1 Applying the Doreen Nelson Method of Design-Based Learning Alma Montaño-Manzo Vineland Elementary School BPUSD Baldwin Park, California KidsVille.

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Applying the Doreen Nelson Method of

Design-Based Learning

Alma Montaño-Manzo

Vineland Elementary School

BPUSD

Baldwin Park, California

KidsVille

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My name is Alma Montaño-Manzo. My 16 years ofexperience in education include pre-school, kindergarten,and first grade. I am currently teaching kindergarten inBaldwin Park Unified School District.

Throughout my experience of teaching young children, I’ve looked for ways to teach them criticalthinking, reasoning, and oral language skills.

Not all students can retain information or learn thebasic skills in the same manner. I needed a method thatwould allow me to assist all my students no matter their academic level. For that reason I sought alternativeteaching strategies that would help me meet all thelearners’ needs. This is one of the reasons why I made the commitment to learn the Design-Based Learningmethod.

Introduction

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Vineland ElementaryVineland Elementary is in the city of Baldwin

Park, California and is one of twelve12 Elementaryschools in Baldwin Park School District.

Vineland Elementary is considered a Title I school.More than 70% of the students qualify for free orreduce lunch. Of the total 860 students, over 450students are classified as English Language Learners(ELL).

In 2009, the majority of students, 87.33% thatattended Vineland were of Hispanic/Latino heritage. The remainder of the students were a mix of Asian,Caucasian, and African-American. The With this typeof demographics academic skills vary significantlythrough out the school. In my class there werestudents at different academic and language levels.

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Design-Based Learning Design-Based Learning (DBL) is a method of learning by constructing projects to discover

creative solutions to a theme within the required curriculum and to increase higher level thinking skills.

DBL challenges facilitate the learning of abstract concepts in a fun and significant way, which motivates the students.

A DBL challenge is presented where students construct a 3-D Never-Before-Seen (NBS) object, as a solution to a challenge.

Through constructing and providing hands-on experiences students learned to solve problems at a higher cognitive level and able to apply those skills to real-life situations.

DBL presented my students with an intergraded curriculum that comes from the challenges.

DBL works well for all types of learners especially with my English Language Learners. It is rich in vocabulary and language.

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Backward Thinking™Step one: What do I need to teach? (themes, concepts, standards)

Example: Location is the concept. In social studies kindergarteners compare & contrast the location of people, places, and environment & describe their characteristics.

Step two: Identify a Problem (from the curriculum)

Example: How can we become familiar with our surrounding landmarks.

Step 1/2: State as a “Never-Before-Seen” Design Challenge

Example: If students select a location in order to l earn to identify geographic features on landscapes then they will decide on the landmarks to enlarge on their maps.

Step three: Set Criteria for assessment

The Doreen Nelson Method of Design-Based Learning™Backwards Thinking Process

Need

* look at map

* pick an area to develop

* must include school

* group needs to agree

* other landmarks

Don’t Want

* same locations

* get out of groups

* one student do all

the work

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Backward Thinking™ (continued)

Step four: Let students “give it a try.”Example: Here is where the students

design their NBS location using recyclables materials or any available materials in the classroom.

Step five: Teach Guided Lessons Example: Students compared &

contrasted the location of people, places and environment using vocabulary already introduced. With this new information the students discussed the length of boundaries of their locations. In

addition they constructed a map of their neighborhood incorporating important landmarks such as police and fire stations, schools, homes and transportation lines.

Step six: Students Revise DesignsExample: Students discover their design

could have been better if they had added more

land marks. It is here where students synthesize what they have learned from their design

and from participating in the guided lessons. They assess their design.

The Doreen Nelson Method of Design-Based Learning™Backwards Thinking Process

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Curriculum Integration Chart

Challenge

In DBL students were givena problem, called achallenge. This challengefrontloaded them withinformation for the guidedlesson that followed. Forexample, in the NBSIntroduction challenge theyintroduced themselves in asymbolic manner. At theend of the challenge theytalked and wrote about it toachieve curriculumrequirements.

The teacher designedchallenges that werebased on the Californiastandards for all subjectareas of that particulargrade level.

After each challenge therewere Guided Lessons thatwere integrated into fivedisciplines: Language Arts, Math, Science,Social Studies and VisualArts. I tried to relate asmany as I could to eachchallenge.

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Ex: Curriculum Integration Chart

This an example of an Integration

Chart. This particular one is for the

Design Challenge of NBS Land

Division in the KidsVille project.

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I developed a series of 10 Long-Range Planning Boards to represent a integratedcurriculum for the entire school year. Eachboard displayed the design challenges thatwere organized in pathways, curricular areas,lessons and standards used for each lesson. The different colors symbolized thechannels of the curricular areas andstandardized lessons. From top to bottom,every board displayed a month in light green, each was broken intofour weeks. The design challenge followedin yellow. It usually took two to fourweeks to complete.

LegendMonth

Design

Challenges

Languages

Arts

Mathematics

Science

Social Studies

Visual Arts

Meetings

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Long-Range Planning BoardsThe Long-Range Planning

Boards displayed the year longKidsVille project and provided mewith a pacing guide for teachingCalifornia standards and served as avisual guide for parents, visitors, andmy students. Visitors saw what designchallenges, lessons and state standardhad been completed or were beingtaught and would follow. I taught thestudents to look at the boards so theyknew what design challenge wastaking place and what came next. This motivated them to start the nextchallenge.

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The History Wall was a place where artifactswere displayed from each challenge. ThisHistory Wall followed a specific sequence thatconnected each challenge to one another.

As students completed their work theycollaborated to determine which artifacts weredisplayed. The display consisted of 10 sectionseach with a design challenge that worked as thefoundation of the sequence. Information wasdisplayed as the challenges were completed.

The History Wall was a review and remindedthe students of what they had accomplished allyear long.

History Wall

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Criteria List A criteria list made for each challengewas based on the California standards andrequired vocabulary for kindergarten. Thelist was used to coach students on what wasexpected from them and was a form ofassessment for the teacher. The first step in every challenge was toset the criteria with the assistanceof the students so they had instructionsfor their challenge. The list consisted of a red part, whichrepresented the Don’t Wants, what wasnot needed. The green section was theNeeds, which represented the Californiastandards that were required and necessaryas they developed their design.

Don’t Wants Needs• Can’t spend a lot of ime.

• Pieces can’t be the same size.

• It must be never-before-seen.

• It must be 3-D

• It must have places to live.

• It must have places to eat.

• Must have places to feel well

• It must have places to shop.

• It must have places to walk.

• It must have a population.

The above is a sample of the criteria list for the NBSneighborhood. California standard Social StudiesK.4, 4.4,4.5. Compare and contrast the locations of peopleplaces and environments and describe their characteristics.Construct models of neighborhoods, incorporate structuresas police & fire stations, hospitals, homes, schools, banks.

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Reason for my projectMy project developed a year-long

kindergarten integrated curriculum based on the state standards using theDoreen Nelson method of Design-Based Learning™ (DBL). DBL providedstrategies needed to promote criticalthinking, problem solving and oral language skills for my students. The project provided my students theopportunity to develop their vocabulary,thinking and oral language skills.

The example of Arturo explained whyI decided to develop my project (seeside caption).

Arturo was a great example of the benefits of my project.Since he was an ELL student it was difficult for him tocommunicate in English. When called on him to share his thoughts, before the KidsVille project he stared at me with a lookof uncertainty. My project gave him opportunities to be creativeand to feel confident in sharing his thoughts in front of the class.

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When I started implementing Design-Based Learning, I was not sure if it was a good method to use on kindergarteners. I thought the concept of Never-Before-Seen would be difficult for them to comprehend. As I used it I noticed that students responded in a positive manner. They began to payclose attention to what was being taught. I noticed they worked harder on their class assignments in order to have timeto design. Wow! a sense of motivation was developing withinmy students. At this point, I was eager to continue applyingDBL with my kindergartners.

After three weeks not only did I notice attendance in my class had improve, but also noticed that my ELL students orallanguage skills were developing. At the end of the year, some students expressed themselves at a higher language level thatdisplayed their higher level of thinking. At that moment, Iknew I had made the right choice to develop a DBL project in my classroom.

DBL in my classroom!

This is what a day of DBL in myclassroom looked like. Studentsengaged and motivated increating.

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I developed a story to tell my students how each NBS design challenge was connected.

On the first day, they did not know much about each other. They introduced themselves

using an object they liked. Once they familiarized themselves with each other, they dressed

up as that object and developed a new identity. They pretended to be that object and found

out more details about themselves and their friends. They discovered different and similar

points of views and found they had friends and enemies. The story progressed as the

students learned about their surroundings. They discovered their new skin needed a location

to call home. After identifying a location, they realized it was large and needed to be divided

equally among themselves into individual land parcels. At this point of the story students

needed to develop their land parcel since it was empty and they needed certain things to

survive. They were so excited to share their creations with each other and saw that once they

put it together they had developed a neighborhood. Here they compared and contrasted their

contributions. After more people had settled nearby, they discovered they must build more

The Story began…

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shelters for protection. They thought of themselves as their “New Skin” throughout the story. Their “New Skin” had brought to fulfillment a neighborhood and place to call home. Theyidentified the need to move resources from one place to another and created a movementsystem. They became so excited with the fact that their “New Skin” had discoveredso much in this journey, they became eager to learn more about their surrounding area. This resulted in the development of places to learn. Bearing in mind that their “New Skin”had accomplished so much in this journey, they learned they needed a symbol that wouldmark their territory and would prevent outsiders from taking control of their neighborhood.This symbol symbolized the ending of this wonderful journey.

The story continues…

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What are Pathways?The KidsVille project consisted

of ten challenges that were organized aspathways. Each pathway contained themaking of a three dimensional object and,guided lessons, linked to state standardsfrom the kindergarten curriculum. Thepathways were arranged in a manner of astory which built on each other. Studentsreviewed prior lessons before continuing tothe next pathway. The ten pathways thatcreated KidsVille were as follows:

1. NBS Introduction

2. NBS New Skin

3. NBS Location

4. NBS Land Division

5. NBS Land Parcel

6. NBS Neighborhood

7. NBS Shelter

8. NBS Movement

9. NBS Place to Learn

10. NBS Symbol

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Pathway 1 NBS Introduction Our story began in late summer in Room 3. For most students, this was their first time attending school and did not know much about each other. They introduced themselves by using an inanimate 3-D object that symbolized who they were…

NBS INTRODUCTION

I discovered that when students used a 3-D object to represent themselves inorder to learn symbolism, then they wereable to compare and share informationusing symbolic meaning.

Having students look at an object in a

different manner taught them to make the object

come to life and look at objects, people, and

themselves differently. I collected different

objects from the classroom and brought them to

the circle. I asked them, “to take a few minutes

and look at the objects I had just placed in the

center of the circle. Now try to find something

that is like you. However, before we begin we

need rules”, I said. Together we developed a

criteria list.

After they analyzed their object they shared

their thoughts orally in front of the class.

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Pathway 1 (continued)

Some of my favorite descriptions were, “I ambubble bath because bubbles make me feel happy”or “I am a boat.” Why I said. “It has windows tosee outside…just like my eyes.” I discovered themore I listened, the more they wanted to share.Even my ELL students were eager to share theirthoughts. This was unusual, I normally have topush and prod them to share their thoughts.

As a form of assessment, I had them draw andtell me about their object. I was not expectingdetailed drawing this early in the year. To mysurprise, some drawings were very detailed andstudents were able to identify each part of theirdrawing.

He was so proud to express the

reason why he choose the boat, “I

am a boat. It has window to see

outside…just like my eyes,” he

said with a smile.

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Pathway 2 NBS New Skin Once they familiarized themselves with others. They developed a new identity. They pretended to be that object and found

out more details about themselves and their friends. They discovered different and similar points of view…

Since it was the beginning of the school year and the students hardly knew each other

it was difficult for them to communicate and understand each others feelings (points of

view). In this challenge, students learned to identify themselves using different points of

view. As an introduction I asked them to grab their favorite crayon. “Let’s pretend we are

our favorite crayon,” I told them. Some of them smiled and others had a look of confusion.

Bryan made a deep

connection with his “blue”

skateboard. (read below)

NBS NEW SKIN

I discovered that when students created

a costume to learn to personify character

traits of an object, they were able to

identify and communicate other points

of view easily.

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Emily the shyest student in the classroom, raised her hand. Of course, I was surprised. She told me, “How can we be a crayon?” “We are just pretending,” I replied. I continuedthe lesson, by asking them to bring their objects from the previous challenge. They began todesign their NBS New Skin. I walked around and approached Emily again and asked her,“How did you feel when you put on your new skin?” “I felt pretty and smell good”, shereplied. It became obvious that she understood the point of view of a flower. When Bryan,who was in my lowest group, was done he immediately put on his new skin and made it apoint to share his thoughts with me. “My skin is blue and I can run fast,” he said. At first, Idid not understand why his skin turned blue…his skateboard was blue. I could not believewhat I had just experienced! Bryan had connected with the object in a deeper manner…hetruly believed he was a skateboard. He obviously demonstrated an understanding of theconcept of symbolism that I had just taught.

This challenge taught Emily, Bryan, and others to identify, communicate orally, and towrite about what happened as they put themselves in the shoes of their object.

Pathway 2 (continued)

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Pathway 3 NBS Location

Once they had developed their new skin they realized their new skin needed a location to call home…

As kindergarteners, my students did nothave experience reading maps but when Ihad them design their NBS Location, theyeasily learned to identify many segments oftheir community. This challenge was done ina period of days. I introduced it by displayingan aerial map on the smart board (largetechnology screen). I located the school andpointed out our classroom and playground. Iidentified some houses with swimming pools. Many students were surprised to see the pool so clearly. One of them stated, “When I walk on the sidewalk I can’t see the pool and here Ican.” I explained how the aerial map allows us to see things in detail. I divided the class intofive groups of four. I gave them a clip board with a copy of the neighborhood map surrounding our school. They focused on the needs from the criteria list (emphasizing on the need to select a location that included the school).

NBS LOCATION

I discovered that when students selected a

location in order to learn to identify geographic

features of a landscape they were able to enlarge

it in order to interpret details.

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Pathway 3 (continued)

As they worked on their challenge, these 5 year-olds shared, “Here is Vineland. I could go over here but not here because Vineland is not there.” This student had identified a geographic landscape from an aerial map. I put Lucine, a very quiet boy, in charge of a group. He did not hesitateto take charge of his group. He asked his peer questions, “Is the school in here?” “Is it big?” At the end of the challenge,it was his groups transparency that the class voted as their location to enlarge. Lucine turned to me and smiled; he was proud of himself.

Following this challenge, students learned to use skills of measurement and geometry, and they practiced their listening and speaking skills as they interacted among their group.

This was the transparency of the aerial view of the school and surrounding neighborhood. This was the location the class voted to enlarge.

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Pathway 4 NBS Land Division

As they established their location. They discovered their location was humongous and needed to be divided equally…

I gathered them in a circle and told them we had

a problem. “We have this humongous piece of land

and we each need to have a piece of it so we can

develop it.” A student asked, “What is land?” Of

course, I should not expect kindergarteners to know

what land is without showing them. I took them

outside sat on the grass and explained that we were

sitting on a piece of land. I gave them other examples and went inside to continue with the

challenge. I developed the criteria list with them and they began to discuss ways to divide the

land into 20 equal pieces among their groups. As they were done, we reviewed the criteria list

to see if all needs were met. One group came close in creating what I asked for, 20 equal pieces.

This was a difficult concept for Kindergarteners since many of them could not count to twenty

yet.

NBS LAND DIVISION

I found when students selected a piece of land that was represented on a map they learned todivided the whole landsite into individualland parcels then they were able to reconstructtheir land parcel in order to enhance details.

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Pathway 4 (continued)

Next, I pulled out an enlarged

copy of our actual location. I asked

them, “How can we create the

same division of 20 pieces from

this small map onto this large

Copy?” One student suggested

cutting it. After cutting it, they found that was not the best suggestion as the land had changed

into unequal pieces. The discussion continued. Finally one of my ELL student, with no

previous exposure to school, proposed using the red tape to show the boundaries of the

location. Once the tape was set she was determined to fix the problem. She grabbed the yarn

and created squares. At that moment, I knew she was getting somewhere. Before the KidsVille

project, I would have showed them how to get 20 equal pieces. Now, I let them problem solve

and discover the answer for themselves.

Laysha was showing everyone how to can enlarge our small location on the transparency onto a bigger piece of paper and divide it into 20 equal pieces.

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In this challenge, I found myself implementing many guided lessons at the same time as the challenge. I gave them plenty opportunities to listen and speak. They shared information and ideas on how to divide their location equally, which covered Reading comprehension and Mathematics standards. As they came up with a solution to the problem of the pathway, I modeled and taught vocabulary such as near/far and below/above.

I was surprised at the level of problem solving skills these kindergarteners demonstrated in this challenge. Although it took some time to complete the challenge, I knew I had to be patient and direct them to continue to problem solve instead giving them the answer.

Pathway 4 (continued)

At the end, this is what Laysha’s final design looked like. It had 20 equal pieces of 12” by 6” each piece.

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Pathway 5 NBS Land Parcel Now that everyone had a piece of land they needed to design their piece of land for their future community…

Since the school is not far from a shopping center, I decided to take the students on a walking field trip. As we walked, I had them identify nearby land parcels found in a real city.

When we returned, they were eager to begin toDesign their land. It was important to review the criteria listand to remind them of what was expected. I continued to emphasize the word NBS, as I felt they might want to build something that had already been seen. Since this would be their initialreaction, I made sure the list contained: places to eat, places to feel better, places to shop, andplace for protection (from bad weather or bad people). When they began to design their NBSLand Parcel, I looked around and every student was involved. It was an astonishing sight to see! I approached Karla who as an ELL student lacked vocabulary skills. I asked her about her landparcel. She did not hesitate to respond. She went on and on describing her design. She had afork, which I found interesting. I asked her what the fork was for and right away she said,

NBS LAND PARCEL

I discovered when students identified a landparcel in a “real location” to learn mapping skills i.e. directions, legends, then they were able to compare and contrast land parcels to see what they had left off or had plenty of

in their land parcels.

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“This is the playground of the school and this goes up when I sit here and this goes down (as she moved the fork) when my friend sits.” I was expecting her to tell me it was a place to eat. At that moment, I realized she had mastered the meaning of symbolism from the NBSIntroduction challenge.

This NBS Land Parcel challenge was followedby guided lessons in Social Studies, Math, Writing andOral Presentations. By this time, they began to write.They wrote one or two sentences describing theirland parcel. They were able to identify different typesof geometric shapes on their land parcel and compareit with that of a peer. I used the criteria list as a form of assessing thestudents. I created a rubric that goes along with theamount of needs they fulfilled on their challenge fromthe criteria list.

Pathway 5 (continued)

This was Karla’s land parcel. The feather represented the park. On the feather one could

see the fork that symbolized a seesaw.

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My kindergarten students did not have the

comprehension of what composes a neighborhood.

However, when I had them design a NBS Instant

Neighborhood they were able to identify many

segments of their community. They automatically

knew where to place certain building and land marks.

I noticed that one of my new students, who had

arrived three months prior to California from Mexico, was holding a toilet paper roll and had it

covered with tape. He looked up at me and stated, “hospital,” as he pointed to his design. I asked

him to tell me more, but that was all he was able to articulate. Either way, I hugged him to show

him to show him I was proud of his accomplishment and he throughout the day. He became more

involved in the lessons after this challenge.

From this challenge on, through guided lessons, the students compared and contrasted their

Pathway 6 NBS Instant Neighborhood Once their land parcels were placed together students saw that they had developed a neighborhood. Here they compared and contrasted their contributions to their real neighborhood…

NBS NEIGHBORHOOD

I discovered when students built a 3-D InstantNeighborhood to learn to identify the variousparts of their neighborhood, then they wereable to compare their designs to parts of their“real” neighborhood.

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Pathway 6 (continued)

NBS Neighborhood to their actual community. In Language Arts, they sorted objects in a

neighborhood by categories. In Social Studies, they used their design to identify a location of

objects using vocabulary such as near & far and left & right. Students learned Algebra concepts.

They classified objects by attributes and functions. They sorted and classified the number of

houses, places to feel better, places to shop, etc. on a graph then found what their neighborhood

lacked.

My assessment rubric was as followed:

50 pts ----- All needs from criteria list. In addition, briefly explain how and why their neighborhoods have those needs.

40 pts ----- Only shows four out of the six needs from the criteria list.

30 pts------ Only shows three out of the six needs from the criteria list.

15 pts------ Only shows two out the six needs from the list.

Overall the students scored between 40 to 50 points; I was pleased with the results.

Students used various materials from home andclassroom to construct their NBS Neighborhood.

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Pathway 7 NBS ShelterNow that they had a neighborhood and more people had settled nearby they discovered they needed more shelters for protection…

NBS SHELTER

I discovered when students created a shelterto learn to identify protection from badweather and attack, then they were able toevaluate if their neighborhood had enoughshelters to keep them safe.

This challenge spurred the student’s creativity. I had

them work in groups of two. They were able to put

themselves in the shoes of the shelter they pretended to be

(a skill learned from NBS New Skin challenge). They

created a place that was protection from bad weather, bad

people, and other dangers. One of the groups stated that

their shelter had three floors. Their strongest floor was the

bottom because it is built underground. They went on to say,

“In order to survive any danger they needed to build a strong

place.” They constructed an elevator in their shelter in case they

needed to get to the top

quickly. This shows the shelter with the three

floors. The plastic bottle was underground

and the elevator took them to the top.

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Guided lessons that followed this challenges were in Physical Science, Math, and Social

Studies. Students learned that different homes are built for different purposes. They learned

that the environment determined how and where shelters are built. Students were shown

different homes, dwellings, and shelters from the internet. From that they were asked to

choose one to compare and contrast to their own NBS Shelter.

As a form of assessment, I created a sheet with different types of scenarios on one side

and different types of shelters on the other. The students matched the scenario with

the type of shelter that protected them the best. Then gave an explanation in two complete

sentences.

Pathway 7 (continued)

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Pathway 8 NBS Movement SystemNow that they had identified completely with their New Skin, which brought to fulfillment a neighborhood and a place to call home, they identified the need to take resources to different places, hence a movement system was created…

Karen designed a movement system that used air

for motion. She decided to use an accessible resource in

her area. She described it like this, “The plastic bottle is

filled with air when the icicle (in side the bottle) turns a

different color. I know it is filled with air. The air then

moves up the straw into the feather and pops out the

cork. When the cork is popped the straw then takes people or

things anywhere they want.” This was one of the best description

I received. She was very articulate in explaining how

her movement system works.

NBS MOVEMENT SYSTEM

I discovered when students built a movement

system to learn about balance and motion,

they were able to establish that properties of

materials can be measured.

Karen’s creation of a NBSMovement System. She said,“It is moved by air.”

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Through the progression of challenges the students became more detailed in their

description of their designs. In the guided lessons they learned that early settlers did

not have a transportation system, they were creative in the way they moved objects. For

example, I taught them that long ago water from rivers created motion and would transport

logs from place to place. I took a long container with some width and poured some water into

it to demonstrate the motion of the river. I used pencils as the logs. After this demonstration,

the students were ready to design ways to balance and move (Science standard) heavy

objects around their neighborhood. I taught them The Scientific Method and they learned to

predict, observe, record, and re-evaluate their movement systems.

Pathway 8 (continued)

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Pathway 9 NBS Place To LearnThey became so excited, at the fact, that their New Skin had discovered so much in this journey, that they became eager to learn more as they explored their surrounding area in their movement system…

After completing eight challenges, I decided

to take a different approach with this challenge.

I gathered the students around our future

neighborhood, not only for review, but as a way for

them to see the neighborhood as a whole. Maybe

they would identify some of the items missing.

As soon as they sat down, I heard many of them talking

amongst themselves about their land parcel, which had been developed four weeks prior. By

looking at the future neighborhood, I wanted them to noticed that we did not have, a school.

This did not occur. So, I brought up an aerial map of a surrounding neighborhood. I told them,

“Let’s find out what this neighborhood has that our future neighborhood is lacking. They

created a checklist of what our future neighborhood had and what the aerial map neighborhood

had. For example, when they saw the hospital on the aerial may, they marked off a place to get

NBS PLACE TO LEARN

I discovered when students built a NBS Place to Learn they were able to identify different learningactivities that take place in a learning environmentthey compared and contrasted betweenschools of long ago and schools of today.

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better on our future neighborhood. When they came to our school, they looked and looked for a

place to learn in our future neighborhood, but they could not find one. This was the perfect

opportunity to ask them if they felt they needed a place to learn in the future neighborhood.

Emily raised her hand and said, “Yes we do, so we can get smarter.” Another student stated, “If

we don’t have a school, we can’t go to college.” I told them they were right. Our future

neighborhood needed a place to learn. I shared with them that maybe in the future those places

will be very different from our school. Now it was their turn to design a NBS place to learn as

they wanted it to look like. They began their design of a place to learn.

Pathway 9 (continued)

Student was focused in her design

of a place to learn (she is not aware

of the teacher taking her photo).

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Pathway 10Bearing in mind, that their New Skin had accomplished so much in this journey, students learned that they needed a symbol to mark establish their presence and prevent outsiders from taking control and disrupting their established neighborhood.

After completing this challenge, guided lessons were given on cooperation, working together, teamwork and citizenship were taught. The students learned that having pride was important and teamwork was a must! The students worked in teams and learned to cooperate and took much pride in helping one another. The KidsVille project was more effective then the teacher imagined. Now the neighborhood was completed and the established community would bloomed.

NBS SYMBOL

I discovered when students created a 3-D symbol torepresent their neighborhood they learned about beinga good citizen, then were able to understand publicvirtue and the role of a good citizen.

The students were working as a team to create their NBS symbol.

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Pathway 10 (continued)

Jonathan was proud to show his symbol he said, “It is tall so everyone can see it and it will make them feel good about being part of our neighborhood.

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I started the project with doubts that kindergarteners could not comprehend what wasexpected of them. I recall, in several occasions, sitting in class doubting if the Design-BasedLearning was a learning method I wanted to implement in my classroom. Today, I know it was the best thing I could have offered my students. I saw a significant grow in my studentsvocabulary and way of thinking. I found changes in my thinking too.

When I began DBL I thought the students were not going to understand the concept ofsymbolism, so I decided to combine both the first and the second challenge…NBS Introand NBS New Skin. However, after implementing DBL for a whole year and discovering thatstudents were able to make connections and demonstrate higher-level thinking skills. I changedmy mind and decided to separate the NBS Intro and NBS New Skin. The results were significant. I started to see a difference in my teaching. I became more confident with my teaching. I learned

to take a back seat and allow myself to listen to my students and not jump up and givethem the answer. I learned to challenge my students with higher-level thinking questionsand allow the time for them to respond. They could do it. I saw it done over and over in the

Reflection

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process of my project. In the past students often lacked interest on what was being taught. I had

always tried to find strategies that would get the students excited about the curriculum and making

it come to life. Well, I accomplished this with my project! My students made connections with

the curriculum. So much so, that after three challenges they continued to apply the concept of

symbolism.

Starting out as a teacher I transformed myself from using a textbook as a only resource and

teaching by themes, to an educator who presents a comprehensive year long curriculum that

weaves across all subjects. I learned to guide and motivate my students to take control of their

learning and management of the class. I learned to listen to them as they develop their

problem-solving skills. I now look at the whole school year as beautiful puzzle where parts fit

together to make learning jump off the page.

40

Reflection (continued)