With private school application deadlines looming, I’m racing to get a few more private school tour notes posted. I just added notes on San Francisco Friends School and Presidio Hill School to the database. (I also hope I can get write-ups together on French American International and Chinese American International early this week, but may run out of time.)
In putting together these notes, I found myself left with a few broader questions. Both Friends and PHS are schools that emphasize project-based learning. I didn’t toured every private PBL school in San Francisco (you’ll see the list of private schools we toured and why here), but we did visit a few. After these tours, I definitely have a much better understanding of PBL. But I’d also like to hear thoughts from parents who are either currently in PBL schools, or who decided to go in another direction.
First, for context, here are some vignettes from our tours of PHS and Friends. As you’ll see, I had clearer impressions from some classroom visits than I did others.
- In the second-grade classroom, students had chosen a medieval theme for the year, complete with a castle built at one end of the room. During our visit, the kids were working on writing “flipped” fairy tales, or retellings of traditional versions. Many students were busy scribbling -- one girl, for example, was crafting a story about a witch who used her broom to sweep floors instead of ride through the skies. A few boys, though, were doodling or drawing pictures instead of writing. It was hard to tell if they were being given a chance to express a different learning preference, or if they just weren’t engaged in the assignment.
- In a fifth-grade math room, students were working on multiplication by looking at a screen projection showing a problem and three solutions. None of the solutions provided the exact answer. Instead, the class was being asked to say which was the closest answer, and why. The students were all engaged in the discussion – no one seemed lost or checked out.
- In the middle school science lab, students were learning about homeostatis by putting ice cubes in water and then using a mix of heat, water, and more ice to keep the temperature at a constant state for 20 minutes. The kids were all engaged, laughing, breaking up big chunks of ice with a hammer, and busily checking their thermometers and timers.
- In a kindergarten room, students were working on their “magic letters.” As their teacher explained it, the class had been assigned a few letters of the alphabet that day – C, O, and Q. Then they started working with those letters, laying them out with sticks, writing them in the air, writing them on each other’s backs, and then finally writing them on paper. The kids were working enthusiastically and having a great time.
- In a middle school math classroom, the students were working on fractions by building bridges out of popsicle sticks and rubber bands. One explained to us that the bridges would later be tested for their weight-bearing capacity as a demonstration of ratios and denominators. Some of the kids, though, didn’t seem focused on the task at hand, and were talking among themselves about other things. The teacher also didn't seem directly engaged in the activity, and was instead sitting up at the front of the classroom working on a laptop. Overall, I didn’t get a clear sense of exactly what was being taught, how the topic was being taught at that time, or if all the students were involved.
I’m not presenting these vignettes as total representations of these schools. Instead, I’m offering them as a way to get perspectives on project-based learning. In some of the above, I got a good sense of the educational dynamic. In others, it was less clear.
Parents with kids in PBL schools, what has your experience been? How do PBL schools stand out? How do you measure what your kids have learned, and what have you found important? Or, if you chose a different type of school, why?
While the above examples reflect Friends and PHS, perspectives from other private PBL schools are definitely welcome. It'd also be great to hear from parents with children in public schools with PBL programs, such as SF Community, Creative Arts Charter, and Clarendon.