I decided to start Project Based Learning with my class after Pesach. I teach 11th grade Chumash nonhonors in an all girls Yeshiva High School. This year I have only 10 students. Some of the class have been enjoying it very much how I've been running it until now (combination of pesukim translation and analysis, discussion, and review b'chevrusa work). But some of the students are bored and dissatisfied and talking a lot.
Right now the breakdown is:
2 eager to learn
2 talk or leave or sleep
1 extremely vocal about dissatisfaction and causing a negative vibe in classroom
1 very talkative but also participatory when interested
+4 fairly satisfied with status quo
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10 students
Although the majority of girls (6) are happy with the way the class has been going, the other 4 have been disruptive or talkative. I've been increasingly frustrated trying to teach people who don't want to learn.
I have been thinking a lot about the concept of handing them a Devarim and saying, "Go learn. I'm here for questions."
To do this, I've decided to use wikispaces. I created a classroom called Devarim and assigned each student a username and password.
I made a page with a list of suggested topics, and a page with a link to pesukim and translations, and a page with a link to mefarshim (daat and sefaria).
When I told them we were going to do this after Pesach, the people who are disruptive were very excited about it. One or two others expressed dismay. They don't like projects and they like being taught. I figured maybe we would do some days of the week I focus on guiding the PBL, and some days a week I would do frontal teaching for those who prefer that.
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