In the Process of CBL Spring 2015 (Week 11-12)

In the Process of CBL Spring 2015 (Week 9 &10)

In the Process of CBL Spring 2015- (Week 8)

Connect-Extend-Challenge

-How are the information presented connected to what you already heard?

-What new ideas did you get that extended your thinking in new directions?

-What challenges have you come up in your mind from the information presented

In the Process of CBL Spring 2015-Week 7

I suppose it is not my week, because I said it was week six and it is week seven.  I guess I should apologize about that too.  

This photo was taken before the apology note was posted. 

In the Process of CBL Spring 2015- Week 6

These photos were taken during my fourth graders' exploration on force and motion.

 

In the Process of CBL Spring 2015- Week 5

In the Process of CBL Spring 2015- Week 4

Just a few photos of my students working. 

Below are the students collecting information from their record interview using Notability. 

In the Process of CBL Spring 2015- Week 3

In the Process of CBL Spring 2015-Week 2

This week we worked on creating our Guiding Questions and planning out our investigations. At first, students were given ten minutes and asked to silently write down any questions they could think of in regards to their challenge. Students were asked to focus their questions on the following: where they are now, where they want to be, and who can help them get there. Students then worked together to combine, edit, refine and establish their group's Guiding Questions. 

Then students work together to create an Aha-Board for their group's Challenge. These boards work much like a web with the Challenge in the middle and the Guiding Questions on the outer edges. Leaving enough space between Guiding Questions for students to keep notes and activity that relate to each. These Aha-Boards are used to keep each group focused and at the same time creating some accountability within each group and beyond. 

As usual,  at the end of class we took the time to reflect about the part of the CBL process we worked on today.  Since much of our time was on questioning, my students were given the following prompt:  It is important to ask good questions, because___________ (Please use real life examples).

Links Mentioned

Challenge Based Learning 

https://www.challengebasedlearning.org/pages/welcome

How to Play Mancala

http://boardgames.about.com/cs/mancala/ht/play_mancala.htm

More on Aha-Boards

http://digiduchess.blogspot.com/2014/02/interactive-notebooks-and-challenge_18.html

In the Process of CBL Spring 2015-Week 1

At the end of class, students were asked write in their Interactive Notebooks and explain why it is important for us to know the CBL Framework before we get started on our challenge. Here is what one fourth grader who entered the program after our challenge had begun wrote this:

I think we need to know about the CBL framework before we get started so that I know what to do and where my place is. An example, would be last year when we were suppose to be asking Guiding Questions I kept thinking we have our question and our challenge. Now I understand that the Guiding Questions are suppose to guide our research. It is going to be nice to know and understand where I am in the process this year. 

Here are a few shots I took of my students using the Chalk Talk routine to break down their Big Idea.

 Links Mentioned

Challenge Based Learning (CBL) Website

Older CBL Components/Elements Page 

Chalk Talk Routine

SCAMMPER Method

In the Process of CBL Spring 2015-Introduction

Here is a link to more information on Challenge Based Learning (CBL).