Phase
2 - Developing the Project - Doing the Work:
-
Read about the value
of doing fieldwork in a project (Project
Approach Site & Engaging
Children's Minds).
-
Make Preliminary visit
to field site to assess its potential for fieldwork and to prepare
personnel for the visit in the context of a project.
This may involve different treatment of your visit compared
to more traditional field trips. (The
Project Approach Bk. 2. p. 26-35)
-
Read about teaching
fieldwork skills. (The
Project Approach Bk. 2. pp. 58-59).
Prepare the children accordingly for the fieldwork to be done
on the visit.
-
Make the field visit.
Discuss the fieldwork with the children afterwards.
Assess the children's interests.
-
Discuss ideas for
follow-up investigations in the classroom and representation
possibilities for individual children, pairs and groups working
collaboratively.
-
Modify the centers in
the classroom according to the activities which are going to take
place. Add to the
resources in the centers according to the needs of the children as
they develop their representations (e.g. adding new props for dramatic
play, adding new recycled materials to the construction area,
collecting new objects for the observational drawing center, etc.)
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Write messages to the WebBoard to tell about your fieldwork. What surprised you about the children's experiences? What did you learn that will help you plan follow-up activities for the classroom? Which of the children's questions were answered? What new questions were raised?
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Read some of the
examples of project work in the Project
Approach Examples: Specially recommended are the projects on Trucks (K), Pets
(Gr.2), Rocks (Gr.2), and the Clubhouse (Pre-K/K).
Resources:
-
The Project
Approach Site, Section on Structure, Pages on Three Phases,
Phase 2, A Field Trip Diary on the Grafton Project (a study of a local
community in Illinois by Dot Schuler and her second grade class) &
Features Chart; Section on Planning, Page on Key Events.
-
Chard, S.C. (1998) The
Project Approach, Bk. 2, Scholastic.
Section 2. Developing
the Project work. Conduct
Fieldwork, pp. 28-35. Also, teaching fieldwork skills, pp. 58-59.
Recommended
Readings:
-
Katz, L.G. &
Chard, S.C. (1989) Engaging Children's Minds: The Project Approach, Ablex.
Chapter on Phase 2. Developing the Project.
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