Project Based Learning and The Great Gatsby #EngChat

I'm a huge advocate for Project Based Learning. One of my favorite lessons is the one for The Great Gatsby. The assignment is very straightforward. Create something that explains two characters, a symbol, and a theme using a medium of your choosing. I always get some amazing projects and this year has been great. I have had great works of art and a student even built his own green light!

I am writing this post to showcase one of the best I have ever received. Here is a rap battle written and performed by four of my students. The nail the lyrics and one of the students created the beats using Garageband. If you have a few minutes, please listen to the song and leave them a message. They would really appreciate it.

Student Declarations of Independence

Note: This post is updated as of April 2025. I added the original lesson and a Space from SchoolAI to level up the assignment. Let me know on social if you use this with your students. 

Here is a link to a Google Doc of the original assignment including the awful rubric that should have never been given to anyone in the first place. If you want a better one, here is one I generated using the rubric generator. 

Here is the SchoolAI Space I built that would have been a wonderful aid to the students that struggled to get started with their Declaration. 

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My students created their Student Declarations of Independence last week and I wanted to share them with you. I have been doing this project on and off for the past 10 years and it is always fun for me to see what the students think is important in school and their daily life. After reading the Declaration of Independence, I ask students to come up with their own declarations based on certain issues they have with my class, the school or the district. Here is a sample of their work.

Franny A's Group

Let it be known that we are entitled to certain rights as high school students. Namely, we have the Right to Sanity, Happiness, Physical Well-Being, Expression and Proper Accommodations...

Elyse B's Group

There are times in life when those without authority or any means of assuming authority must stand up for what they believe in. When it impacts the life they will lead, and the path to success in achieving their dreams, they should be permitted to make their opinions heard. In those occasions when an entire group of people agree upon changes that must be made, it should be in the best interest of those with authority over the aforementioned group to put their best effort in to reaching the prospect of the changes deemed necessary...

Grace H's Group

The students are the majority of the population at Grosse Pointe South. Therefore it is only fair that the student body make most of the decisions, or at least get a say in the matter. Instead we are forced to go to a school where we don’t agree with half of the rules and policies. We, the student body, are taking a stand. The student body is revolting against the school, the board and Mr. Provenzano...

Andrew A's Group

There are times in life when those without authority or any means of assuming authority must stand up for what they believe in. When it impacts the life they will lead, and the path to success in achieving their dreams, they should be permitted to make their opinions heard. In those occasions when an entire group of people agree upon changes that must be made, it should be in the best interest of those with authority over the aforementioned group to put their best effort in to reaching the prospect of the changes deemed necessary. 

Adelle V's Group

We come to this school to learn, not to deal with these oppressive teachers and rules, which crush the basic rights of the children of Grosse Pointe South.  If students are not learning in this school then what is this place for?  Having power over these students, making money on the tyrannical government we call the administration?  Our school is made for the students, not the needs of the teachers or staff.

These are just a few of the Student Declarations created in my three classes. I'm very proud of the work they have done this year. The students have been posting on blogs and writing in class. When the iPads get to class, I'll be very excited to start trying some new things with them. So far, they have not turned a single assignment in using paper. The iPads will really allow me to go deeper with assignments. Stay tuned for more details. 

- @TheNerdyTeacher

 

Super Secret Project is ready!

My 5th Hour Freshmen English students wanted to create a special project for the students of Van Meter High School. My other classes were working on various projects to introduce the students of Van Meter to Michigan, Detroit and our city of Grosse Pointe. They thought it would be cool if they gave a tour of the school but did it with a Lip Dub. I supported the kids in their project, but told them this project would be on them to organize and execute. For two weeks, the kids broke into groups and worked on various parts of the project. Some students were in charge of props and others were in charge of getting permission from the administration to film at school in the morning. A couple of students had their math class figure out the distance that could be covered during the length of the songs that were chosen! It was so exciting to see the students work on something they were passionate about. My only rules were that everyone participate and that they write a short reflective piece (That can be found here). Please feel free to comment on the Kidblog; the kids would love to receive feedback from other people. The kids worked hard and what you are going to see is the completed video. The students are still editing to come up with a directors cut with bloopers, credits, etc. More than anything, this truly shows what students can accomplish when they are give the chance to be creative. I hope you enjoy the video.






The songs in this video are Happy Together by The Turtles (Covered by Simple Plan), Our Time Now by the Plain White Tees and Here It Goes Again by OK GO.

Student Created Web2.0 Projects - Catcher in the Rye

Here are some great examples of student work I've been bragging about for the past few days. I tweeted some yesterday, but these were too good to live in Twitterland alone. The students have been great at posting on the presenters personal Wallwisher. It keeps them focused and the presenter has a great collection of comments to review later that day. The entire project is working very well and can be used with any content area. Take a look at the different projects and let me know what you think and I will pass them on to the students.

Here is one great example of a Blabberize created by a student.



Here is a cool project that used GoAnimate!

GoAnimate.com: Catcher in the Rye by Giggles415

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Here is a Puppet Show by two students. Just goofy good times.


Here is a very cool blog a student created. It's a site selling The Catcher in the Rye T-shirts. The best part about this project is that she actually made the shirts and gave them to me. Free swag always gets you a good grade! :-)

Here are just a few examples of what my students can do. There is another one I can't put up yet that is amazing. A student tooks clips from the movie Stand By Me and linked it up to the story line of The Catcher in the Rye. It was just good stuff. He used Tubechop.com and it worked very well. Please leave a comment if you liked something or have a suggestion to improve the lesson. I'm always open to becoming a better teacher and making lesson stronger for the kids. I'll have some more projects later in the week. Thanks for stopping.