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Having done Project- Based Learning for nine years, I can say a few things with certainty. The most important thing I can say is that I have made every mistake that can be made, more than once.

With my pure and good intentions of providing students with an exciting, free, and authentic learning environment, I have occasionally lost sight of the importance of this true fact: good teaching is good teaching. (The opposite is also true.) Having always valued variety and an element of excitement in my learning, there were times when "lecture" and "worksheet" were taboo topics; likewise, in the pragmatic, rooted in reality world that PBL can be, certain awesome activities from my past were shoved in the closet for years.

I've seen both ends of the spectrum, multiple times. I have ended up in the middle. I suppose that experience is the best teacher. But if you're starting out on a PBL journey, remember these three guiding principles. My hope is that they keep you grounded and help you sustain this approach as well as help your students ease into it with you.

Use the best tools and methods available on any given day. This might (and will often) mean that you are providing direct, more traditional instruction methods to students if and when it is the best, most proven means by which to teach new content. As my friend and highly respected mentor Michael McDowell recently wrote, "don't ask kids to Google how to add." It's not the best method available. In PBL trainings we always encourage participants to not abjectly toss out their old favorite methods and activities; instead, we ask them to blend those best practices into a new fabric: academic standards mastered and applied to authentic, real- world problems.

One of the paradigm shifts that teachers must undergo as they embark on Project- Based Learning adventures is to not be the expert on everything. To clarify, we're not suggesting that teachers should not be experts in their content; they should. But they will not know all the myriad ways that the content is being applied to the complex, modern world.

The response of "I don't know" is uncomfortable for some, at first, but necessary. Use technology resources when you truly don't have the answer, or know the best way. My friend and colleague Jean Lee taught me the expression that she uses with her college students: "GTF" (Google That Fact). Brilliant! The internet gives us permission to not know everything.

Begin with the end in mind. Create the unit tests, rubrics, and other culminating assessment tools first. Tier those assessment tools according to "shallow" and "deep" learning, and whatever you do, don't skip the shallow stuff. Sure, maybe some kids blow through the beginner levels, and that's fine, as long as you can verify this and give them a path to move forward. Whether you use a Standards- Based Grading style rubric or a "PBL- Style" rubric, there should be an obvious next step for students, and that next step should always be a progression towards deeper/ applied learning. In the end, we hope their work demonstrates that they have, first and foremost, mastered the basic knowledge and skills and then ( and only then) applied that knowledge to the authentic learning situation that the project presents.

Remember that you are indispensable. It is irresponsible to ask students to direct the course of their own learning if they don't have the appropriate framework for that content. Why would we forego our own education, experience, and expertise when it comes to helping students unpack a concept, skill, or historical event? It is entirely possible and appropriate to ask students to apply higher thinking skills such as critical thinking, application, evaluation, and synthesis to content on their own, but we must provide them with the context and framework to do so. Otherwise we run the risk of having our students become curators of disconnected ideas, or worse, misconceptions.

Speaking of misconceptions, let's talk about the internet. Technology is a great tool, but it can also be a crutch. When students don't even bother to open a web page because everything they need is in the search result summary, have they really done research? I would argue that even unstructured research time should be guided by research questions, especially for beginner researchers. Give them questions like, "What were several effects of World War II on Europe? According to whom (what are their credentials?)" or "In what way(s) do GMO foods affect the environment, and why? According to whom (what are their credentials?)" Whatever those research questions are, make sure they are aligned to your rubric (i.e. they are doing application of or critical thinking about the "shallow" content you've previously taught them.)

Believe me when I say that I have personally made these and countless other errors in my delivery of projects with students. I have likewise experienced the corresponding disappointment in student outcomes that occur when we decide to adopt any one approach too fervently.

I now know again what I used to know before. A productive PBL environment needs structure and freedom, variety as well as routine, traditional and innovative techniques. So many like me think that the shift is going to be huge and overwhelming, and it can be... but shouldn't. Others (and we see this in trainings very often as well) realize that PBL simply requires a shift of context more than anything. When they realize this, the tension in their shoulders releases and they start to get excited, because they see that they can fit their own best practices into a method that will lend authenticity and applied learning to their classroom.

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Having done Project- Based Learning for nine years, I can say a few things with certainty. The most important thing I can say is that I have made every mistake that can be made, more than once.

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Assessment done by: Christothea Papadaki

Dear Irini,

Your topic is extremely interesting as it speaks directly to students’ interests, concerns and life and thus very challenging for them. The aims and goals are clear, though I believe that you should add more outcomes.

In this project students have voice and choice in all phases and are actively involved in it collaborating, creating and assessing their work. They make use of several web tools and it’s really important you tackle the issues of copyright and plagiarism.

Finally, through the blog they make their work public and although the access is free you leave open the chance of donations for charity purposes which also sensitizes students.

Good luck and enjoy your summer holidays!

Christothea Papadaki

Teacher of English

Athens Greece

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Top 6 PBL News Stories | Blog | Project Based Learning | BIE

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How Deeper Learning Helps Children Succeed Getting Smart An excerpt from Paul Tough's bookHelping Children Succeed: What Works and Why , highlighting the role deeper learning and PBL play in benefitting students in poverty. Extensive quotes from BIE Executive Director Bob Lenz from when he headed Envision Education.

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4.4 Creating & Using Rubrics for PBL Assessment

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4.4 Creating & Using Rubrics for PBL Assessment

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20 Simple Assessment Strategies You Can Use Every Day
contributed by Saga Briggs

The ultimate goal of teaching is understanding.

But sometimes it's easier to talk than to teach, as we all know, especially when we need to cover a lot of material in a short amount of time. We hope students will understand, if not now then before test time, and we keep our fingers crossed that their results will indicate we've done our job.

The problem is, we often rely on these tests to measure understanding and then we move on. There isn't always time to address weaknesses and misunderstandings after the tests have been graded, and the time to help students learn through strategies to ask great questions is gone.

Below are 22 simple assessment strategies and tips to help you become more frequent in your teaching, planning, and curriculum design.

Book TeachThought Professional Development for training on assessment practices that grow teachers
22 Simple Assessment Strategies & Tips You Can Use Every Day 1. An open-ended question that gets them writing/talking
Avoid yes/no questions and phrases like "Does this make sense?" In response to these questions, students usually answer 'yes.' So, of course, it's surprising when several students later admit that they're lost.

To help students grasp ideas in class, ask open-ended questions that require students that get students writing/talking. They will undoubtedly reveal more than you would've thought to ask directly.
2. Ask students to reflect
During the last five minutes of class ask students to reflect on the lesson and write down what they've learned. Then, ask them to consider how they would apply this concept or skill in a practical setting.
3. Use quizzes
Give a short quiz at the end of class to check for comprehension.
4. Ask students to summarize
Have students summarize or paraphrase important concepts and lessons. This can be done orally, visually, or otherwise.
5. Hand signals
Hand signals can be used to rate or indicate students' understanding of content. Students can show anywhere from five fingers to signal maximum understanding to one finger to signal minimal understanding. This strategy requires engagement by all students and allows the teacher to check for understanding within a large group.
6. Response cards
Index cards, signs, whiteboards, magnetic boards, or other items are simultaneously held up by all students in class to indicate their response to a question or problem presented by the teacher. Using response devices, the teacher can easily note the responses of individual students while teaching the whole group.
7. Four corners
A quick and easy snapshot of student understanding, Four Corners provides an opportunity for student movement while permitting the teacher to monitor and assess understanding.

The teacher poses a question or makes a statement. Students then move to the appropriate corner of the classroom to indicate their response to the prompt. For example, the corner choices might include "I strongly agree," "I strongly disagree," "I agree somewhat," and "I'm not sure."
8. Think-pair-share
Students take a few minutes to think about the question or prompt. Next, they pair with a designated partner to compare thoughts before sharing with the whole class.
9. Choral reading
Students mark text to identify a particular concept and chime in, reading the marked text aloud in unison with the teacher. This strategy helps students develop fluency; differentiate between the reading of statements and questions; and practice phrasing, pacing, and reading dialogue.
10. One question quiz
Ask a single focused question with a specific goal that can be answered within a minute or two. You can quickly scan the written responses to assess student understanding.
11. Socratic seminar
Students ask questions of one another about an essential question, topic, or selected text. The questions initiate a conversation that continues with a series of responses and additional questions. Students learn to formulate questions that address issues to facilitate their own discussion and arrive at a new understanding.
12. 3-2-1
Students consider what they have learned by responding to the following prompt at the end of the lesson: 3) things they learned from your lesson; 2) things they want to know more about; and 1) questions they have. The prompt stimulates student reflection on the lesson and helps to process the learning.
13. Ticket out the door
Students write in response to a specific prompt for a short period of time. Teachers collect their responses as a "ticket out the door" to check for students' understanding of a concept taught. This exercise quickly generates multiple ideas that could be turned into longer pieces of writing at a later time.
14. Journal reflections
Students write their reflections on a lesson, such as what they learned, what caused them difficulty, strategies they found helpful, or other lesson-related topics. Students can reflect on and process lessons. By reading student work-especially - types of learning journals that help students think- teachers can identify class and individual misconceptions and successes. (See also
15. Formative pencil-paper assessment
Students respond individually to short, pencil-paper formative assessments of skills and knowledge taught in the lesson. Teachers may elect to have students self-correct. The teacher collects assessment results to monitor individual student progress and to inform future instruction.

Both student and teacher can quickly assess whether the student acquired the intended knowledge and skills. This is a formative assessment, so a grade is not the intended purpose.
16. Misconception check
Present students with common or predictable misconceptions about a concept you're covering. Ask them whether they agree or disagree and to explain why.
17. Analogy prompt
Teaching with analogies can be powerful. Periodically, present students with an analogy prompt: "the concept being covered is like ____ because ____."
18. Practice frequency
Check for understanding at least three times a lesson, minimum.
19. Use variety
Teachers should use enough different individual and whole group techniques to check understanding that they accurately know what all students know. More than likely, this means during a single class the same technique should not be repeated.
20. Make it useful
The true test is whether or not you can adjust your course or continue as planned based on the information received in each check. Do you need to stop and start over? Pull a few students aside for three minutes to re-teach? Or move on?
21. Peer instruction
Perhaps the most accurate way to check for understanding is to have one student try to teach another student what she's learned . If she can do that successfully, it's clear she understood your lesson.
22. "Separate what you do and don't understand"
Whether making a t-chart, drawing a concept map, or using some other means, have the students not simply list what they think they know, but what they don't know as well. This won't be as simple as it sounds-we're usually not aware of what we don't know.

They'll also often know more or less than they can identify themselves, which makes this strategy a bit crude. But that's okay-the goal isn't for them to be precise and complete in their self-evaluation the goal is for you to gain insight as to what they do and don't know.

And seeing what they can even begin to articulate on their own is an excellent starting point here.
This post was written by Saga Briggins and was first publish by on opencolleges.edu.au; 20 Simple Assessment Strategies You Can Use Every Day

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20 Simple Assessment Strategies You Can Use Every Day

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20 Simple Assessment Strategies You Can Use Every Day contributed by Saga Briggs The ultimate goal of teaching is understanding. But sometimes it's easier to talk than to teach, as we all know, especially when we need to cover a lot of material in a short amount of time.

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Embedding Assessment Throughout the Project: Keys to PBL Series Part 5

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This map has been created for the Project Based Learning Course of the Teacher Academy (School Education Gateway), Interactive images, To create digital less...

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This video is part of the Project Based Learning course from the Teacher Academy Platform. In this PBL TeachMeet,18 participants from the course had the opportunity to share their own presentations in 3 minutes each! For more information, visit the website: http://www.schooleducationgateway.eu/en/pub/index.htm

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In my country, summative assesment is the top priority. Children start taking exams at a very young age (9 or 10 ) for their first test and contiinue till the age of 18 when they take their University Entrance Exams. This is considered to be the focal point of all their efforts..Each family will probably spend hundreds of euros on private tuition so that their offspring can succeed in entering University.There is a lot of competition among students which seems to affect their relationships at times.Sadly, this often applies to colleagues as well...

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3.4 Webinar 22nd June, 18:30h: Developing Entrepreneurial Skills

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3.4 Webinar 22nd June, 18:30h: Developing Entrepreneurial Skills

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Online Communication Skills Training Videos

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Webinar Developing entrepreneurial skills PBL course

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This video is the first webinar of the Project Based Learning course from the Teacher Academy Platform. The webinar was about "Developing entrepreneurial skills". For more information, visit the website: http://www.schooleducationgateway.eu/en/pub/index.htm

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3.1 Scaffolding for Student Ownership and Independence

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3.1 Scaffolding for Student Ownership and Independence

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Facilitating Learning in a Student-Driven Environment: Keys to PBL Series Part 4

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iRubric: Home of free rubric tools: RCampus

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iRubric: The only free rubric builder and assessment tool. Working with rubrics has never been easier. Build, Assess, Share, and Collaborate using our intuitive tools.

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Scrumy-For project planning and to-do agenda

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Scrumy-For project planning and to-do agenda

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3. Developing student-driven activities for PBL

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3. Developing student-driven activities for PBL

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Last year ,I was very happy to cooperate with resilient and responsible colleagues in my eTwinning project. We were even awarded the European Quality Label. Regretfully, however, this year I was not that fortunate.Many colleagues from other countries volunteered to take part in the project I set up about European Culture.Most of them dropped out halfway,however.I can understand the busy schedule all of us are having.It is also true that some experience serious personal problems.It is an elemantary act of politeness to send an email informing your partner that you are unable to continue.Not answering my calls and ignoring messages simply shows that there is no culture at all!!! Anyway, I am moving on, and doing most of the work with my students and a two schools that have not dropped out.To my mind,it has been a great experience which resulted in realising that I should choose my partners more carefully!!!

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2.6 P2P - Building your PBL Learning Design

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2.6 P2P - Building your PBL Learning Design

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FCS | Module 1 | Tool for Teaching: TeamUp

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PBL Ideas Book (Resource) | GDCF Planner

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The book also contains the links to the full unit plans, but what if you want to change it up and add your own ideas? No problem! They're the perfect scenarios for you to build on right here in the planner as well, because they're formed around the 6Ds process of Solution Fluency that we use as our guided lesson planning system.

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2.4 Finding collaboration partners outside the classroom

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2.4 Finding collaboration partners outside the classroom

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https://youtu.be/30oAIh5y3gE

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2.3 Effective Collaboration for PBL inside the Classroom

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2.3 Effective Collaboration for PBL inside the Classroom

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Structuring Collaboration for Student Success: Keys to PBL Series Part 3

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Use the ASU Online Objectives Builder tool below to write measurable course outcomes and learning objectives.

About Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives are statements that describe the specific knowledge, skills, or abilities student will be able to demonstrate in the real world as a result of completing a lesson. Learning objectives should not be assignment-specific, however, an assignment should allow students to demonstrate they have achieved the lesson objective(s). All of the learning objectives should support the course outcomes.

Examples of Learning Objectives

Describe individual, behavioral, and social factors positively influencing health in the Blue Zones.

Calculate the median of a set of values using Excel.

Create a needs analysis using Gilbert's Performance Matrix.

Revise a company operations manual to reduce energy consumption.

Diagram the main constructs of social cognitive theory.

Summarize the scope and source of food waste in the United States.

Objectives Builder Tool

Use the below objectives builder tool to begin designing objectives. If it's your first time click "Start Project". If this is a return visit, click "Resume" to pick up where you left off or "Restart" to start the tutorial over. Follow the on-screen instructions to build your learning objective(s)!

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Learning Objectives Builder - Teach Online

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Use the ASU Online Objectives Builder tool below to write measurable course outcomes and learning objectives. About Learning Objectives Learning Objectives are statements that describe the specific knowledge, skills, or abilities student will be able to demonstrate in the real world as a result of completing a lesson.

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Learning Diaries and Learning Designs (Responses)

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FCS | Module 3 | Collaboration | Deirdre Butler, National University of Ireland

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Irini's Driving Question "Create your on-line Year Book in English"

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Irini's Driving Question "Create your on-line Year Book in English"

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I would liketo teach my 15 year old students some fundamental issues of collaborative writing. I have a class of 20 Secondary education students whose linguistic level is B1+ in the CEFR for languages. What I have observed is that they only use the English Language in class for evaluation purposes. My suggestion would be for them to work together so as to create an on line Year Book of their class in English.The year book will include presentations of the students, old and new photos, interviews,quotes and generally whatever they consider important for describing themselves,their interests and their school life.An online newspaper review of their whole school year in other words.The whole progect might be exhibited on a blog the students will create and update.

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Edu Tech Tools - Web tools for Education, by Stavroula Lada by stacy l | This newsletter was created with Smore, an online tool for creating beautiful newsletters for for educators, nonprofits, businesses and more

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No test, grade, or teacher evaluation could have come close to helping her learn that deeply, and it made clear to me how important it is for teachers to reexamine why and how we grade our students if we truly care about their success.

As collaboration and project-based learning become preeminent ways of teaching and learning, many teachers struggle with how to evaluate these types of lessons. Traditional methods of evaluation, which have many flaws on their own, are not well-suited for interdisciplinary, multi-modal learning. Teachers need ideas for encouraging students, providing meaningful feedback, and setting students up for success.

Project-based learning (PBL), also known as challenge-based learning, begins with the assumption that there may be more than one right answer. Finding creative solutions to a problem or a driving question is what makes the learning meaningful and lasting, and also difficult to evaluate from a traditional standpoint. When projects are interdisciplinary, it becomes even more of a challenge for teachers to critique subjects that may be unfamiliar.

What to Grade

There are many dimensions of student achievement that we need to evaluate in PBL. The end product is certainly important, but if we focus only on that, the meaningful learning that happens throughout the process can be lost as students feel pressure to do whatever it takes to "make the grade."

The advantage of PBL is that students learn much more than the content. They learn how to work with others, solve problems, present their ideas clearly to an audience, and learn from their mistakes. In other words, we want to acknowledge not only what they learned, but how they came to learn it so that they can use these processes in the future.

Some areas for evaluation include content mastery, collaboration or participation, and presentation or style. Additional considerations may include meeting deadlines or other elements specific to your topic or project.

How and When to Grade

Rather than setting students up for failure with an antagonistic grading philosophy, set them up for success from the beginning. Establish target goals early to provide purpose for the project, while also establishing expectations of the result:

What is the problem to solve or the product to create?

What kinds of subject area content need to be included or addressed in the project?

What expectations do you have for the final product's presentation, publishing, or performance?

What kinds of collaborative behaviors must be demonstrated by students throughout the process?

Feedback and corrections should happen frequently to keep students on track, improve their work, and set them up for success in the final product. Waiting too long to give feedback may result in work that is too far gone to be fixed or improved.

What Counts as an Evaluation?

If we understand evaluation as some type of feedback on the progress or achievement of a student, then it can take many different shapes and be as formal or informal as needed. I think evaluations should have four dimensions:

While rubric score sheets can be a quick, efficient way of providing feedback to a big class, oral and written feedback is more personal and specific.

Self-evaluation is an especially important piece of the summative evaluation because it taps into higher-level thinking and awareness of the material, process, and final product. It makes students think about their successes, mistakes, and goals for the next time. Choose oral or written form, and include expectations or rubrics for this evaluation.

Peer evaluations are unique to collaborative projects, and I find that they facilitate a better collaborative process because the teacher considers the student experience. We can use this information to modify the workflow for the next project and hold students accountable for their work (effort, constructive contributions to the team, etc.).

Public vs. Private Evaluation

Ideally, PBL is an authentic experience, whether for the class or an audience beyond the classroom walls. So we need to allow for audience feedback to evaluate that project's levels of success. Public critiques (such as comments on blog posts) and class discussion help provide wider perspective and may even carry more meaning for the student than teacher feedback. Consider having a content-area professional or college professor provide critiques for added credibility.

Private evaluations, like self-reflections and teacher feedback, can address confidential information about teammates that allows students to be honest about their peers and themselves. Find a combination of both public and private evaluations that you feel is right for your students or the project.

Constructive Criticism

The goal of evaluations should be to emphasize growth and encourage improvement. There are several techniques that help us in our oral or written constructive criticism.

Critique Sandwich

A negative comment about a problem or flaw is presented between positive comments about something done well.

"I Like That. . ."

Require feedback that includes answers to all of these statements:

Rose/Thorn/Bud

This critique also addresses the good (rose) and the bad (thorn), but also the potential (bud) for what may be a good idea but needs work.

Many of the evaluation methods that I've described are qualitative rather than quantitative, may not be what we're used to, and may not be what your administration requires, so you should find the combination that best suits your needs. But multi-dimensional learning like PBL requires multi-dimensional evaluations that encourage student success.

Do you teach with PBL? In what ways do you evaluate your students? Please share your thoughts in the comments area below.

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Evaluation Within Project-Based Learning | Edutopia

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No test, grade, or teacher evaluation could have come close to helping her learn that deeply, and it made clear to me how important it is for teachers to reexamine why and how we grade our students if we truly care about their success.

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1.6 P2P - Your PBL Design: Formulating your driving question

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1.6 P2P - Your PBL Design: Formulating your driving question

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Not only does project based learning motivate students because it is an authentic use of technology, it facilitates active learning, critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity. Projects begin with a driving question-an open-ended question that sets the stage for the project by creating interest and curiosity. Writing an effective driving question is surprisingly challenging. You want the question to be intriguing and irresistible to students, which makes it very different from the typical questions they encounter on tests.

A Driving Force

Like many educators, I call the "mission statement" of a project a driving question. It captures the heart of the project by providing purpose using clear and compelling language. With so many different flavors of project based learning (including problem based learning, challenge based learning, student centered learning, exploration, student driven inquiry, and authentic learning), it's not surprising that we have a variety of other terms for a question or statement that is the project's driving force. These terms include essential question, challenge, prime question, WILD HOG question, focus question, and smart question. I'll stick with driving question, but do know that sometimes the driving question is not interrogative. It might be a statement, but I'll still refer to is as a question.

Driving questions pose simply stated real world dilemmas. They pose predicaments that students find interesting and actually want to answer. The question drives students to discuss, inquire, and investigate the topic. It should push them toward a production or solution. In the process of investigating the question and sharing their answers, students learn important content and skills.

Make a Dent

Steve Jobs had the mantra, "Let's make a dent in the universe." He was on a mission to change the world. His dent in the universe is almost as big as the dent his company has put in my pocketbook (brief pause for chuckles). I think the best projects set out to make a dent. The dent might be big or small, but at least the project has made a difference in the universe.

Projects can make a difference by...

educating others

solving a problem

calling people to action

building something useful

planning an event

raising money for a purpose

recognizing or inspiring others

designing a better way to do something

If a student can ask Google, Cortana, or Siri a question and get the answer, then that question would not be a good driving question. Its answer is readily available. Answering it again as a project won't make a dent in the universe. It would be work that keeps a student busy but has little value in itself (also known as busy work).

Chicken or Egg

Which comes first, the driving question or the learning goals? I think it depends. The most successful projects feed off of students' passions. Don't be afraid to tap into them. Take what they are interested in and find a way to connect that interest to learning standards.

In my first year of teaching, my fifth graders were obsessed with SpongeBob Squarepants. They would enter the classroom each morning talking about the cartoon and its characters. They would mention SpongeBob any chance they got during class. If they were passing notes, it was probably about SpongeBob. I saw my students' eyes light up when they found out my dad's name is Gary (the name of SpongeBob's pet snail). Instead of embracing their passion for the topic, I banned SpongeBob from my classroom because I thought it was distracting. I really wish I hadn't done that. I lost rapport with my students, and just imagine if I could have funneled that energy and enthusiasm into a project... Driving questions might have been:

What adventures would SpongeBob have during the Great Depression?

You are in charge of Nickelodeon. Propose episodes of SpongeBob that teach kids about finding common denominators.

How can we use SpongeBob to persuade our parents to protect Earth's resources and environment?

So, to develop a driving question, you can use students' interest as a starting point and then creatively connect learning standards. Alternatively, driving questions are often developed by first looking at learning standards. Some of them will most likely coalesce into a possible project. Considering where your standards are used in the real world may help you connect them with a problem, dilemma, or question you can use to drive a project.

Some of the learning aims my school had for students in math were working with decimals and graphing data. I also wanted them to learn about spreadsheets. These goals lead to the question, "How would you use $1,000,000 to help our community?" For the project, students had to account for every penny, categorize expenses in a spreadsheet, and construct pie charts. Language arts standards were also addressed because the end product required good writing and speaking skills.

So, you can start with a topic or you start with learning standards to develop a driving question. In the end, the driving question should require students to learn skills and content in order to answer an interesting question.

Who Writes the Question?

It's likely the teacher will be the one writing the driving question. A good driving question is challenging to construct, even for an experienced professional educator. The teacher will know best how to form a question that incorporates learning standards. To involve students, the teacher could get input from them about the potential driving question.

Driving questions written by students are certainly valuable (and an essential part of Genius Hour or 20% Time), but they can be very difficult to integrate into a prescribed curriculum. Don't worry, even if the teacher develops the driving question, students still have the opportunity to ask loads of their own questions (see the Branching Questions section below).

Types of Questions

There's an art to developing driving questions, because there isn't a specific formula you must follow. Though, you can find some examples and structures to help you out. Below are some types of driving questions. Maybe some of these will be the spark that inspires you write your next driving question.

📐 Solve a Problem: There's a real-world predicament with multiple solutions.

How can we stop phantom traffic jams?

How can we beautify the vacant lot across the street for $200?

What's the best way to stop the flu at our school?

Design a better lunch menu for our school.

Design a safe and sturdy bridge to replace one in our city.

🎓 Educational: The purpose of the project is to teach others.

How can we teach second graders about helpful insects.

Create a campaign to teach senior citizens how to use an iPad.

What do the students at our school need to know about being respectful?

👍 Convince Others: Students persuade a specified audience to do something or change their opinions.

Create a public service announcement (PSA) that persuades teens to drink more water.

Drive yourself to define a question and then Prove It to your classmates.

Convince grocery shoppers to return their shopping carts.

How can we convince our principal that we should have a party in December?

🌏 Broad Theme: The project tackles big ideas.

What does it mean to read?

How does conflict lead to change?

How does math influence art?

How do writers persuade others?

How are good and evil depicted in different cultures?

💬 Opinion: Students need to consider all sides of an issue in order to form and justify their opinions.

Should pets be allowed to attend class?

Why has a woman never been a U.S. president?

What makes a good astronaut?

🚥 Divergent: Students make predictions about alternative timelines and scenarios.

What if Rosa Parks gave up her seat?

What if the world ran out of oil tomorrow?

How might your city change if the climate became an average of 10°F warmer?

What if the USA switched to the metric system?

🚀 Scenario-Based: Students take on a fictional role with a mission to accomplish.

You're a NASA engineer, and you are in charge of building a moon base. What are the ten most important things to include and why?

Imagine that you are King George. What would you have done differently to keep American part of England?

You are the CEO of a company that is designing a new social media app. Present a business plan to your investors that explains how your company will make money.

You've been hired to revamp your local shopping mall. Come up with a plan to increase business.

How would you spend $1,000,000 to help your community?

🚧 Scaffolded Around Framing Words: BIE has a tool to help you develop driving questions called a Tubric. It provides possible framing words, actions, audience, and purpose. If you'd rather not take the time to construct a tube, you could use Rhoni McFarlane's Developing Inquiry Questions chart, Amy Mayer's Scaffold for Writing a Driving Question, or TeachThought's PBL Cheat Sheet.

How can I create a campaign to reduce bullying in my school? (from Rhoni McFarlane)

How can we find a solution to reduce the litter in our school permanently? (also from Rhoni McFarlane)

How can we as first graders create geocaching sites to promote physical fitness in our neighborhood? (from Washington Discovery Academy)

Refining the Question

Driving questions are rarely perfect after the first draft. There are usually ways you can make them better. Talking a driving question over with colleagues, asking on social media, and putting it past your students can help you get insight into how well the question will drive a project.

A driving question shouldn't sound like a question students would find on a test. Instead of "Describe what organisms need to survive," the question could be "What if we had a chicken house at our school?" And, "Why did the American colonists declare war with England?" could be reworked into, "How could you have convinced American colonists to support independence using today's technology?" Making your question appealing to students is probably the most difficult part of crafting a question. Keep in mind, a question that is captivating to you might not be to your students.

Below is a checklist to help you refine your question. You might not be able to check off all the items, but the more the merrier!

‼️ The question is appealing to students.
🗜 The question is concise.
💦 The question has no easy answer.
😍 The question taps into students' interests and passions.
💤 The question does not sound like a test question.
💗 The question leads to more questions.
🔀 There is more than one answer to the question.
🔰 The topic is personal or local.
🏡 Students can relate to the question in their daily lives.
🤔 Students will have choices for end products.
💬 There is an authentic audience for the project.
🕵️‍♀️ The question requires serious investigation.
ℹ️ Students will learn important skills and content.
💥 The project will somehow make a difference in the world.

Outcomes

Since you've probably attached a few learning standards to the project, you'll want to make sure that those are addressed. Learning goals don't have to be part of your driving question. In fact, mentioning them in your driving question will complicate it. Instead, the place to communicate learning outcomes is in your assessment instrument. Whether you use a checklist, rating scale, or rubric, you'll want to create it alongside your driving question. The criteria you put in your assessment will guide students toward the content and skills you want them to learn. You might even want to get their input before you finalize the project's assessment.

Be sure that your assessment gives students lots of leeway in how they investigate and share their projects. Every project should turn out differently. As Chris Lehmann says, "If you assign a project and you get back 30 of the exact same thing, that's not a project, that's a recipe."

You can create rubrics and checklists with help from:

💡 Great Idea: Teacher Kristy Louden writes about how she delays giving a final grade until after students have read her feedback and conferenced with her.

Branching Questions

A good driving question will lead to more questions. Students will generate these sub questions and their answers are important for the project. These sub questions branch off of the driving questions and each other. They are specific and can guide student research.

Let's take the driving question, "What if we had a chicken house at our school?" Students might brainstorm branching questions like:

What do chickens eat?

How often do they eat?

How large of a house do they need?

Does the house need to have different rooms?

Do chickens fight with each other?

How many eggs will they lay?

Branching questions get students thinking about what they need to know to answer the driving question. Using a mind mapping app like Popplet can help students capture their brainstormed branching questions. Students can then group their questions based on similarities, by the kinds of resources that can help them answer, or for the purpose of assigning sub questions to different group members. Below is a Popplet map with branching questions organized by sub topics.

Free mind mapping apps you might consider...

And, of course, paper or whiteboards can be used to brainstorm branching questions.

Big Deal

A driving question guides a project, which can take days, weeks, or months to complete. It's a big deal. You want to make sure your question is a good one. How do you know if a question will push students toward a quality project? Do the project yourself! If you do your own project ahead of time, you might encounter some bumps in the road that you didn't anticipate, giving you a chance to refine your question or modify your assessment instrument. If you do your project alongside students, you can model thinking skills and perseverance. By doing your own project, you're showing your students that the driving question is such a big deal, even you want to answer it.

Since your question is such a big deal, treat it like one! Make up rhymes, chants, poems, or songs. An app like Songify for iOS or Android can turn your spoken words into a catchy tune.

Plaster your driving question at the front of your classroom, post it in the hallway, put it on your website, and include it in your class newsletter. Heck, you can make stickers, banners, t-shirts, mugs, slippers, and water bottles with the driving question.

You can use your favorite design app to make a graphic or poster of your driving question. As a time saver, there are websites that can instantly make your driving question visual. Some good ones are Recite, Quozio, QuotesCover, and Canva.

You Know Better Than Anyone

As the leader of your classroom, you are in the best position to know what will work with your students. You know a lot about their interests and abilities. You know the amount of time you have, the resources available, your curriculum, and the learning standards. Considering all this and concocting a meaningful question that will spur students to investigate and learn is no easy task. But, since a driving question can make or break a project, it's very much worth the effort.

Phillip Schlechty says that teachers need to ask themselves, "What is it that I am trying to get others to do, and what reasons might they have for doing such things?" Answering a well-crafted driving question can be a terrific reason for learning!

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Crafting Questions That Drive Projects - Learning in Hand with Tony Vincent

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Not only does project based learning motivate students because it is an authentic use of technology, it facilitates active learning, critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity. Projects begin with a driving question-an open-ended question that sets the stage for the project by creating interes

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Question :After watching the video share in the Padlet below, your view on which of the 5 components (or keys as they are called in the video) you feel will be the most challenging for you to realize and why. Is it effective collaboration because your classroom space does not lend itself well to group work? Or is it assessment because your curriculum requires very regular and rigid summative assessments that you are worried will get in the way of PBL? Or maybe you are more concerned about the passivity of your students in lessons and getting them to take the initiative? Share your thoughts, concerns, reflections, etc.
Answer :Regular and rigid assesssment is definitely a part of the Greek school curriculum. In other words, pupils have been taught how to seek summative education even in Project Based Learning. This is not an easy preocedure ,taking into account the collaborative nature of this method. We often see gifted students taking control of the whole project while others prefer staying behind, somehow hiding themselves in the crowd..Another problem ,though minor one, is convincing the parents about the benefits of a method they have little knowledge of

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5 Keys to Rigorous Project-Based Learning

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1.3 P2P - Reflections on our current teaching practice

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1.3 P2P - Reflections on our current teaching practice

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Let's think about how PBL links to our current teaching approaches. Write a short Learning Diary entry reflecting on your own teaching strategies, classroom setup, students' needs, etc.

Some questions to consider for your diary entry (you do not need to answer all of these):What teaching strategy do you use most commonly? What do YOU do most of the time in the classroom? What do the students do most of the time? Do you feel your current approach could be easily complemented with a PBL approach? Do you sometimes have the problem that students don't remember what they "learned" the day before? How do you address this? Do you already use some of the PBL approaches mentioned in the video? What works, doesn't work? Why? How do you find out about your student needs and how do you incorporate this knowledge in your teaching? Finish your reflection by identifying a class and a subject topic that you teach which you can use to experiment with PBL.
I have been working as an English teacher at Greek States schools for the past 17 years.Before that I worked at private language centers for four years and/or delivered private lessons. Summative assessment has always been the major driving force of the Greek students' performance.Earning prestigious language certificates and entering a University has always been the cornerstone of what was considered good quality education. Many of our students are eager to compete for the highest grades while others have actually abandoned their effort and simply want to graduate with a passing grade. When the Greek government introduced PBL as part of the curriculum ,about 5 years ago , both teachers and students were surprised. PBL was actually presented as a remedy for many "ilnesses" that our education system experiences. We attended seminars in order to comprehend how this new system would develop and tried to implement the given directions as faithfully as possible.Time allocated to projects has recently decreased,however, while rumour has it that it might be abolished as an independent subject ,because it will be incorporated to all other subjects. Regretfully, children tend to underestimate it and consider it as that part of the school curriculun which is meant for their relaxation.They focus more on their end of year exams , or their University Entrance exams. As a result,motivating my students and uprooting long established prejudice is the most important challenge I will have to face.It goes without saying that my crisis stricken country has little to offer in terms of ICT facilities or teachers' in service training!

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Question:Why do you think PBL is not used more widely in our education systems? What is stopping us from achieving what is outlined in the video? What are the biggest challenges we as educators face and who is stopping us from adopting the PBL approach in our classrooms?

Answer: Project Based Learning  started claiming its place in the Greek school curriculum a few years ago. Despite the initial enthusiasm the Greek ministry of Education recently decreased the time allocated to it. Financial crisis seems  to be the driving force behind  it,leading us  to more traditional and far cheaper ways of educating our children.

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Propositions Project: 21st Century Skills

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Share some reactions to the video here, in particular identifying any questions you have about PBL, what you hope to learn on this course and what challenges you anticipate in adopting PBL in your school.

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Share some reactions to the video here, in particular identifying any questions you have about PBL, what you hope to learn on this course and what challenges you anticipate in adopting PBL in your school.

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There is definitely a lot to be learnt about PBL not only by teachers but students as well. Stereotypes in learning styles are hard to overcome and require both time and appropriate education..... in my country  secondary  schools are exam oriented leading to the children's misconception that project hours are mostly  time allocated to relax and have fun...

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An Introduction to Project-Based Learning

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My name is Irini Sakellaraki. I work as a teacher of English at a secondary school in the centre of Athens. I have been teaching English for over 20 years both in private and state schools. I hope this course will help me implement new methods and motivate my students more. This is a brief introduction about my school,made for last year's eTwinning project.

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65 ΓΕΛ Αθηνών

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65 ΓΕΛ Αθηνών Topic Die Jugendlichen beim Tanzen machen Spaβ- Ο ΧΟΡΟΣ ΩΣ ΔΡΩΜΕΝΟ, ΩΣ ΑΠΟΔΡΑΣΗ, ΩΣ ΑΝΑΔΡΑΣΗ, ΩΣ ΔΙΑΔΡΑΣΗ( μαθητικές προσεγγίσεις του χορού) There are 230 students and 19 teachers Welcome to our school! The Computer Lab The main corridor One of the classroms The 65thSenior High School is located in Kato Patiissia Just 4 km from the Acropolis!!!