Remote PBL With Young Children: What I Know So Far (Part Two)
In this post, I continue to unpack some of the misconceptions about remote PBL with our youngest learners. As I mentioned in Part One of this series, I know that working with young children presents its own unique set of challenges and when you layer in remote instruction, it can seem impossible. However, these misconceptions about young children and remote PBL can be overcome by shifting our mindsets and using strategies and resources specific to the needs of young children. Let’s continue our work from last week with two more common misconceptions about remote PBL with early learners.
Early in the brainstorming process of what to include on our website, a child suggested we have favorite recipes on the site. This led to exploring different components of recipes, including numbers for the measurements, labels and pictures. A child who is an English Language Learner contributed his recipe in Spanish. His mother helped by writing the words, and the child posted a video on Seesaw of himself cooking the recipe.
My students created “All about TK Pages” as part of our introduction to learning about information writing and “teaching books.” They did this work during our whole group, synchronous learning time (Writer’s Workshop) in conjunction with stand-alone lessons from the book Talking, Drawing, Writing: Lessons for Our Youngest Writers (Horn and Giacobbe, 2007). Children could label their own pictures, or I asked them to please ask care-givers to add labels (dictated by the child) when they had time and then post to Seesaw. Children then shared their pages in small groups the following day during Writer’s Workshop. In the sample above, the student dictated her words in Korean and her mother wrote the labels in both Korean and English.
Implementing Project Based Learning with young children requires us to overcome some of our misconceptions; misconceptions about PBL and young children. During this time of remote learning, I have learned how important it is to trust the process, to adapt, and to lean into the new and unpredictable. I am continuously asking myself how to create that classroom environment that inspires, engages, and builds young children’s independence as learners despite remote and physically distant environments. Over and over, the answer is Project Based Learning. It is absolutely possible for young children to become a community, to learn together as a community, without ever meeting in person. I invite you to allow the creativity and curiosity of young children to guide you, and celebrate the success that PBL brings. And despite the challenges, you might be surprised at all that you and your students are able to accomplish along the way.
Sara Lev is the co-author of Implementing Project Based Learning in Early Childhood: Overcoming Misconceptions and Reaching Success (Routledge, 2020).
Connect with her on Twitter @saramlev