Project-Based Homeschooling
Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 09:00AM 
What is a project? What is the difference between a project, a theme, and a unit?
A theme is just like a party theme. If you are throwing a Cinderella party, you buy Cinderella plates, Cinderella goody bags, and a Cinderella cake. If a Kindergarten class is doing a pumpkin theme, they count pumpkin erasers, cut and paste a pumpkin face at the “art” table, and read a pumpkin story during circle time.
A unit is a planned course of study including lessons and activities. It may be interdisciplinary — involving language arts (reading, writing), science, math, etc.
A project is an open-ended investigation of a topic, driven by inquiry — posing questions, answering those questions, and uncovering new questions along the way.
These terms are mixed freely. People talk of “thematic units”, “project approach units”, “project themes”, etc. People do units that are really projects, and they do projects that are really units.
For our purposes, in a project,
• the child chooses the topic to be studied,
• the child directs his or her own learning,
and
• the parameters are not predefined (length, breadth, or depth).
The point of project work isn’t to impart a particular group of facts, but rather to help a child master the skills of learning.
Projects provide the part of the curriculum in which children are encouraged to make their own decisions and choices — usually in cooperation with their peers and in consultation with their teachers — about the work to be undertaken. — Lilian Katz, “What Can We Learn from Reggio Emilia?”
Reader Comments (8)
I have to admit, I've been questioning myself because I did NOT purchase a curriculum. What I know is that we are someplace between standard 3rd and 4th grade subject matter - strengthening the basics (in review perhaps) for math. In other areas, Helen is learning to drive an outboard motor and how it works -- not on the radar as a standard learning objective, but invaluable in terms of 'life learning.'
I really want to encourage her to take on a project but since she is accustomed to (and expecting) a classroom directed structure, I'm not quite sure how to open that door.
Also .. “life learning” .. I don’t think you could identify a practical, usable life skill that couldn’t fit into an existing learning objective. ;^)
Have you or anyone reading read "Teaching Parents to Do Projects at Home" by Judy Harris Helm? I have the book and will be reading it in the near future. I'm excited that you've been writing more on your blog-your work is so practical and interesting.
Also-did you all do much documentation at your school?
Nancy
i have not read that specific book but i have read "young investigators" and other work by judy. as you know, i don’t follow a strict “project approach” approach. ;^) but i like to read everything anyway, and take what does work for me!
documentation was a crucial part of what we were doing at our school, and it was a major focus of our professional development efforts. documentation was, for me, the way that we studied how the children learned and how we could improve our efforts to support their learning. i can’t overemphasize its importance to our program.