Discussion Blog
as part of the Book Study
provided by
www.TransformYourClassroom.net
Friday, March 3, 2017
Blog Post 9:
Describe a creative project, that has increased student engagement and motivation, you have either used with your students
in the past or will use with your students as a result of reading this book?
One creative project that has significantly increased student engagement in my math classes is the “Dream Room Design” project, inspired by the idea of a Barbie Dreamhouse but open to any theme students choose. Instead of focusing on Barbie specifically, students design their own dream room—whether it’s sports-themed, nature-inspired, gamer-style, or completely imaginary—and use geometric shapes to build the layout. They must calculate the perimeter and area of each section, decide on flooring and wall dimensions, and justify their design choices using math vocabulary. This project consistently boosts motivation because students get to blend creativity with content, making the math feel purposeful and personal. After reading this book, I’m even more committed to using projects like this, as they show how creativity can deepen understanding and make learning more meaningful. Students take pride in their designs, and the math behind it suddenly feels less intimidating and much more fun.
Its hard to do a lot of creative porjects in HS math....we are always behind!! But one thing i do like to do is Real World Projects. When will we ever use this?? Some years, i get away from it depending on time, but it does help the students connect with the concepts a bit more and takes a break from the calculations all the time.
In the past we have used "Minute to Win It" games to study statistics. Keeping track of scores then graphing the data plot, finding the regression line and equations, etc. This adds significant amounts of fun rather than just using random data collections.
When teaching in the Campbell County School District in Gillette, WY I was fortunate to have 1:1 iPads for students. I took a period of time and taught them the ins and outs of various apps used to create. I also modeled ways you can use these apps to teach a concept or skill. After I had them practice using each app, I gave them an assignment with learning outcomes and creativity outlined in a rubric and told them to show me what they know however they wanted to. The caveat was that eventually, we would use these "lessons" to teach the content to their peers and then they would have to find a way to assess their peers' knowledge of said content. It turned out AWESOME!
A creative project that has always boosted engagement for me is the Rostow Cup. It’s basically fantasy sports, but students draft countries instead of athletes, and they earn points based on real development stats like GDP per capita, life expectancy, and literacy rate.
Kids get hooked fast because it feels like a game, but they are still researching, using data, and defending their choices. Reading Grading Smarter Not Harder also reminded me that this is the kind of project where the grade should come from the learning, not the competition, so I can assess their explanations and reflections and let the game piece drive motivation.
Describe a creative project, that has increased student engagement and motivation, you have either used with your students in the past or will use with your students as a result of reading this book?
In math, we have a unit in where students learn about measurement and in this unit, they get to measure fish. As I was planning the unit with my instructional coach, we found many of the pieces in the unit to be challenging for my students so we broke down the lessons to meet my students needs. In the lessons, students were able to work together to measure fish correctly and accurately. To finish the unit, students were able to go “fishing” in which I put blue paper in the middle of the classroom and put “fish” in the water and students go to go fishing. In our unit, we talked about how long a fish needs to be a keeper and depending on what fish, the size to be a keeper changes. With the fishing activitity, students got to fish out a fish out the water. When they caught a fish, they had to measure it and then decide if it was a keeper or not. If was a keeper, they got to keep the “fish” and then they got a fish sticker. If they didn’t get a fish, they had to throw the fish back. My students really enjoyed this activity,
One of my favorite creative projects my students have done is with book clubs/studies. I give them choices on projects they can create or they can come up with their own as long as they provide all necessary information that is needed to show understanding. During one of my rotations with groups, out of 23 students, I had 23 different projects that they picked. They were all excited, as most of them had come up with their own way to show understanding of the concepts being asked. I had students make posters, short videos, commercials, brochures, board games, etc. It was really exciting as a teacher to see students so engaged and excited to complete their projects and even share them with their classmates.
One of my current favorite projects is getting my 8th grade students who are transitioning up to the high school, to create a binder showing their new teachers what they can do. It is a project that only my 8th graders will be doing. Since most of my students are non-verbal, limited speakers, or have a difficult time advocating for themselves, I want them to be able to show their new teachers what they are capable of. We take pictures of them doing a task and then they work on writing sentences to explain what they are able to do. It works on their writing skills, advocacy skills, and their new teachers can go into the year knowing and seeing all they can do. Their teachers will be able to see where we want them to go next. The benefit of this project is it is individualized and it is something that they can each feel proud of doing.
The creative project I use every year is creating vision boards in health class when we talk short term/long term goals. Visually understanding what we want to accomplish and identifying how we need to do things in the short term to accomplish our long term goals is very helpful for students. Another project we do a few weeks after our vision boards is comparison shopping. I have students take a item from their vision board to comparison shop. I think seeing how much things cost puts it into perspective for the students in identifying if they can purchase the product in the short term or long term. I have had students use the assignment to actually purchase their first (less than $2,000) car which is a very rewarding experience for them in showing how their part time jobs paid off.
A creative project that I have used in grading was when I taught my 4th grade classroom in South Dakota History. Students were able to create a diorama of something important to them that the state was noted for. The students really enjoyed the creative portion of this project - and I was able to count it as "art" as well as for the South Dakota History! The students needed to complete the objectives - being able to explain why their project was important to the state and what impact it had on the people in the state. Some students were far more creative with their display, while others wanted to complete more of a written explanation. That was all fine with me - as long as the objectives were met!
One creative project I have used with my Early Childhood Special Education students is building cardboard castles. This activity engages students’ imagination while giving them a meaningful way to practice and demonstrate fine motor skills. Cutting, folding, and assembling the cardboard requires hand strength, coordination, and use of tools like scissors and tape, which allows me to assess their skills in a fun, hands-on context. Students are highly motivated because they see a tangible result of their work—a castle they can play with—while I can observe and document skill growth during the process. This project combines creativity, play, and skill development, making learning both engaging and purposeful.
I am a creative person/teacher. I prefer hands on creative learning as opposed to all pencil and paper tradition. I often have creative projects and I also use ruberics. However, I am excited to try some of his ruberics with the new specific guidelines he mentioned. The current creative project my kids are working on is animal habitats. They are using a shoe box and doing research on their particular animal they chose. They are then using crafting and their creativity to make the animal habitat. They have been having so much fun with it, maybe I am more than they are, lol. I love letting kids be creative and build their confidence.
Creative projects I have used with my students are making them more real life and able to transfer what they learned into their daily life. Working in Special Education, it is very important to make the information meaningful for my students. When learning about flowers in science, I have taken students to a flower shop where they not only will learn about the parts of a flower, but also learn about what a florist does for their job. They then take a flower back to school and dissect it and label the parts. When learning about different topics, I try to find ways to connect it to a place, job or experience in the community.
Describe a creative project, that has increased student engagement and motivation, you have either used with your students in the past or will use with your students as a result of reading this book?
One of the creative projects I used to use in teaching my middle school social studies class was an activity called the "Gang of 14". I used it to reinforce the concept of climographs and map skills in geography. The premise is that there 14 global locations that have spies each with a clue, a climograph, to the next to eventually the 15th location which is where a global bomb is located. Students have to study the climograph to identify the city's location and get the next clue by using their acquired map skills. All the clues lead up to the final location of the bomb to be disarmed. Since 911 and other global threats I have modified it to a "Where's Waldo" theme. Students really get into it as they compete in teams to try to beat the others for a prize.
Describe a creative project, that has increased student engagement and motivation, you have either used with your students in the past or will use with your students as a result of reading this book?
This isn't really a project but I like to give students problems that have no right answer. This is one example I've used: I have square divided into 4 equal small squares and a number in each box. The numbers are 100, 25, 36, and 30. The students have to tell me which number doesn't belong and give 2 reasons why. This allows me to see what they are thinking and their math reasoning behind their choice.
I always love hands on projects, and it seems that kids love hands on too. I also feel that kids love to learn about animals, especially when they get to watch something right before their eyes and can bring that that real life situations to the classroom. While teaching kindergarten, we would learn about the life cycle and of course tie that in with a butterfly house. The students would chart, write and observe daily from start to finish which was about three weeks. Some students were more curious than others and would have questions; some of which we as a class would research to find answers. I always loved to see how engaged the kids were during this time, it was so exciting!
One creative project I have used in the past is the creation of power points to display in front of the class. The students each get to act as educator and present their information to the class. It engages them in research, technology, writing, speaking, and design. I have used this in the past for presenting topics about planets in the solar system, however, there and many different topics that could be presented this way.
Working with kindergarten students, I love doing projects where the students get to plant vegetables or flowers. They get plant the seeds themselves and get to watch them grow in our classroom. We talk about "What do plants need to grow? What happens to a plant that does not have sunlight or water?". I talk to the students about how talking nicely to their plants helps them grow. It's fun to see them checking in on their plants and saying nice things to their plants. When I do a project in my class, I let the science teacher know about it and he helps with other activities in his class to help them with their understanding.
Describe a creative project, that has increased student engagement and motivation, you have either used with your students in the past or will use with your students as a result of reading this book?
I try to incorporate creative project in my classroom as they tend to increase student engagement and motivation. One project that I use pretty regularly is at the end of a careers unit. The project involves putting information that the students have learned about a career of interest into a presentation/project of some sort. I give the students choice in how they put their information together. I have had student create PowerPoints, short stories, poems, pamphlets, website, etc. It is really cool what they come up with.
Letting students choose how to present their information allow them to use their creativity, which leads to engagement. After reading this book, I am more excited about providing my students opportunities to be creative. Giving students a voice and an opportunity to be creative results in greater motivation and effort.
I am excited to implement some of the ideas shared in this chapter.
One creative project that has significantly increased student engagement in my math classes is the “Dream Room Design” project, inspired by the idea of a Barbie Dreamhouse but open to any theme students choose. Instead of focusing on Barbie specifically, students design their own dream room—whether it’s sports-themed, nature-inspired, gamer-style, or completely imaginary—and use geometric shapes to build the layout. They must calculate the perimeter and area of each section, decide on flooring and wall dimensions, and justify their design choices using math vocabulary. This project consistently boosts motivation because students get to blend creativity with content, making the math feel purposeful and personal. After reading this book, I’m even more committed to using projects like this, as they show how creativity can deepen understanding and make learning more meaningful. Students take pride in their designs, and the math behind it suddenly feels less intimidating and much more fun.
ReplyDeleteIts hard to do a lot of creative porjects in HS math....we are always behind!! But one thing i do like to do is Real World Projects. When will we ever use this?? Some years, i get away from it depending on time, but it does help the students connect with the concepts a bit more and takes a break from the calculations all the time.
ReplyDeleteIn the past we have used "Minute to Win It" games to study statistics. Keeping track of scores then graphing the data plot, finding the regression line and equations, etc. This adds significant amounts of fun rather than just using random data collections.
ReplyDeleteWhen teaching in the Campbell County School District in Gillette, WY I was fortunate to have 1:1 iPads for students. I took a period of time and taught them the ins and outs of various apps used to create. I also modeled ways you can use these apps to teach a concept or skill. After I had them practice using each app, I gave them an assignment with learning outcomes and creativity outlined in a rubric and told them to show me what they know however they wanted to. The caveat was that eventually, we would use these "lessons" to teach the content to their peers and then they would have to find a way to assess their peers' knowledge of said content. It turned out AWESOME!
ReplyDeleteA creative project that has always boosted engagement for me is the Rostow Cup. It’s basically fantasy sports, but students draft countries instead of athletes, and they earn points based on real development stats like GDP per capita, life expectancy, and literacy rate.
ReplyDeleteKids get hooked fast because it feels like a game, but they are still researching, using data, and defending their choices. Reading Grading Smarter Not Harder also reminded me that this is the kind of project where the grade should come from the learning, not the competition, so I can assess their explanations and reflections and let the game piece drive motivation.
Describe a creative project, that has increased student engagement and motivation, you have either used with your students in the past or will use with your students as a result of reading this book?
ReplyDeleteIn math, we have a unit in where students learn about measurement and in this unit, they get to measure fish. As I was planning the unit with my instructional coach, we found many of the pieces in the unit to be challenging for my students so we broke down the lessons to meet my students needs. In the lessons, students were able to work together to measure fish correctly and accurately. To finish the unit, students were able to go “fishing” in which I put blue paper in the middle of the classroom and put “fish” in the water and students go to go fishing. In our unit, we talked about how long a fish needs to be a keeper and depending on what fish, the size to be a keeper changes. With the fishing activitity, students got to fish out a fish out the water. When they caught a fish, they had to measure it and then decide if it was a keeper or not. If was a keeper, they got to keep the “fish” and then they got a fish sticker. If they didn’t get a fish, they had to throw the fish back. My students really enjoyed this activity,
One of my favorite creative projects my students have done is with book clubs/studies. I give them choices on projects they can create or they can come up with their own as long as they provide all necessary information that is needed to show understanding. During one of my rotations with groups, out of 23 students, I had 23 different projects that they picked. They were all excited, as most of them had come up with their own way to show understanding of the concepts being asked. I had students make posters, short videos, commercials, brochures, board games, etc. It was really exciting as a teacher to see students so engaged and excited to complete their projects and even share them with their classmates.
ReplyDeleteOne of my current favorite projects is getting my 8th grade students who are transitioning up to the high school, to create a binder showing their new teachers what they can do. It is a project that only my 8th graders will be doing. Since most of my students are non-verbal, limited speakers, or have a difficult time advocating for themselves, I want them to be able to show their new teachers what they are capable of. We take pictures of them doing a task and then they work on writing sentences to explain what they are able to do. It works on their writing skills, advocacy skills, and their new teachers can go into the year knowing and seeing all they can do. Their teachers will be able to see where we want them to go next. The benefit of this project is it is individualized and it is something that they can each feel proud of doing.
ReplyDeleteThe creative project I use every year is creating vision boards in health class when we talk short term/long term goals. Visually understanding what we want to accomplish and identifying how we need to do things in the short term to accomplish our long term goals is very helpful for students. Another project we do a few weeks after our vision boards is comparison shopping. I have students take a item from their vision board to comparison shop. I think seeing how much things cost puts it into perspective for the students in identifying if they can purchase the product in the short term or long term. I have had students use the assignment to actually purchase their first (less than $2,000) car which is a very rewarding experience for them in showing how their part time jobs paid off.
ReplyDeleteA creative project that I have used in grading was when I taught my 4th grade classroom in South Dakota History. Students were able to create a diorama of something important to them that the state was noted for. The students really enjoyed the creative portion of this project - and I was able to count it as "art" as well as for the South Dakota History! The students needed to complete the objectives - being able to explain why their project was important to the state and what impact it had on the people in the state. Some students were far more creative with their display, while others wanted to complete more of a written explanation. That was all fine with me - as long as the objectives were met!
ReplyDeleteOne creative project I have used with my Early Childhood Special Education students is building cardboard castles. This activity engages students’ imagination while giving them a meaningful way to practice and demonstrate fine motor skills. Cutting, folding, and assembling the cardboard requires hand strength, coordination, and use of tools like scissors and tape, which allows me to assess their skills in a fun, hands-on context. Students are highly motivated because they see a tangible result of their work—a castle they can play with—while I can observe and document skill growth during the process. This project combines creativity, play, and skill development, making learning both engaging and purposeful.
ReplyDeleteI am a creative person/teacher. I prefer hands on creative learning as opposed to all pencil and paper tradition. I often have creative projects and I also use ruberics. However, I am excited to try some of his ruberics with the new specific guidelines he mentioned. The current creative project my kids are working on is animal habitats. They are using a shoe box and doing research on their particular animal they chose. They are then using crafting and their creativity to make the animal habitat. They have been having so much fun with it, maybe I am more than they are, lol. I love letting kids be creative and build their confidence.
ReplyDeleteCreative projects I have used with my students are making them more real life and able to transfer what they learned into their daily life. Working in Special Education, it is very important to make the information meaningful for my students. When learning about flowers in science, I have taken students to a flower shop where they not only will learn about the parts of a flower, but also learn about what a florist does for their job. They then take a flower back to school and dissect it and label the parts. When learning about different topics, I try to find ways to connect it to a place, job or experience in the community.
ReplyDeleteDescribe a creative project, that has increased student engagement and motivation, you have either used with your students in the past or will use with your students as a result of reading this book?
ReplyDeleteOne of the creative projects I used to use in teaching my middle school social studies class was an activity called the "Gang of 14". I used it to reinforce the concept of climographs and map skills in geography. The premise is that there 14 global locations that have spies each with a clue, a climograph, to the next to eventually the 15th location which is where a global bomb is located. Students have to study the climograph to identify the city's location and get the next clue by using their acquired map skills. All the clues lead up to the final location of the bomb to be disarmed. Since 911 and other global threats I have modified it to a "Where's Waldo" theme. Students really get into it as they compete in teams to try to beat the others for a prize.
Describe a creative project, that has increased student engagement and motivation, you have either used with your students in the past or will use with your students as a result of reading this book?
ReplyDeleteThis isn't really a project but I like to give students problems that have no right answer. This is one example I've used: I have square divided into 4 equal small squares and a number in each box. The numbers are 100, 25, 36, and 30. The students have to tell me which number doesn't belong and give 2 reasons why. This allows me to see what they are thinking and their math reasoning behind their choice.
I always love hands on projects, and it seems that kids love hands on too. I also feel that kids love to learn about animals, especially when they get to watch something right before their eyes and can bring that that real life situations to the classroom. While teaching kindergarten, we would learn about the life cycle and of course tie that in with a butterfly house. The students would chart, write and observe daily from start to finish which was about three weeks. Some students were more curious than others and would have questions; some of which we as a class would research to find answers. I always loved to see how engaged the kids were during this time, it was so exciting!
ReplyDeleteOne creative project I have used in the past is the creation of power points to display in front of the class. The students each get to act as educator and present their information to the class. It engages them in research, technology, writing, speaking, and design. I have used this in the past for presenting topics about planets in the solar system, however, there and many different topics that could be presented this way.
ReplyDeleteWorking with kindergarten students, I love doing projects where the students get to plant vegetables or flowers. They get plant the seeds themselves and get to watch them grow in our classroom. We talk about "What do plants need to grow? What happens to a plant that does not have sunlight or water?". I talk to the students about how talking nicely to their plants helps them grow. It's fun to see them checking in on their plants and saying nice things to their plants. When I do a project in my class, I let the science teacher know about it and he helps with other activities in his class to help them with their understanding.
ReplyDeleteDescribe a creative project, that has increased student engagement and motivation, you have either used with your students in the past or will use with your students as a result of reading this book?
ReplyDeleteI try to incorporate creative project in my classroom as they tend to increase student engagement and motivation. One project that I use pretty regularly is at the end of a careers unit. The project involves putting information that the students have learned about a career of interest into a presentation/project of some sort. I give the students choice in how they put their information together. I have had student create PowerPoints, short stories, poems, pamphlets, website, etc. It is really cool what they come up with.
Letting students choose how to present their information allow them to use their creativity, which leads to engagement. After reading this book, I am more excited about providing my students opportunities to be creative. Giving students a voice and an opportunity to be creative results in greater motivation and effort.
I am excited to implement some of the ideas shared in this chapter.