Here are some articles, blog posts, research studies, and other resources I’ve recently run across that connect to Project Based Learning.
Boosting Student Engagement Through Project-Based Learning
Edutopia
A study of a project-based science curriculum used in San Francisco middle schools shows promising results.
5 Ways to Make PBL Work in ELL
SmartBrief
A teacher in Manchester School District in New Hampshire, which is partnered with PBLWorks, offers excellent advice for scaffolding English learners, designing authentic and culturally responsive projects, and encouraging student voice and choice.
To Defeat Implicit Bias, Try Project-Based Learning
Education Post
Here’s a great story of a traditional lecture-based teacher, who is White with majority Latinx students struggling in her class, who tried doing a project and found that it transformed their relationship.
It’s OK To Do That Same Epic Project Next Year
John Spencer
Timely advice if you’re planning PBL units for next year; you don’t always have to generate new projects based on the interests of a particular group of students. Making a documentary video, for example, will be new to them each year—and they may even be looking forward to it after having heard about it!
How One School Is Using Critical Thinking To Ensure Its Students' Long-Term Success
Forbes
How a K-8 PBL school in the EL Education network developed a program to teach critical thinking skills—lots of helpful details on classroom teaching practices.
The Power of Team Norms
ASCD/Educational Leadership
Helpful tips from an article in the magazine’s latest issue, whose theme is “High-Powered Teams” on how to set and stick to norms for student teams.
Beyond Report Cards: Louisville Students Use Portfolios to Curate and Defend Their Personal Learning Record
Getting Smart
A story about the “Backpack of Success Skills” initiative in Jefferson County Public Schools, Kentucky, in which students collect evidence of their work, including projects, to demonstrate their readiness to transition from elementary, middle, and high school. (Look for a guest blog post on this soon!)
How to Engage All Students in STEM
ASCD/Education Week
A call for using PBL and Career-Tech Ed programs to teach STEM, with a global perspective.
Seeing classmates struggling, these 5th graders wrote a book of poems to inspire those with depression
The Philadelphia Inquirer
This is a great example of how to kick a project up a notch or two. Publishing a book of poetry is a classic ELA project, but giving it an authentic purpose, students’ motivation and the quality of their work increases.
Breathing Life Through Local Memories: a Community Engagement PBL Unit
LifePracticeLearning
Here’s a student video contest about promoting local history in partnership with museums, with lots of suggestions for projects.
Project-Based Learning Done Right: Aligning Academics, Skills and Careers
EdSurge
Love the reflection on how what seemed like a good project the author experienced when she was in school, involving a school garden and a salsa-selling business, was not truly PBL—and how it could become so.
Want More Creativity? Help Children See Themselves Differently
ASCD/Education Week
Interesting finding, with implications for PBL teachers: children who were “reminded that they have “multiple identities”-- being a brother, a student, and a baseball player at the same time, for example—performed better at creative problem-solving tasks than peers in a control group. They also were more likely to go beyond basic gender and race when considering other people's identities.”
Project-Based Learning Engages K–12 Students with Real-World Challenges
EdTech Magazine
This article features three stories, all with connections to PBLWorks. First is the “March Through Nashville” project, taught by Kimberley Head-Trotter at McKissack Middle School in Nashville, which we filmed last year. Also featured is ACE Leadership High School in Albuquerque NM, which serves students who have dropped out of regular schools, where we supported the creation of an excellent video a few years ago. Then there’s our National Faculty member Jim Bentley, a 5th-6th teacher at Foulks Ranch Elementary School in Elk Grove, CA, and his wonderful National Geographic Geo-Inquiry projects.
