PBL_Guide4.indd

Problem-Based Learning or Just Another Project? Use This Checklist to Find Out A few days ago I posted Amy Mayer’s comparison between assigning projects and developing project-based learning in the classroom. Due to its immense popularity, I decided to do some more research on helpful charts for teachers trying to implement PBL in their classrooms, and was thrilled to come across this checklist from the good folks at BIE: This checklist is a fantastic way to ensure that you are on the right track with shifting away from “doing a project” and moving towards project-based learning. Happy checking, y’all! Like this: Like Loading... What is PBL? What is Project-Based Learning (PBL)? Checklist - Attributes - Issues - Project Examples - Third Party - Teacher Resources - Student Resources Descriptions- 2 Perspectives (1) teacher-facilitated, student emphasized. A strategy that recognizes that significant learning taps students' inherent drive to learn, capability to do important work, and the need to be taken seriously; Learning in which curricular outcomes can be identified up-front, but in which the outcomes of the student's learning process are neither predetermined nor fully predictable; Learning that requires students to draw from many information sources and disciplines in order to solve problems; Experiences through which students learn to manage and allocate resources such as time and materials. (2) teacher-guided perspective, teacher accountability is emphasized. There can exist some degree of compromise between them, however, both perspectives are derived from the same basic question of who's in control. Checklist

How Does PBL Support Authentic Literacy? | Blog | Project Based Learning | BIE Project Based Learning offers one of the best ways to provide students in your classroom with authentic literacy experiences—which means having them read and write for a real purpose, as opposed to an “inauthentic” academic exercise. To incorporate authentic literacy, be sure to answer these questions when you design and implement a project: Does the project include an authentic written product that someone outside the school context would create? If you can answer “yes” to these questions, you’ve got it: a fully authentic literary experience for your students. For example, in the Small Acts of Courage project at King Middle School in Portland, Maine, students researched and wrote about local stories of the Civil Rights Movement. The project gave them a real “need to read” – to answer further questions for inquiry that students came up with on their own. Here are some more examples of how teachers used writing genres to create authentic products for authentic audiences: Watch

Project-Based Learning PBL Institutes and 21C Conferences | PBL Trainers | PBL Videos | Study Tours and Site Visits | PBL Handbooks and Guides | Design Thinking in Schools K-12 Updated: January, 2017 The Autodesk Foundation deserves credit for bringing Project-Based Learning (PBL) to the attention of educators across the country during the 1990s. Founded by Joe Oakey, former Commissioner of Education in Vermont and Micronesia and former manager of Autodesk, Inc.’s Education Department, the Foundation spread the word nationally about Project-Based Learning from 1992 until its close in 2000. January 22, 2017: Two new papers on PBL Math by Jo Boaler. November 4, 2016: Does PBL hold back poor pupils in the UK? September 24, 2016: PBL in Chile. August 12, 2016: Elementary Math PBL: "Take Me On Vacation"! May 9, 2016: Mount Vernon Presbyterian School's (Atlanta, GA) Focus for Summer+ Learning 2016-17 - Project-Based Learning. March 19, 2016: Best PBL Videos. Featured PBL Video -- July 2014: II. PBL Research

High school stops fighting, learns to love students and tech Many high-school-age students are hooked on their phones and computers. Instead of fighting the kids, some schools like the public New Technology High School in Napa, California, are jumping right in and embracing the technology. "We meet kids where they live," New Tech Principal Michelle Spencer said. Where they live is increasingly online, on instant messenger and Twitter. The school encourages students to bring in their own computers and to embrace tools like Gchat and YouTube in school and as part of their lessons. New Tech High School, founded in 1997, is the oldest member of the New Tech Network, a national nonprofit organization that schools hire to implement project-based learning and embed the use of technology with teachers and students. The New Tech Network has gone on to work with 120 schools of varying grades and budgets, but the Napa high school is a unique look at how the next generation of schools might work with modern technology, not against it. Responsibility online

Six Steps for Planning a Successful Project Sure, King Middle School has some amazing projects, but the Portland school has been refining its expeditionary learning projects for nearly two decades. David Grant, who guides the school's technology integration and curriculum development, has put together a six-step rubric for designing a project. He says Fading Footprints, which became a model for King and Expeditionary Learning Schools, doesn't take an entire school, or even a team of twelve, to plan and carry out; one or two teachers can tailor this one to fit their time and resources. Six Steps to Planning a Project The Fading Footsteps project is a twelve-week interdisciplinary ecology unit centered around the guiding question: How does diversity strengthen an ecosystem? Step 1: Develop a compelling topic that covers state standards, has an authentic connection to the local community, and provides opportunities for every student to do meaningful, independent research. Step 5: Coordinate calendars.

PBL World: Authentic Audience | Middle School Matrix When I am writing for this blog, I am very aware that there is an audience who will be reading what I write. Sometimes it is simply a handful of people who read an individual post and sometimes it is hundreds, but however many will eventually read it, I know when I am writing that they are there. I am presenting my ideas to the education community, made up of administrators, teachers and students of education. I am sharing my voice in the ongoing dialogue about how to improve education in the 21st century. The same is true when I am preparing my lesson plans. The challenge of Project Based Learning is to create that sort of experience for the students and their work. The work could be to create a picture book for an elementary class that communicates about a topic that has been researched, the planets or a Roman centurion, symmetry or verbs. They know that after they have shared their book, they will learn whether or not they were successful. Like this: Like Loading...

An Inside Look At How Project-Based Learning Actually Works Project-based learning is one of the most popular terms in education innovation today. We talk about PBL all the time and how it, combined with flipped classrooms, can basically change the way education works. It’s an exciting time to be sure. But I love to actually see how this kinda stuff works in real life. Each video is a bit different. PBL Demo Cards University of Washington Using PBL Video by Edutopia . University of Indianapolis & PBL Video by the University of Indianapolis .

The Design Of Project-Based Learning - Color Theory For Web 3.0 One of the promising truths about project-based learning (PBL) is that it's coming whether schools like it or not. Even in an age of race-to-the-top testing, children are slowly but surely doing more and more work via technology. Even as some instructors fall back on "project-oriented" learning, rather than true PBL, the gradual spread of tablets and BYOD tasks will invariably shift classroom education toward a more hands-on model. Color Theory Infographic from Sean Ferguson on Vimeo. One of the most basic choices in producing a technology project is the selection of color. Many of the modern concepts around the use of color, particularly in technology or multimedia formats, spring not from classes in oil painting but from theories of branding. The motion infographic above by Sean Ferguson gives a crisp and helpful primer in fundamental color theory.

A Project-Based Learning Cheat Sheet For Authentic Learning A Project-Based Learning Cheat Sheet by TeachThought Staff Like most buzzwords in education, “authenticity” isn’t a new idea. For decades, teachers have sought to make student learning “authentic” by looking to the “real world”–the challenges, technology, and communities that students care about and connect with daily. You’ve probably been encouraged in the past to design work that “leaves the classroom.” We’re going to take a closer look at progressive approaches to teacher planning whenever Terry Heick can be convinced to finish that series. The function of this image is to act as a kind of brainstorm–to help you get your own creative juices going to decide what’s most important when designing an authentic project-based learning unit–audiences, technology, habits, purposes, and so on. You obviously don’t even have to use these categories; they are just a sampling of the kinds of thinking that can help you make the shift from academic to authentic learning.

21centuryedtech - PBL Edutopia PBL - Edutopia is a site containing outstanding educational content for teachers. It contains an area devoted to Project Based Learning. Edutopia defines PBL, "as a dynamic approach to teaching in which students explore real-world problems and challenges, simultaneously developing cross-curriculum skills while working in small collaborative groups." PBL-Online Is a one stop solution for Project Based Learning! BIE Institite For PBL - This author of the above On-line Resource Site is a must visit for anyone serious about PBL. PBL: Exemplary Projects - A wonderful site for those wanting practical ideas to infuse PBL into the curriculum. 4Teachers.org PBL - This site has a contains some useful information on supplying sound reasoning for PBL in school. Houghton Mifflin Project Based Learning Space - This site from publisher Houghton Mifflin Contains contains some good resources for investigating PBL and was developed by the Wisconson Center For Education Research.