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Using Projects in the Classroom - Why?

I use projects throughout the year with my grade 4 students. I find that students are more attracted, more stimulated, more interested, more reactive, and more vocal when they are working on projects. Just the very word "projects"  seems to be a springboard to more excitement. Once underway in projects, students will use basic reading and math skills, but they will also use socialization/community skills and blend both of these skill domains into a way of learning that can potentially meet the needs of many learning levels. My classroom is typically populated by kids, some of which are low readers, some excellent readers, some loners, some party animals, some problem solvers, some who think they cannot do math, and so on... a variety of kids, all unique, all kids.  So how do we teach this varied group? A large dose of PBL - not exclusively projects, but a major portion of in-school time is focused on projects.

Here is a link to a Google doc showing three categories of projects that I use in my grade 4 classroom:

1. Classroom-to-Classroom Projects

2. Multiple School projects

3. In Class projects

Link to Terry Smith Project Information

Here's an 'album' of Terry's videos on TeacherTube.