important at any age.