Project Based, Authentic Learning This Term

I have put a lot of thought into what I wanted the children to cover and learn this term.  Gary and I had decided we needed to up the ante for every child from B4 to T14.  This year I will be using an eclectic mix of project based learning, studying for exams, interest led learning, sibling/group learning and our usual unit studies, all the while ensuring the children are learning in a very authentic and real way.

Project Based Learning

I have been in collaboration with the children and we have come up with some ideas which have us all pretty excited.  Currently the younger girls and I are studying Mesopotamia using my own literature based unit.  The older ones have already studied Mesopotamia in-depth many years ago.  I thought this might be a good time to bring in projects based on the littles’ current learning and on the older ones’ previous learning.  So all of the children’s projects will be based around ancient Mesopotamia.  In fact, all of the children’s projects will be based on The Golden Bull, a book written about and set in ancient Mesopotamia.

Project Based Learning: Building a Model of Ur

The little ones, with some help from me, will be building the city of Ur from bits and pieces we have around the house.  This city will include the city walls, a ziggurat, houses, markets….

Through this project, the girls will have to do some research into what a city like Ur would have looked like and what it may have contained.

Project Based Learning: The Music of Mesopotamia

T14 is big into his music at the moment, and currently building his own bass guitar.  His project will be to research the music of ancient Mesopotamia, focusing in particular on the lyre.  He will write a research project on the lyre, and then set about designing and building his own hand-held one.  He will finish off his project by writing a song which would not have sounded out of place during this time in history and learning to play it on his home-made lyre.

Project Based Learning: Jewellery of Mesopotamia

L13 is nuts about jewellery making and spends all her free time fiddling with wire and beads.  Her project will be to research the different types of jewellery made in ancient Mesopotamia, create a design board of how she will go about replicating some of it, and then following through by making some of her very own based on the designs she has learnt about.  She is in jewellery maker’s heaven and has been going over and above my requirements in terms of time.

Project Based Learning: Gilgamesh and the Bible

C13 has been stretching herself recently with the literature she has been reading, what with Milton’s Paradise Lost and now Hugo’s Les Miserable, which even T14 found hard.  She is also fascinated by all things Bible so together we came up with a project I know she will find hard but will stretch her even further to apply what she is learning from the literature she reads.  To this end she will be writing a well researched piece comparing the Epic of Gilgamesh to the Bible.  She will be focusing on the Flood story which exists in each; the idea of immortality; as well as the after life.

C13’s project is much more intensive and less hands on, but I really want her to push herself past her comfort level with her writing.  I will be discussing every stage with her which will hopefully help her to feel well supported and not so overwhelmed.

As IGCSE’s are now a very real occurrence in this house, I want to make sure I am breaking up the intensity of serious study with some fun unit studies and a bit of project based learning.  I am not ready for my older children to leave their childhood just yet, and am trying to alternate the serious with the fun.

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