The Project Approach – project examples (Illinois Early Learning Project)https://illinoisearlylearning.org/resources/pa/projects/The Project Approach I chose was dancing1. work to find out what the children know and have experienced about the topic. What are some ways you can do this? Some possibilities are: read and discuss a book with the children, put some items related to your project in centers and watch how children play with them/talk about them, invite children to draw about the topic and then dictate about their drawings, etc. Then at some point web with the children (refer to Helm & Katz, pp. 74-76 & camera web – Figure 6.3). Take a photo of this web and post it on the forum. What did you learn from this experience? What do you feel worked well when webbing with the children, what was challenging, and/or what would you do differently?2. As part of Phase I spend time talking and listening to the children. What are they wondering about? What do they want to find out about the topic? What are their questions? Post their questions on this forum. (Keep in mind that you can continue to add children’s questions as you are working with them.) Refer to p. 29 of Helm and Katz (Developing Questions for Investigation) for suggestions.3. After you have some questions from the children think about how you can support them in investigating a question (or some of their questions). Ask the children for their ideas of how they could learn about it. What could they do? Who could they talk to (possible experts). Children often have good ideas of how they want to find out. Support the children, listen to them, and help them carry their ideas.*Remember that the children’s questions are to guide what you and the children are doing for Phase II. How can you help them to investigate their questions and learn more?Then post the question (or questions) that you helped the children investigate for Phase II. What did you and the children do? What did the children find out?Comments from Customerhttps://www.npr.org/2022/03/24/1088506487/us-ukraine-refugees4. What new information did you learn about the war in Ukraine? How did reading the NPR article help you better understand the situation of Ukrainian refugees? How does the article point to the need for teachers being prepared for serving ELLs in U.S. schools?
