Chapter 4

1.     There are 4 major pitfalls in project design. (1) Long on activity, short on learning outcomes, which means that if the activity is too long, the students lose interest and don’t learn as much then. (2) Technology layered over traditional practice, is about deciding when the right time technology should be used and about what its use in the classroom will be. (3) Trivial thematic units has to deal with finding themes that connect the students and their learning together. (4) Overly scripted with many, many steps can be a pitfall because there are too many steps in a process, things can get too confusing for students.

2.     A good project has these features: have students learn by doing, get at important learning dispositions, get a 21^st-century skills and literacies, have students working as inquiring experts might, are structured so students learn with and from each other, tap rich data or primary sources, reach beyond school to involve others, are realistic, capture student interest through complex and compelling real-life or simulated experiences, center on a driving question, are generative, and are loosely designed with the possibility of different learning styles.

3.     Project ideas come from news stories, contemporary issues, student questions or interests, a classroom, or a mash-up. These ideas are found everywhere and can come up at anytime.

4.     The steps of how to design your project involve quite a bit of time and effort. The first step (1) is to revisit the framework. Under that step there are 3 other steps. The first step under step 1 is to (a) make a list of learning objectives for core subjects and allied disciplines that the project will cover. Next (b), you need to decide on the 21st century skills you want to address. Next, you have to identify learning dispositions that you want to foster. Step (2) is to establish evidence of understanding. At this step, you really have to think about the students and what they will do once they have learned all that information. Step (3) is to plan the project theme or the project challenge. At this you really need to consider the real life connections that the project has to the world. Step (4) is to plan how you're going to introduce the project to the class. Since you have all those steps done, it is now time to do a project sketch, which is just a brief summary of your project. Once you have completed that, share your project sketch to other teachers in your building and discuss thoughts about the project.

5.     Topics in this chapter relate to our project because we need to know how to overcome pitfalls if they happen to us. We also need to know how to get started so this chapter was very helpful in that sense.