Heide and others,

I am now working with a church-based  ESOL program that gets no public
funding. A group of older Haitian women have come back after graduating
from their ESOL program becasue they want to give something back to the
program and community. They are all certified nursing assistants with
families, but they have strong ties to the community and the program. We
will meet soon to talk about possible projects that involve their
creativity, leadership skills, and cultural heritage. I am thinking of a
micro-enterprise project where they can create something and sell it to
make money for the program, learn some business skills, and share
fellowship, laughter, literacy, and leadership. 
Lenore Balliro
World Education


>>> "Wrigley, Heide" <heide at literacywork.com> 09/05/07 10:27 AM >>>

Hi, Barbara and Jeffrey 

It's not very often that projects turn out to be that powerful. Some
projects are largely focused on language use and literacy learning and
may address a cultural component as well (as in the artifact projects,
others take on bigger issues and have a life way beyond the learning
that was originally intended. But when it happens, there is a huge
ripple effect and the insights gained can indeed transform not only
knowledge into deeper understanding but can also touch others in new
ways. 

Some of my favorite projects have to do with students deciding they want
to make a contribution to their community and help people less fortunate
than they are (and that from students who don't have much at all). These
include

1. Students doing a blood drive after reading about the large number of
poor people with AIDS 

2. A group of women deciding right after 9/11 that they wanted to thank
firefighters for the work they do and baking a cake and designing cards
and taking them down to the local firehouse to express their
appreciation (the greatest surprise came in finding a female "fireman"
on the force. This led to a discussion about non-traditional jobs that
the women or their daughters might consider - always important since
many of the women tend to be drawn to cosmetology and other pink collar
jobs and don't really feel drawn to male dominated jobs - even if they
pay much better. 

3. Students deciding to visit children's hospitals or nursing homes to
bring cookies, play card games or at Christmas do caroling. 

4. And my favorite last year, students deciding that they wanted to fix
up a school on the Mexico side of the US-Mexico border, planning a
school improvement project, pulling together materials and tools (plus
food for a mega- BBQ and taking their own cars as part of a caravan
across the border to start hammering, nailing, painting and fixing lunch
for everyone (I'll post some pictures tomorrow). 

Has anyone else had projects that focus on community (large or small)
and have a strong socio-cultural dimension? 

Heide


-----Original Message-----
From: professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Barbara
Garner
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 6:49 AM
To: jeffrey A fantine; The Adult Literacy Professional Development
Discussion List
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1530] Re: best practice resources

The Paperclip Project is one of my favorite films. I've seen it a few
times, with and without my kids. A few elements stand out in terms of
the project's educational role. One was that the theme that the teachers
wanted to get across came before the activity. The other was that the
project was wholeheartedly supported by the principal. In addition, I
liked how it grew organically. 

What have folks' experiences been with offshoots of projects?

Barb Garner
Massachusetts
=====================
From: jeffrey A fantine <fantine at ohio.edu>
Date: 2007/09/04 Tue PM 03:00:04 CDT
To: 
	The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List
<professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov>
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1520] Re: best practice resources

Has anyone seen the documentThis is not adult education and it doesn't mean we need to make a movie 
about it in order for it to be a success, but I think this demonstrates 
more than any other I've seen or read about how truly relevant and 
transformative PBL should/can be.

-J

--On Tuesday, September 04, 2007 3:44 PM -0400 "Wrigley, Heide" 
<heide at literacywork.com> wrote:


>

>

> Hi, Lee and others

>

>

>

> Thanks for identifying what it takes to make projects work (and we'll

> talk about structuring projects as well as planning and execution a

bit

> later). I agree that listening to where the passion lies as students

do

> their work is critical, and just because the teacher decides that it's

> time to do a project doesn't mean that adult students are eager to do

> one.

>

>

>

> Lee mentioned that she moved into PBL after a PD Institute and her

first

> attempt was a failure. I wonder what propelled others to make the jump

> and how their first project worked out.

>

>

>

> Was it more difficult at first or did students jump at the chance to

do a

> project?

>

>

>

> Heide

>

>

>

>

> __________________________________________________

>

> From: professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov

> [mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Lee

> Williams

> Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 1:02 PM

> To: professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov

> Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1518] Difficulties and Successes

with

> PBL

>

>

>

> I began working on PBL with a cadre of teachers in Barbara Baird's

> Project Forward initiative. Although we studied successful student

> projects across the state (TX) and knew the many benefits of PBL, I

> didn't have a clue about how to recreate that success in my classroom.

I

> naively thought that the students could choose a project from a list

of

> suggestions and go with it. I assumed that once they knew what the end

> product was, they would start working to make it happen. Key pieces

were

> missing like organization, teamwork, initiative and desire.

>

> The projects I've been successful with 1) have risen out of existing

> curriculum and

>

> 2) the student's passion is visibly obvious. I expand the lessons to

> further delve into those passionate topics and then make suggestion of

> possible projects--ideas where students return what they have learned

to

> the community.  Once the product is identified, we create a list of

steps

> to make it happen and order them. Students need see these steps so

they

> can choose the areas where they fit and then they can take off.  This

> scaffolding then becomes the basis of future lessons and culminates in

a

> final project.

>

> For me, student-centered projects take several months to identify and

> create and are more likely a true product of the students. I have also

> done small projects that I suggest, which are finished in a much

shorter

> time, but often result in more work for me. This is an area I am still

> refining at this time.

>

>

>

> Lee Williams

>

> ELL II Teacher at the Kyle Learning Center

>

> Kyle, Texas

>

>




Jeffrey A. Fantine
Director, Literacy Center
College of Education
Ohio University
340 McCracken Hall
Athens, OH  45701
800-753-1519
Fax: 740-593-2834
www.ohio.edu/literacy

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.” - Mahatma
Gandhi
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