Home from 3-Day PBL Workshop

Project Based Learning is an instructional method that I totally "buy into."  It fits beautifully with technology (especially 1:1 learning).  I've spent considerable time helping teachers see the benefits of PBL. 

All of us who attended the workshop picked up some new ideas, design tools, and management strategies. The two 7th grade social studies teachers and I created a  project about the impact of human actions on the environment (called Messin' Up the Environment: How Humans Screw Up the Earth).  Not only did we learn about good PBL design, we learned how to encourage and teach cooperative learning, how to assess projects (both formative and summative), and how to mangage a PBL classroom. 

I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to learn more about PBL assessment, specifically how to assess both individual and group work.  Mr. Ross recommends that teachers use several rubrics to assess content, presentation, critical thinking, and other 21st century skills.  Assessing skills with more than one rubric gives a truer picture of student performance.  The project receives a group grade, the other assessments are given to individuals. 

What I've learned and experienced over the past three days has helped me see more clearly how standards-based PBL can and should be used in today's curriculum-packed classroom.

PBL Session in Boyne, MI

Today a bunch of Michigan educators braved the ice and snow to participate in a 3-day Project Based Learning Workshop at Boyne Mountain.  The facilitator is David Ross from the Buck Institute for Education.  He is in the picture (middle) with Marilyn Totten and David Schade, 7th grade social studies teachers from Walled Lake.

Today was an enjoyable day of collaboration and learning.  We began by brainstorming qualities that we think are important for all high school graduates (being a team player, problem solver, communicator, tech savvy, etc).  Mr. Ross says that educators expect our students to have all these qualities, yet we do not necessarily provide them the opportunities and learning experiences to help them attain these qualities.  He believes (as do I) that project based learning instructional methods, when done right, can help us better prepare our students.

Tomorrow we will work on the process of designing effective projects.  I am particularly interested in learning new strategies to make students individually accountable for group projects. The Walled Lake team will be identifying a project to go along with new 7th grade social studies curriculum.