EXCERPT

Where do I start with PBL?

The answer I give here has three parts because I believe you can start in three separate areas on your Project-Based Learning journey.

#1. Start with a proven project that you can adopt and adapt as you see fit with your students.

This happened when we did the Flat Classroom Project. This was created by Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay. The crafted the project with each other, building on the work they were each doing with students and focused on the premise of having a global learning project where students from around the world could collaborate with each other.

They were the chefs of this project, and I was a cook, taking notes on the recipe along the way. They provided goals, outcomes, a step-by-step process, meetings to coordinate, deadlines, and assessments for the student work.

... Starting with a proven template gave me the boost I needed to try out different types of PBL with my students after a successful experience.

#2. Modify an existing activity, assessment, unit, or project.

We had recently read Night by Elie Wiesel, and this quote in particular guided our campaign to create awareness about human rights violations:

After our discussion about human rights violations, child soldiers, and genocide that was currently happening in our world right now–my students wanted to DO something.

As a class, we decided to not be bystanders and to take a side. This new project would be a chance to use our voice to spread awareness.

,,,My group of students wanted to take this further. Together we crafted a new project that would focus on creating awareness about current human rights violations.

I say WE because the students had a lot of input into how this project would look, what they would be measured on, and what the ultimate goals and objectives would be.

Project: Global Inform (PGI) was created in the 2008-2009 school year. The students picked their own groups and researched current human rights violations. Each group picked a violation they felt particularly passionate about and began to develop an action plan. Their action plans allowed the students to judge how effective each method of media was at spreading information and creating awareness. At the end of Project: Global Inform’s first run, hundreds of people had been met face-to-face with.

...This was a case of modifying something existing into something that created a better learning experience through PBL.

#3. Planning a PBL Unit From Scratch

Katherine von Jan explains how Google’s idea came to be in her article, “Pursue Passion: Demand Google 20% Time at School”:

“Google’s “20% Time”, inspired by Sergey Brin’s and Larry Page’s Montessori School experience, is a philosophy and policy that every Google employee spend 20% of their time (the equivalent of a full work day each week) working on ideas and projects that interest that employee. They are encouraged to explore anything other than their normal day-to-day job. As a result, 50% of all Google’s products by 2009 originated from the 20% free time, including Gmail. Real break-through happens when we are free from others’ expectations and driven by individual passion.”

When I read her article and finished Dan Pink’s book Drive, I had to seriously reconsider what I was doing with my students. Extrinsic motivation can only go so far in education, and above everything else I want my students to be people who enjoy learning. However, as educators many times we are constrained by curriculum and standards. This idea came and went during the fall months before resurfacing in December 2011.

In December two things happened that made me decide almost immediately that this had to happen. First, I was part of the curriculum process at my school and really started to delve into the “why we do what we do” questions that allude me most of the time during the daily grind. I also was reading texts about “inquiry-based learning” and the “understanding by design” framework.

Second, I was challenged by Thomas Gaffey (he’s the best math teacher I’ve ever met) to do “new things in new ways” at the Microsoft Innovative Educator program. The 20% time seemed like a new way to engage and motivate students to learn. If we want to prepare students in high school to be life-long learners, assets to their communities, and able to take a successful next step in their academic lives (i.e. college), then this project would not only change my pedagogy, but also their view on learning after high school.

The day after winter break I “assigned the project”. In essence, high school students have spent most of their academic lives being told what to do. Their grades are then dependent on how well they completed the assigned tasks. Most teenagers spend their free time doing things they are “not told to do”. For example, most parents aren’t yelling at their son to play video games, or at their daughter to spend three hours on Facebook. These actions are done because teenagers want to do them (and in part because they are told many times not to do this). My class agreed that most teenagers “want to do what they want to do, and not what others tell them”.

So this project, I said, was me telling them to do something that they want to do, with their time that it is usually spent doing what other people want them to do (that’s a mouthful). The guidelines were simple. Here is the handout:

The 20% Project*

1. For the rest of the year, 20% of your time in my class will be spent creating something you want to make.

2. It has to be some type of learning, and you have to document it (journal etc).

3. You’ll present your accomplishments to the class twice (and will not be graded on it).

4. That’s it. Have fun. Find your passion. Explore it. Enjoy learning what you want.

X___________________________________________

Mass confusion set in. Most of my students were trying to figure out what the catch was, asking questions like: “So what are we getting credit for?”, “What kinds of things can we do?”, “Why aren’t we being graded?”, and “I don’t get it Mr. J, what are we supposed to be doing?”

...

AJ offers this checklist as part of joining his email list.

CLICK HERE for the FULL ARTICLE and to see what happened with the 20% project...