Using Projects for Demonstrating Learning

Earlier this month I wrote about having 2 secret strengths in teaching and I shared my first strength of teaching guided reading. My second super strength was using projects with my students to help demonstrate learning.

My super strength evolved from a need to help students share their learning in a variety of different ways. I discovered early in my classroom teaching experience that some students had a wealth of knowledge, but that they were unable to truly share it in written activities. I decided to try using projects for representing their learning, and I never looked back.

Creating A 3D Community

This 3D community project was a class project where the class created the community from beginning to end based on what we learned during our study of what a community needs. Our celebration was our chance to share what was learned during this unit. Here are some images of one of the communities. I have also included a storyboard as well. Click on it if you would like a copy for yourself.

Our Solar System Project

Our Solar System was one of my first school/home projects that required the children to choose from a variety of activities to share their learning. It also contained a criteria marking sheet so that they knew what was expected and how it would be graded at the beginning. It was amazing to see how they rose to the challenge. Including the families  when it came time to create the projects was a great way of communicating what we were doing at school. Here is a copy of the letter that I send home.

Check out some of the projects that my students created. The greatest part
was when they shared them with the families and other guests. Their pride
and the positive atmosphere made it all worthwhile.

Social Studies Projects

I found that Social Studies lends itself well to projects. Most of my projects dealt with Canada and the provinces and territories, but I also did some projects that are more global.

My heritage project came from a need to help a child feel proud of who she was because she was embarrassed to let others know her heritage. By the end of this project, she was sharing with everyone and she was excited to tell others about all the countries that made her special.

Money Lessons For Kids

I love how ideas come from students and their needs. One year my class
was learning about money and we ending up creating a money unit together.
It was great using real life experiences for creating the unit. We even ended
it with a big fundraising event to raise money for our year end field trip. Here
is a sample lesson from the unit.

I always looked forward to the new ideas that were provided by my students.

If you would like to see some of the other projects that I have created, they are available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

I would love to hear if projects are part of your teaching.

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