Reading Reflection 3

              When starting a project identifying the "big ideas" is the first step in project planning.. The "big idea" for a project it the concepts and processes. To determine the "big idea" as a teacher you need to ask what core concepts and processes should the students know once they complete the project. Once we decide on the concepts we need to reflect on why these are important
         
             When looking at the big picture of the project you also need to take into account how this will help students develop 21st century skills. These important 21st century skills are:

• Remember(Knowledge)
• Understand(Comprehension)
• Apply
• Analyze(Examine, explain, investigate)
• Evaluate(Judge, select, decide)
• Create(Synthesis) 

            While learning 21st century skills students learn 21st century literacy.  21st century literacy encourages learning to be independent, aware, and helps create productive citizens. Students can take what they learn in the class room and apply it to real life situations out in the world.

          There are many essential learning functions that are used to help students accomplish their goals. The essential learning functions are as followed:

1. Ubiquity; Learning inside and outside the classroom, all the time. Things that promote ubiquity are mobile tools that helps students learn wherever they are. This encourages student to keep learning anytime and anywhere.
2. Deep Learning. We want to encourage students to go beyond the "filtered" information and try to make sense of the "raw" information. 
3. Making Things Visible and Discussable. We want to student to learn by showing not telling. We want to use visual representation to help our students learn as much as possible. 
4. Expressing Ourselves, Sharing Ideas, Building Community. With the availability of the internet we can easily share ideas with people all over the world. Knowledge is flowing from all over, and its at our fingertips. 
5. Collaboration-Teaching and Learning with others. Collaboration is essential for projects. Collaboration helps us learn together and share ideas. 
6. Research. Project will almost always involve research and with the internet, it has never been easier. You can yield thousands of results at a moment. Students need to filter through the information and make sure they are getting quality information. 
7. Project Management:Planning and Organization. Project management helps students manage time, work sources, drafts, feedback, and products throughout the project. This encourages organization and planning throughout the project. 
8. Reflection and Iteration. You get the most out of a project when you examine all possible sides to the story. Students will learn more when they look at other people's point of view. 

This chapter relates to our project because we need to go through all the essential learning functions in order to have a great project. Every step will be used at some point during out project. With this project we also want to help develop 21st century skills in ourselves and students.