The question we asked teachers at Founders: "How do you exercise the teaching methods of project based learning, debates, and Harkness and Socratic style discussions in your classroom at The Founders Academy?" This blog post on the subject is a response from Ms. Small, a Writing Lab and English teacher.
Ms. Small:
I use project based learning to assess multiple skills in one project and encourages high level thinking and synthesizing of information. Projects with real world applications make schoolwork meaningful.
Harkness style discussions in my classroom encourage critical thinking and text-based analysis. I love this method of teaching because it transforms the work of making meaning into a collaborative, student-centered process. It also supports a positive classroom environment, where students encourage and support each other as thinkers and learners.