Engaging, Exciting, and Encouraging

Undeniably, the best professional development that I have taken was PBL World. Educators from all over the world came together for one reason, our kids. The Buck Institute for Education (BIE) is dedicated to bring high quality education through project based learning. This dedication was evident throughout the three day training I attended.

On our first day there, we were treated with music. What a fantastic way to start off the workshop. This set the tone for how upbeat the rest of the week would go. Teachers and administration were divided up into our grade level sections. Emily and I went to the middle school session. Our trainer, Chris, was passionate about PBL and dedicated to helping us in whatever way we needed assistance.

The first aha moment was when I realized that I liked to be in control too much. I needed to let go of the reins and let the students’ inquiry drive the outcome. No, this does not mean that I will not teach to the standards given to me by the Iowa Core. By allowing students to be actively involved, they will generate further questions. Once they have generated these questions, they will driven to find their own answers.

There were many other exciting moments of learning and sharing with other teachers, but I am not going to go into that today. It would be too overwhelming. Today I am going to focus on how to get started with PBL. Hold onto your hat, you are in for quite an adventure.

Getting started:

There are four elements that are part of the planning process of PBL.

1. Develop an idea for your project
2. Specify your goals for learning
3. Figure out the complexity of the project
4. Write your driving question

The first step would be to download the following form. It is from the BIE website. This form will be the planning sheet that will help you plan your project.

Project Overview Form

1. Develop an idea

• If you are struggling with an idea, you can go to the BIE website and look for some examples. You do not have to use these ideas, but it may become an idea generator.
• Figure out what your essential standards are that you want to teach
• Is there an issue in your community that get students excited?
• What is happening in students’ lives or current events that they are interested in pursuing?

2. Specify your goals for learning

• These are your essential standards.
• What essential standards do you want students to know at a deeper level
• BIE recommends that you start with just the collaboration and presentation PBL standard. Don’t overwhelm yourself.
• With your first project, work on the PBL standard of creative thinking and problem solving. However, don’t explicitly teach and assess it. Slowly work this in after you have the collaboration and presentation piece down.

3. Figure out the complexity of the project

• The world is your oyster, but know your limits
• Less complex project takes 2-3 weeks and more complex takes longer
• You do not have to have this cross curricular
• Figure out what adults will be involved
• Where will this take place?
• What technology is used?

4. Write your driving question

• Students need to know why they are doing this
• Question needs to be challenging, open-ended and linked to the core

There are materials out there to help you design your driving question. It takes a while to get the driving question down, but the joy of finally getting exactly what you want is so rewarding.

There you have it. The first steps to designing a PBL unit. I’m sure your head is spinning. Stop by my room. I would be happy to help you with this. You can also watch it in action if you would like. I would love to have you visit.

Until next time,

Arlyce
(Arlyce Kroese teaches seventh grade language arts at Nevada Middle School.)