Creating the environment for PBL to thrive
This is always the first step with Project Based Learning – building a positive, supportive culture for learning in your classroom. It’s the work that you restart each fall, as you begin the school year with a new group of students.
1. Shared Agreements
Your community agreements are the foundation of creating that inclusive, respectful environment. How do students balance the benefits and distractions of technology? Are there new ways to ask for academic help or personal support? Be sure to involve students in co-creating your group norms, as they have unique learnings and wisdom to share from their own remote or hybrid learning experiences.
2. Helpful Habits & Routines
When so much is new and uncertain these days, establishing habits and routines offers some ease and reliability for all of us, whether in the classroom or on Zoom! More than ever, developing routines and protocols will help you and your students find new rhythms and generate a feeling of belonging. Many everyday activities, like morning meetings or end-of-class routines, can be transformed to work well in remote learning environments. Transform your favorite in-person protocols and routines from past years, and explore some new options for your new context.
3. Your Classroom Setup
Very likely, your classroom is no longer just a physical location; it's probably now an online destination, too. So the possibilities for setting up a "space" that's ready for learning is ever expanding. In either context, how are you giving clues and signals about the culture of learning that you want to create? Are students able to see their collective learning in progress? For more tips and ideas on this, watch the Build the Culture: Look & Feel of the Classroom video, and think about how go-to PBL strategies might translate to your new context.
How to Begin Building a PBL Culture Right from the Start - Ideas for developing relationships, co-creating norms, practicing protocols and establishing routines, and designing a classroom conducive to PBL.
Beyond Icebreakers: Reflective Questions to Help You Build a PBL Culture - How to build a classroom culture for PBL from the start of the year and beyond.
4 Ways to Build a PBL Culture - The importance of relationships, student ownership, common language, and a growth mindset.
Building PBL Culture by Bringing Yourself - The importance of relationships, and how teachers can form closer connections to students.
Video: Build the Culture - Student Voice and Independence
Explore the Project Based Teaching Practice of "Build the Culture: Student Voice & Independence", with scenes from K-12 classrooms.