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Love the idea of serving up the main course to our young learners! So important to recognize that so much out there may really just be dessert...

This article made me think of a project I did recently with fourth grade, in which they researched and produced a food web using their choice of iPad apps. Was it better than my previous food web activity (cutting and pasting pictures to a piece of construction paper)? Definitely. But, not surprisingly, it was immensely time-consuming, particularly when I only see my classes twice each week. A five-session project translated into 2 1/2 weeks of science time, and the quality of the students' work would have benefited from at least one more class period for revisions. How do we decide if the skills that students learn with a "main course" project are valuable enough to give up the consistent content base our students get from more traditional forms of classroom instruction?

I have tried to create quite a few pbl based projects over the years in both history and mathematics. I agree it takes a lot of time, but I do think the time spent is well worth it. The skills in collaboration, problems solving, critical thinking and research cannot not be duplicated through dessert projects. In younger grades, I do think some filling in of content needs to be done through other types of instruction, mainly because young children do not have as deep a pool of prior knowledge and skills. For example in the latest pbl I did, the kids had great enthusiasm, worked hard, gathered amazing information, but then lacked the skill to pull it all into as meaningful end results as I had hoped they would. Luckily I had Lisa there to videotape the lessons and I was able to see that my students need some mini lessons in how to figure out which content from their research is important to put into the end product. I do believe that they will remember the information gained much better than if i had simply presented it, let them read and then had them do a project at the end. Critical to the success of pbl is ample classroom time .... Flexibility in schedule, large chunks of time and not having large gaps between different sessions is critical. Too often we lose a class because of changes to the schedule and that further widens the gap between meetings. Discontinuity of schedule hinders the process.

I'm wondering if other teachers think PBL is a component of interdisciplinary studies with the addition of the leading, premise question. From this article, one would not think the arts would have a significant place in PBL. Hopefully, the arts are included in the teacher collaborations of PBL, as the arts help to facilitate the 21St century skills: collaboration, creative and critical thinking, emotional intelligence and various mediums of communication. (Eisner, Gardner, BrIce-Heath etc.) I think it would be great to include more PBL at St. Anne's with the requisite amount of collaborative, inter-departmental planning time. I tend to think of PBL as a comprehensive project. In my mind, the primary grades project discussed in "Primary Preoccupation" was an example of experiential learning, not necessarily PBL.

As I begin to think about creating this type of learning envirnoment, I am thinking... I need to be able to devise real "problems" or "situations" that my students can actually see as something that they need to solve. I am wondering, how can I create a problem that relates to Ancient Greece that my students believe really needs to be solved.

After reading Kathleen's comments above, I also wonder how my role as a second grade teacher fits into PBL. I am thinking, is it sufficient to begin to lay the foundation for PBL by teaching through student inquiry which includes student choice of what questions to ask and how to present the information? I believe that I may need to lay a foundation for children, a "prior knowledge" in the first several lessons of a unit in order for them to handle seeking out answers to new questions, developing a plan of action, and presenting a final work. I adapted a lesson in history today so that student partnerships had to gather information about Pocahontas in several different texts instead of me only reading aloud the information and then discussing as a class. I am at the point now where I need feedback about the changes I made in the lesson to see if I am moving in the right direction. I look forward to the opportunity to bounce ideas around.

I have a very similar train of thought as what Pam wrote above. I do a lot of PBL in the LS Spanish program in most grade levels, but especially in third and fourth, we will work on something that stretches over a few classes, or even sometimes a few weeks, when I only see them once or twice a week. With language learning, the repetition and focus on these kinds of projects reflects the students deepened understanding of the content targeted, which for me, makes the project more worthwhile than moving through a larger amount of content in the same time as a long project. The catch is that I feel that the curriculum has more content than I can cover if we do that "deepened" understanding through PBL...I would rather have less "topics" in my curriculum and more time to go more in depth with the time I do have with the kids.

The examples of schools using PBL were all at the high school level. I assume that students have had a chance to master the basics. A PBL experience for a younger student has to take more time in order to learn some basic skills such as research, pulling information together, figuring out the main idea and writing that makes sense. I see a huge value in PBL because the student has to take ownership and responsibility for their work. I liked the library of tested project ideas mentioned.

So far everything I have read or seen - in video presentations - about PBL has focused upon high school students/projects. They describe, in this article, that students need "to use higher-order thinking skills and learn to work as a team. They must listen to others and make their own ideas clear when speaking, be able to read a variety of material, write or otherwise express themselves in various modes, and make effective presentations." These are the skills that are needed in order to begin answering a driving question. I believe in projects - pourquoi stories, Ancient China museums, etc. - but I also think that our job, as elementary school teachers, is to teach these basic skills so that they can then be used for PBL in middle and upper school. These are my preliminary thoughts, as I begin to learn about this type of learning.

I wonder how to adapt this to elementary level work. I think that the teacher who came from November Learning (the Canadian woman who teaches first grade) could be a good resourse. And of course Kathleen can probably demystify us as she has been doing some of this. I also think that it would be hugely helpful to collaborate as grade level teams to come up with ideas for PBL - maybe just one per gl- that we can try and then regroup and tweak. Making it truly "main course" is going to require some thinking. But it sounds exciting. At the end of the article the author lists certain conditions that make this type of learning/teaching/curriculum feasable. We have some work to do to meet those benchmarks. What are your thoughts on developing project libraries? How will we create time for teachers to "meet with colleagues, plan projects, critique and fine tune lessons and gather and share resources" ?

Any effort to promote greater reflection and opportunities for revision is important. This appears to be an important feature of PBL--as it should be. I also like the focus on open-ended DQ(Dairy Queens or Driving Questions).

Lisa K. -- the projects I remember were probably a hybrid. I don't recall any driving questions, but sometimes, I was researching ... Teaching myself something that hadn't been taught in the classroom. I learned only very basic critical skills, but that was the age of the encyclopedia. I learned to consider the background and education of the author. To me, the key is applying the information thoughtfully and creatively. I think a good starting point is taking the projects we're already doing and taking a closer look. How can they be more meaningful for our students? How can we use projects to teach Lucas' basic skills? TLT time can be used for planning.

I enjoy the idea of a Driving Question. I also appreciate the aspect of small group and independent work this type of learning seems to facilitate. I am curious about how to involve a public audience in more ways than the typical end of drama presentation.

In the PBL introductory handbook, from BIE, I'm glad they acknowledged the findings of Dewey and what he initiated. It reminded me of the importance of student engagement. My wife, Maureen, and I did our masters in teacher education at George Mason and one of the crucial findings was that engagement is imperative in learning. PBL seems to recognize the importance of this engagement.

When I think about the kindergarten moon unit, I realize we really do PBL. This unit is student driven (they decide what they want to know) and a learning adventure. Enhanced by technology... we research using books, drawings, e-video clips, internet books and websites (NASA.gov) Children connect and problem solve and end up teaching each other with words, posters, drawings etc.

This is Leo: PBL really excites me. This type of learning puts the focus on the student. The teacher then acts as a guide, rather than the sole knowledge provider. Students in turn take pride and ownership over their area of focus. I would love to add more types of PBL into my teaching, but need to find creative ways to incorporate this into our busy schedule.

This is helpful. I love reading all of the sample projects... Especially the variety of culminating final presentations (definitely authentic and doable!). Also, thinking about how one question guides weeks of study makes me wonder how this would mesh with our spiraling Everyday Math curriculum.

I agree--I enjoyed looking at the different sample projects. I did a lot more PBL when I taught 5th and 6th grades, and I feel like I haven't been quite as successful with it in 1st grade, so it was great to see some of the types of things that might be really great for 1st graders. Caitlin, I love how you mentioned math as well. One idea I had wanted to try a few years ago was writing a complex problem that we could spend the year working on, one that in order to solve, the students would need to figure out what they needed to learn, but it would lead us to the topics and the basics that are part of the regular curriculum anyway--it would just be more student directed. I never actually tried it, though. Something like this, though, or trying to integrate math through PBL, means making some changes to the EM curriculum that we currently use.

I LOVE all of the ideas! The one about first graders exploring a suitcase from long ago to ask questions and create a video sounds like it could fit right in with our curriculum. As I mentioned in another post, I think we will need to be mindful of how we integrate PBL into our curriculum with the younger students, because their exposure can be quite different from one another. I feel some content introduction and base knowledge would need to happen before diving into these projects, but I fear it may become "dessert" rather than the main course.

What this article has to say is 'spot on' but its tone is a little smug and patronizing.

Two quotes from the article that stuck with me: In terms of making a project feel meaningful to students, the more voice and choice, the better. In writing journals, students reflected on their thinking and problem-solving processes...

I agree that creative thinking, collaboration and the ability to think critically about information are the backbone and yardstick of pbl.

Lisa- Would you describe the projects and presentations you did in school as PBL "main course" or "dessert?" I remember creating and operating a pretend grocery store in second grade. We had cans and boxes and we priced everything and got to operate the store and to this day I associate that experience with learning about money and learning to add and subtract. But- when I read about project based learning I think of it as "dessert." It was a great way to learn some math though!

I like the insight that George Lucas shared in this article. I think that his perspective as a producer and director as someone interested in creating products is interesting. The director, in order to create a great film, must weed through much film to edit and have the eye and ear to determine what is important to keep and what to reject. It makes sense that the students must learn to determine which info is more important and which it is better to leave alone or reject. A keen understanding is required to prepare students for this type of process. It sounds as if PBL does this. I wonder how many of us have been dong this--at times, at least, without naming it PBL?

This reiterates an important point from other sources, that students need the skills to find and analyze information more than they need actual information. I think while we know this and teach these some of these skills, I have so much room for improvement in this area! Need to constantly remember this important tidbit, and brainstorm ways to move in that direction. On the positive side, I think that teaching 21st century skills of collaboration and cooperation is something we are already doing well!

I like the idea that there is no definitive answer to a well crafted essential question. That depending on where/when/whom it is asked, the answer will always be different.

I see there is a lot of confusion or disagreement about what a good essential question is.

The EQ reminds me how a curious learner might approach a topic or subject. As they learn more they can still ask the same question. It's not about mastery but about the joy of research, inquiry, thinking, deducing or inferring and all driven by the EQ.

As I read this article, I found that it connected project-based learning and EQ's together. It emphasized the importance of general questions that require inquiry, thought, and group discussions. It makes me want to look at my unit and come up with one-two over arching questions, and put them up in the classroom. Throughout the unit, I would reference the question and as we learned/discovered more about our topic of study, the students would be able to dig deeper and deeper into the EQ. (Just like project-based learning, where students are given problems and work to find a solution over time). By the way, I am pretty sure that I own the book that was referenced in this article. If anyone wants to borrow it, please let me know.

I find Wiggins and McTighe's views thought provoking. I've read some of their book...Understanding by Design. The framework they use is backwards. They recommend beginning with the essential questions which link to the understanding, then determine the assessment, and lastly develop your activities. I like this idea...it forces the designer to focus on the understandings and essential questions throughout the entire design process. I would like to keep my focus on my essential questions and what I want my students to truly understand.

I think this article reflects the importance of learning through inquiry and exploration that many of us value, especially as teachers of younger learners. The idea of an essential question being something pointed but allowing for a lifetime of thought or study is one that I'm sure many of us would hope our essential questions might capture. However, I struggle to visualize how this would look in a first grade classroom. When would we share these questions with our students, or would we not? Are these questions for us to build our lessons around or are they something we would like our students to attempt to answer in a concrete way at some point during a unit? Must they be subject specific or are there more general lines of inquiry that could be applied across the curriculum? I would be interested to read examples of effective essential questions that fall within this description that have been used with younger students, and what kind of learning this has led to.