World-Shaker

Five-Minute Film Festival: Tips and Tools for PBL Planning →

Such a great list of YouTube videos for learning about PBL, accompanied by a great list of supporting articles and sites. Here are the first three videos:

1. Project-Based Learning: Explained. (03:50)

   First, let’s get the basics out of the way. This video is a great tool for when you just need to describe PBL in four minutes. Created by the Buck Institute for Education (BIE) — a one-stop resource for PBL tools.

2. Tips For Building Projects (06:17)

   The audio is a little low on this teacher-produced screen-capture video, but it does a great job outlining the basics things you should be thinking about in your initial project planning stages.

3. BIE’s Project Planner Tutorial (02:02)

   BIE offers a powerul and simple online tool, the Project Planner, for organizing your ideas while putting together a project. You must sign up for a free account, but you can save and print your work to your profile.

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Project Based Learning Made Easy With Blended Learning

Posting because of the awesome PBL Teaching Module Template. The whole article is worth a read, but if you want the direct link to this doc, it’s here as a PDF: http://www.edutopia.org/teachingmodules/PBL/pdfs/Project_Template.pdf

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What’s the Difference Between Doing Projects and Project Based Learning? [FREE GOOGLE DOC]

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Feedback, feed-forward, peer-assessment and project-based learning →

This is by far one of my favorite posts of the year, and the best I’ve seen on feedback in a long time. It’s worth the time it takes to read and re-read (and you should re-read it).

I stole my scaffold for peer and self-assessment from Geoff Petty. I think he’s great because he shares so many wonderful resources for free online. Petty argues that too much of the feedback we give students is BACKWARD looking and often this feedback is quantitative (numerical e.g. 7/10; 70%), but even qualitative feedback (words e.g. ‘You didn’t begin your sentences with a capital letter.’) more often than not looks backwards at what WAS done or, typically, WASN’T done. Petty advocates for a method of feedback that is both backwards and forwards looking, and to do that he uses the ‘goals, medals, missions‘ protocol. It’s really neat because the language is accessible to all age groups and is non-threatening. Essentially the ‘goals’ are the criteria for the product (be it a short film, an essay or a presentation) and the ‘medals’ are what has been achieved (this is the backward looking stuff) and always takes the form of positive statements, e.g. ‘Your introduction is strong.’ The ‘missions’ are the important part of the protocol – this is ‘feed-forward’ as it is looking at what the student needs to work on to improve the product.

10 Takeaway Tips for Project-Based Learning →

Here’s one:

Start Small When You’re New

Project learning doesn’t happen overnight or even over one school year. It’s a process that veteran teachers say takes up to five years to fully implement. (See “What Works in 5 mins, 5 days…”). In the beginning, limit the scope of your projects. You can get more ambitious as you gain experience.

You may also have to start this process alone or with one other gregarious teacher. Creating a cultural shift in a school from teachers working alone in their classrooms to a model of collaboration and interdisciplinary projects usually requires support from the top. (See Ten Big Ideas of School Leadership).

Why Learning Should Be Messy →

A must-read, and probably the best article I’ve seen in a few months.

Why hasn’t project-based learning picked up yet? There are a few reasons. First, the model of education says principal Chris Lehmann where kids sit in rows, read textbooks, and hear lectures has lasted so long, because it never goes that wrong. “It’s boring as hell, but most principals don’t yell at their teachers if they walk by their classroom and all they see is a quiet classroom with kids reading the textbook. No one gets in trouble.”

“If you go into a classroom,” says Lehmann, “where there isn’t that structure, kids aren’t exactly on pace, projects look messy, and it’s loud, teachers have gotten in trouble for that.”

Second, the way students attempt to learn via projects does not work. Tulley says, “It amounts to kit-based experiences in 45 minute periods. ‘We’re going to do a biology kit.’ We already know that those recipe like exercises do not stimulate creativity.”

I also spoke with Harvard Professor Eric Mazur on this issue as well. He says, “You can have students do laboratories and hands-on activities and learn nothing, because they are following the cookbook and going through the motions without having their brains on. The word ‘hands-on’ is overused and abused.”

The role of the teacher in project-based learning as Laufenberg likes to say is an “architect of opportunity. Through a scaffolding strategy, they help us make sense of what we have learned. Still, teachers must understand that learning is uncomfortable, messy, and complicated.”

6 Easy Steps for Designing Problem-Based Learning Assignments →

Here are the first three (click through for the rest):

1. Start with the standards. Identify the content, skills, and concepts you plan to cover in a specified unit of time, such as in a three-week period.
2. Think application. Ask yourself, “When would someone use this knowledge in the real world? So what? Why?”
3. Think authenticity and relevancy. Students always want to know why they have to learn something. Authentic assignments show them why! Students are more motivated when they’re given work that is realistic and that reflects something they might actually have to do in the real world, beyond school doors. Here’s what inauthentic vs. authentic assignments look like:
   

   Inauthentic: Create a model of an ecosystem and describe the lifecycle and food-chain relations to it.
    
   Authentic: A local building contractor is planning to bulldoze all of the trees in a nearby copse. These are some local groups appealing to save the trees. Your job is to identify one type of tree indigenous to the area and design a presentation to convince the contractor to spare the trees based on the impact it will have on the local ecosystem. (Sulla, 23)

Teacher's Guide to Project-based Learning →

A free, 100 page book on Project Based Learning.

Heads up: This is a PDF hosted in Google Docs. You can download the original PDF using the links on the page (or just read it in your browser)

A Ten Step Guide to the Best Projects →

Here are two:

1. Rubric: The rubric is an essential tool for maintaining transparency for students at Manor. Teachers carefully design rubrics to define all the desired learning outcomes for a project, including which state standards students are expected to master and how performance will be measured for each outcome. The rubric sets the standard for each project and is presented at the start so that students have clear goals to work toward.
2. Group contract: Individual accountability is a critical component of successful PBL, and Manor students use group contracts to document expectations for each team member. Each project team writes a contract that clearly defines everyone’s roles, responsibilities, and contributions to the project, and students are held to it. Students can be fired if they do not fulfill their part of the contract and must complete the project on their own, although this rarely happens at Manor.

HUGE Collection of FREE Resources and Downloads for Project Based Learning →

Dude, didn’t you read the title?

9 PBL On-line Resources That Put Students At The Center… Voice, Input, Contribution →

A few things you may have heard of, but still good info. I enjoyed learning about this one in particular:

Socrative – This is an amazing online tool that promises to engage the class using any device. Socrative is a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets. Spark discussion with open ended questions, look for student understanding, provide formative assessment, and even integrate a few games and Wordle. This is a tool that is definitely worth a closer look.

Over 25 Links Uncovering Project Based Learning Resources On The Web →

Well I think that title sums it up pretty well.

Planning for Project Learning in Your Classroom, School, or School District →

The best part of this article is that it’s got lists for what you can do in 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 days, 5 weeks, 5 months and 5 years. Amazing.

Why Is Project-Based Learning Important? →

They really break things down over here. This is one of their arguments:

PBL Lends Itself to Authentic Assessment

Authentic assessment and evaluation allow us to systematically document a child’s progress and development. PBL encourages this by doing the following:

• It lets the teacher have multiple assessment opportunities.
• It allows a child to demonstrate his or her capabilities while working independently.
• It shows the child’s ability to apply desired skills such as doing research.
• It develops the child’s ability to work with his or her peers, building teamwork and group skills.
• It allows the teacher to learn more about the child as a person.
• It helps the teacher communicate in progressive and meaningful ways with the child or a group of children on a range of issues.

Visit our Comprehensive Assessment Core Strategy page to learn more.

Connecting PBL and STEM… 40 Free Engaging Resources To Use In The Classroom →

What I really enjoy most about this one is how they’ve divided things into PBL resources, resources that would make good components of a PBL project, and then software that could also play a healthy supporting role.