Personal Interest Projects: How successful are they?

 Just worked with grade 6 and 7 students on a project that I call Personal Interest Projects....or Individual Projects. This is where students choose their own topic to research and create products of learning that demonstrate their understanding and passion of their area of study.

 For teachers in gifted education, a Personal Interest study is a project idea that we encourage classroom teachers to use.  I often tell teachers that it is a great way to extend the learning of their students... and I give them strategies on how to create this process in their class.

 However, I am not really sold on the idea of just handing over this process to a student, and I really wanted to experiment with this project to see how it worked in a span of only four days.

 Although the process is interesting, I think to get a really detailed and stellar project from students, there needs to be a huge teacher directed component to this endeavour.  This includes lots of scaffolding, breaking down the steps, and providing detailed feedback for students. 

 Still, it was challenging.  Although students were able to easily choose their topics, it was more challenging to refine the topic and push for deeper understanding, detail, and a well researched project.

 The topics chosen were:  aliens, photography, the French Revolution, aerodynamics, coca-cola, Theodore Roosevelt, the Hunger Games series, Secretariat (the horse), Hip Hop dance, Mars Exploration, John Lennon, Apollo 13, and chocolate.

 Each student had an interesting take on their subject; most students created powerpoint or PREZI presentations.  It was great to see how versed they were in making presentations using the smart board, researching their topics on line, and comfortably presenting their ideas to each other.

 Yet, I think that my unit on Images of Greatness was much more successful; simply because the topic range was not so huge.....in Images, a student chose an eminent person and I gave specific criteria that each student had to have in their project. 

 However, in this unit, the range was huge....in trying to find out about their topic, many students did not know where to start or what to include.  I met with each individually to help provide the structure and the format. 

The process of researching and presenting a topic of this nature is challenging for students. Some have never done this before, and for others, it is part of their regular curriculum...

 Over the years I have managed this process and the most successful Interest Projects where ones where I had lots of time to work with students.  I required a written report as part of the criteria, and I would spend weeks on teaching students how to take effective notes, how to make an outline, how to write a rough draft, how to edit first drafts, and how to reference resources.  Students would create detailed and well written projects, and then, I would have them make their presentations from here - using powerpoint, etc.  This is so I would at least be guaranteed a well written and detailed document about their project.

However, with only 3 days of work ( needed the last day to do presentations), it was hard to get detailed drafts and I had to shorten the process.

Overall, it was a great experience and the projects were interesting and wonderful!  Thanks PIPer's! 

Teachers, have you done Personal Interest Projects in your class? Did it work for you and for the students?  Was there valuable learning as a result?


I am very interested to know how this process works in other learning environments!

Personal Interest Projects: How successful are they?

 Just worked with grade 6 and 7 students on a project that I call Personal Interest Projects....or Individual Projects. This is where students choose their own topic to research and create products of learning that demonstrate their understanding and passion of their area of study.

 For teachers in gifted education, a Personal Interest study is a project idea that we encourage classroom teachers to use.  I often tell teachers that it is a great way to extend the learning of their students... and I give them strategies on how to create this process in their class.

 However, I am not really sold on the idea of just handing over this process to a student, and I really wanted to experiment with this project to see how it worked in a span of only four days.

 Although the process is interesting, I think to get a really detailed and stellar project from students, there needs to be a huge teacher directed component to this endeavour.  This includes lots of scaffolding, breaking down the steps, and providing detailed feedback for students. 

 Still, it was challenging.  Although students were able to easily choose their topics, it was more challenging to refine the topic and push for deeper understanding, detail, and a well researched project.

 The topics chosen were:  aliens, photography, the French Revolution, aerodynamics, coca-cola, Theodore Roosevelt, the Hunger Games series, Secretariat (the horse), Hip Hop dance, Mars Exploration, John Lennon, Apollo 13, and chocolate.

 Each student had an interesting take on their subject; most students created powerpoint or PREZI presentations.  It was great to see how versed they were in making presentations using the smart board, researching their topics on line, and comfortably presenting their ideas to each other.

 Yet, I think that my unit on Images of Greatness was much more successful; simply because the topic range was not so huge.....in Images, a student chose an eminent person and I gave specific criteria that each student had to have in their project. 

 However, in this unit, the range was huge....in trying to find out about their topic, many students did not know where to start or what to include.  I met with each individually to help provide the structure and the format. 

The process of researching and presenting a topic of this nature is challenging for students. Some have never done this before, and for others, it is part of their regular curriculum...

 Over the years I have managed this process and the most successful Interest Projects where ones where I had lots of time to work with students.  I required a written report as part of the criteria, and I would spend weeks on teaching students how to take effective notes, how to make an outline, how to write a rough draft, how to edit first drafts, and how to reference resources.  Students would create detailed and well written projects, and then, I would have them make their presentations from here - using powerpoint, etc.  This is so I would at least be guaranteed a well written and detailed document about their project.

However, with only 3 days of work ( needed the last day to do presentations), it was hard to get detailed drafts and I had to shorten the process.

Overall, it was a great experience and the projects were interesting and wonderful!  Thanks PIPer's! 

Teachers, have you done Personal Interest Projects in your class? Did it work for you and for the students?  Was there valuable learning as a result?


I am very interested to know how this process works in other learning environments!

Personal Interest Projects...next Challenge Centre!!!

Our next unit of study is called "Personal Interest Projects".  Students will be invited to create their own projects on an area of interest.  The project does not have to be about a famous or eminent person, but instead, about an area of interest.  Students will create a learning station about their topic and share this with the rest of the group.  

I am excited to learn about the projects and ideas the students will bring forth.  See you soon!

Personal Interest Projects...next Challenge Centre!!!

Our next unit of study is called "Personal Interest Projects".  Students will be invited to create their own projects on an area of interest.  The project does not have to be about a famous or eminent person, but instead, about an area of interest.  Students will create a learning station about their topic and share this with the rest of the group.  

I am excited to learn about the projects and ideas the students will bring forth.  See you soon!

Images of Greatness 2011: Letting it Rip...

 When working with a group of students who you do not know, and asking them to produce a large project in a few short days is a huge "leap of faith".  

This is the Challenge Centre.....letting the students "Go For It..." and creating something spectacular.  I have to rely on the fact that  I am asking them to step out of their comfort zone and create projects that are open ended and do not have a specific format.  I want them to decide on how they will share their learning and create their own interpretations.

 I give the students lots of criteria, show them lots of examples, and give them lots of options. 

 However, I rely on them to come up with their projects.  I am there to help them and facilitate the learning, but I really leave it up to them to decide what they want to create. 

 For some students, this is new and frightening.  For others, this is what they always do.  However, I have clear expectations about how we make this place safe so that all of our learning, wherever we are, is encouraged, and accepted.

 Celebrated. 

 In this particular unit, I wanted students to learn from the lives of "famous" people....and take this learning and apply to their own lives.  I want them to ask themselves, "What did this person do?"   and "Why are their accomplishments important to us, now?"  and "what hardships did this person have to overcome?".

 I also encouraged students to dress "in role" of the person they studied, to get into character of being this person.  Because of time constraints, and depending upon who the person is, some students were able to be in role, while others found it more difficult.

Students were encouraged to bring in laptops to work on their projects

 Many chose to do powerpoint presentations: this one is on Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party

 A great project on Leonardo daVinci

 An alphabet book about Steve Jobs

 Martin Luther King Jr.

 Products of learning:  a model (bird's eye view) of Washington Monument when MLK jr. made his famous "I have a dream" speech

 Model of Martin Luther King Jr.

 Backboard projects

A painting

 Model of Anne Frank's annex; where her family and her hid; an interesting interpretation of the project....I appreciated the diversity of ideas.

 Time line of Anne Frank's life

 Project on David Suzuki; well researched and displayed.

 Project on Nefertiti, in a question and answer format.

An alphabet book was a popular choice.

 Queen Elizabeth 1

 Nefertiti time line...tea stained to make it look like an artifact.

Models of DaVinci's famous inventions.

I encourage the students to experiment, and make mistakes. I encourage them to try new things.....for example, one student spent a great deal of time on a product of learning and then decided not to use it in her presentation.  It was a valuable lesson and learning opportunity to realize we create things that may not be part of our overall plan, but it is still worthwhile to explore.

I was impressed with all the hard work and valuable learning.  We crammed all of our presentations into the afternoon and a bit of the morning, and we barely had time for questions, or feedback.

As well, I had no time to edit and proofread student's work.  If I had them for another day or two, I would have built this into the program -  so much of the work is not edited and in its "raw format".  I am always struggling with this aspect of the program, but since we have such as short time together, I have to "let this go", so to speak.

Thank you grade six and sevens; you are well on your way to being powerful and engaged learners!