The GREAT Project. Probably nothing else in the new GREAT curriculum has been the topic of as much heated discussion and planning headaches as this one component. When I went through the training to pilot the new curriculum in November 2000, that was the one addition that caused me the most worry. Won't this cause a lot of extra work for the teachers? How do we get the students to do this? And most of all, WHAT IS IT? After teaching the new curriculum for a year and a half, with much trial and error, I have come up with a few suggestions to help make the GREAT Project a little less intimidating.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
This has been a stumbling block for more than one class. When you first introduce the project, many students get grandiose plans only to realize later that time, material, money and other restrictions keep their ideas from coming to fruition. I have found that one simple idea is the best.
INVOLVE THE WHOLE CLASS
In my experience, a simple project involving the whole class works the best. The work is spread out among all the students and the teacher does not have to allocate as much class time to allow the students to work on the individual or small group projects.
USE EXISTING PROGRAMS
Many schools and classrooms already do community service programs. It is rather simple to incorporate these into the GREAT project. Many times the students do not realize they are doing "community service." Because one of the goals of the project is to give the students a sense of community, often times the best way to do this is to open their eyes to what they are already doing.
REMEMBER, THIS IS SUPPOSE TO BE FUN!
Ultimately, this will decide the success or failure of the project. It is never fun for anyone to worry about a big project, extra work and the time needed to do it. I have found that if the whole class is working on a simple project, they will usually enjoy what they are doing. My special education class did a video on anti-violence. Every student had a small part. They had a ball doing the video, and showing it off to their schoolmates.
This spring, two of my GREAT classes were struggling with ideas for the project. After talking with the teachers, I discovered that the two classrooms go to a local elementary school to help first-grade students with math and reading. The teachers asked the students what they thought about doing a video showing their work at the school. Many of the students did not even realize this was "community service." Once approached with this idea, the students immediately started bouncing ideas off the teacher about doing the video. The students will write an introduction and conclusion, and each student will be videoed helping one of the elementary kids. It was a simple idea, involving the whole class, using an already existing program, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. I hope these suggestions help you and take some of the fear out of the GREAT project, and make it what is should be, simple and fun!
