PBL Links (from Summer email)

PBL (project based learning) is a recipe that the Buck Institute developed and refined. Does that mean it's the only way to do projects? No. Not all of the components are always possible or even practical. But if you line up the ingredients for PBL against best practices for teaching in general, the ingredients are very similar so it's well worth considering. 

In project based learning, students learn content through doing the project. The "ingredients" are significant content, 21st century skills (such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and communication), in-depth inquiry that's guided by a driving question, student voice and choice, revision, reflection, and a public audience. Often the highest quality projects will have an authentic need addressed in the community and experts in that field collaborating with students in the inquiry process. Here's an article for more information: http://groups.ascd.org/resource/documents/122463-CCSS_PBL_Handout_3_8_Essentials.pdf 

Here's how PBL could work in middle school: In 6th grade students learn in explore week about the effects of cow and fertilizer waste on water quality. What would happen if 7th graders explored ways to do something about this poor water quality? Could they perhaps create a field guide (paper, online, and/or a presentation) for the community that details local flora and fauna (they study wildflowers in the beginning of the year, this link was what inspired this idea http://elschools.org/student-work/perspectives-san-diego-bay-field-guide), talks about the current environmental conditions, the effects on local plants and animals, and what we can do about it? We already have very knowledgeable resources in our New Community Project weekly service contact people (as well as in Lee Good, of course). As a gardener, I'd love to have a guide to what "wildflowers" (some would say weeds) grow in the area, alternate uses for them, and the most environmentally friendly ways to keep them under control if desired! We could perhaps even print and sell this guide to raise money to further the great work that New Community Project is doing! (Exactly how this project goes, if it goes at all, is really up to Lee. This was just an idea that came to mind).

Another project we were shown at our conference was this: http://elschools.org/student-work/z-book-homelessness. Elementary students in DC decided to take on homelessness because they felt bad about seeing homeless adults right outside their school and wanted to do something (read the description in the above link, it's pretty inspiring). After spending a year alongside the New Community Project "clients" in 7th grade, 8th graders will have become a bit more familiar with this segment of our population. Is there a need that those "on the fringes" of our community may have that we could address? I'm sure that class could find out and would work hard to meet that need. Here's how one school worked at that: http://elschools.org/best-practices/scholars-citizen-scholars-story-hope-house

Teachers and students at schools that practice PBL each report being more invigorated and inspired than with a typical teacher-led classroom (don't get me wrong, there will be many times in which direct instruction to teach certain skills or make clarifications will be best during the PBL process). I sincerely think that moving in this direction, even if we don't ever go "wall to wall"/ 100% PBL, will help us become more viable as a school because students and teachers will be more engaged and invigorated.

A few years ago, middle school teachers chose Elders (6th), Gardening and the Environment (7th), and Safe and Strong Communities (8th) as interdisciplinary themes. These may be a good place for those teachers to start as they consider PBL. I'd like to challenge middle school teachers to 1 PBL unit each. This unit may or may not be interdisciplinary. Even if it would be awkward to fit your project into an interdisciplinary one, see if any of the ideas linked below could be useful in your individual classes. 

High school and elementary teachers, I'd invite you to consider how this methodology might fit into your context (we're all doing some aspects of PBL but there's always room to grow). The resources linked below, your fellow teachers and friends, as well as I'm sure your administrators are available to help you on this journey. I'll also put some related books you may find useful in the teachers' lounge. 

May this summer prove to be restorative AND inspirational :)

Rebecca

LINKS:

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/a-world-of-project-ideas-to-steal-suzie-boss?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=blog-a-world-of-project-ideas-to-steal-link

The 5 (daily) keynote addresses housed here are very inspiring. Check them out!

http://bie.org/for/pbl_world_2014 

This link has a whole library of ideas which may spark an idea for your context. You can refine the results to reflect your age group and subject.

http://elschools.org/student-work

Here's a similar site from the Buck Institute: http://bie.org/resources and from the Project Foundry  http://www.projectfoundry.org/project-based-learning-explained/

This link provides some project ideas as well as free mini-courses (I'm signed up for the driving question one)

http://pblu.org

This is a link to authentic newspaper articles where you can change the reading level (gr 4-12) depending on each student's needs (but they read the same article). Nifty, huh? It's also free!  Check it out at newsela.com 

Finally, I created a Google+ community for EMS teachers and staff to use. I think it may be a good way to collaborate, share what's going on, ask questions, and share resources others might find useful. It is a closed group (only for emhs.net addresses). I'm REALLY NEW at google+ so this is way out of my comfort zone but I see some potential. I think you can join by searching "Professional Sharing at EMS" fromplus.google.com and perhaps even from this link: 

https://plus.google.com/communities/111008047899540120592?utm_source=embedded&utm_medium=googleabout&utm_campaign=linkbut again I'm really new at this so I'm happy for whatever tips you can give me to make it better. I plan to invite each of you in a few weeks once I get the hang of it!