A Note On Planning
PBL Planning
As with most projects, the most time consuming part is at the beginning. A quality project requires many meetings, brainstorming sessions, questioning/revising, researching, and organizing details to have a learning experience that addresses standards, reaches the goal of the driving question, and more importantly engages students into the learning process.
Additionally, using a planning tool like PBL Works Project Planner helps to guide the conversations and ideas. The QR code below showcases our raw work. It is not perfect. Our final details shifted as we worked in other documents, but this is an example of organic planning and processing. This is one of the key steps that is overlooked as many believe projects appear out of thin air. We had to navigate through many failed and not so good ideas to arrive at a good one that felt right.
Being vulnerable by sharing how we brainstormed ideas to capture where we needed the learning to go in the end with standards and themes in mind.
HOW?
Intention Plan for Learning
As we INTENTIONALLY plan for instruction and learning, it is important to notice this design is a purposeful weave of skills and concepts. It is an artistic dance that emcompasses the collaboration and cooperation of standards, outcomes, Universal Constructs, SEL competencies, and cognitive complexity (Hess, DOK). These pieces do not isolate or work independently, rather they interconnect. These pieces exist throughout the process and the work, but they ebb and flow in strength and priority. The cognitive complexity, standard work, and outcomes, stay at the forefront of our work. When these elements are the anchored focus, critical thinking becomes the authority, while being wrapped in PBL.
As you read through the project website and navigate your own learning, keep in mind, some ideas, skills, and concepts may only appear once, but actually occur frequently and seamlessly throughout the multiple stages of the work. Designing an instructional plan with purpose and intent is the first step in a successful PBL experience.