Choose Your Own (PBL) Adventure

Jane recently described the travel metaphors we like to use in professional development settings where we’re introducing teachers to project-based learning. We advise travelers who are new to PBL that they may encounter some turbulence and occasional detours ahead, but also unanticipated wonders.

This week I happened to read two dispatches from thoughtful teachers who are on quite different journeys with project-based learning. One is moving full-steam-ahead, teaching core content through challenging projects. She seems to have good support from colleagues and coaches. The other, restricted by a test-prep school culture, is making side trips into PBL—but only with only some students, and only some of the time.

Shelley Wright, high school teacher in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, writes a series of posts to describe how an ambitious Holocaust museum project has unfolded. Part 1 describes her decision to “take the plunge” and part company with familiar teaching practices. (Spoiler alert: There’s no yellow brick road. Doubts emerge. But courage and patience win the day.) In Part 2, initially wary students warm up to their new role as creators; our traveler gets more comfortable in her new role as co-learner. She reports, “To be honest, this project is so interesting, I want to be part of it. I want to help make and design it, and I’ve never had that impulse while teaching before.” In Part 3, empowered students race the clock to prepare their museum exhibits for a showcase event. Shelley comes up for air long enough to offer three nuggets of wisdom that are guiding her PBL journey: improvise, learn the hard way, and don’t regret.

Steven Davis is in his tenth year teaching high school English in an urban setting in northern California. In a guest post on Larry Cuban’s blog, Steven describes the learning that is happening not during regular class time, but instead through less formal experiences before school and during lunch. That’s when he invites a group of students who are English language learners to take part in hands-on activities. These aren’t full-blown projects, but they give students time and opportunity to experience things like curiosity and persistence. As he considers what students are gaining from learning to use a soldering iron or assemble electronic kits, Steven reflects, “The project has been less about teaching than it has been about providing students with mentoring, tools, and the setting in which they can learn for themselves.” He ends by considering, “Who knows where project-based learning experiences will lead?”

Sounds like more PBL adventures await. More postcards, please!

New Guide to Assessing Projects

Just published by Edutopia, this new classroom guide focuses on strategies and tools for assessing projects. Download a free copy here and then help grow the conversation by sharing your own favorite suggestions for making assessment meaningful in PBL.
And, thanks to colleagues who shared resources and suggestions!

PBL Buzz

Wayne D'Orio's article ("The Power of Project Learning") in the May issue of Scholastic Administrator takes a good look at the current PBL landscape and pushes readers to consider why more educators aren't using this real-world approach. One theory: PBL may be too hard for teachers to tackle without support. In a Q&A at the end, Chris Lehmann of Science Leadership Academy explains how schoolwide systems (for everything from planning to assessment to technology integration) set the stage for project success at his Philadelphia school. No arguing with that, but I continue to be impressed by creative types like Terry Smith (also quoted) who are determined to make PBL work, despite the obstacles. Seems to be a mixed landscape at the moment, with some excellent schoolwide models and some islands of innovation.
I'd be eager to hear more reflections from PBL advocates. What helps you move forward with this approach? What gets in your way? What more can we do as a community to advocate for what you need to succeed?

Project Resources to Chew On

Looking for a project idea that integrates math, science, and global awareness with the added benefit of real-world service learning? Consider focusing a project on hunger, an issue with local as well as global implications. In the U.S., one in 10 families faces food shortages. Around the world, hunger kills every 3.6 seconds. What can kids do about this big problem? Plenty. This recent Spiral Notebook post pulls together a list of classroom resources for tackling hunger. Comments from teachers offer more ideas. A teacher in Washington, D.C., for instance, describes how her seventh-graders responded when they took on hunger as a policy issue: "It exposes my students to the idea that they can communicate with officials and the media and that their ideas and opinions matter." Seems like a lesson worth repeating.
Photo by Michael Glasgow, Creative Commons

Watch a Project in Action

In a cross post at Edutopia's Spiral Notebook, I offer an update on the collaborative project that I first talked about here. Telannia Norfar, the dynamo behind this effort, is a reflective ninth-grade math teacher who blogs at PBL Birdside View. She is providing a wonderful window on all the nitty-gritty details of designing a real-world project that crosses disciplines and meets the needs of diverse learners. And now, the students have entered the picture! Stay tuned for more updates or visit her blog to find out what's new.

Standards, Public Opinion Support New Literacies

Feel like we are paddling upstream in our efforts to employ pbl?

The political current might be working against us, but thought leaders and the public have grabbed an oar. ISTE's recently revised NETS*S, the American Association of School Librarians 21st Century Library Learning Standards (due Oct. 25), and this week's survey of public opinion all support the rigor, complexity and authentic tasks are at the core of PBL. Let's keep our shoulder to the oar a little longer.

Below is a draft version of the AASA learning standards. When the entire doc is released you'll see that AASL describes the skills, responsibilities, and dispositions associated with each standard, and also suggests self-assessments.
AASL 21st Century Library Learning Standards
Learners use 21st century information skills, resources and tools to:
I. Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge.
II. Draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge
II. Share knowledge and understandings with others and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society
IV. Pursue personal and aesthetic growth

Can you think of any better way to address these standards than through Project-Based Learning?

Join Us for an ISTE Webinar

Announcing ISTE Innovative Educators' Express Webinar
Reinventing Project-based Learning
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 1:00 Pacific/4:00 Eastern

Join us in an interactive Webinar as we introduce the book, Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age. We will share classroom stories from around the globe and show how digital tools support rich and meaningful projects. Leave with a sense of the essential learning functions you want technology to deliver, and start planning your next project. Visit ISTE to register.