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The Question Formulation Technique in 90 Seconds.

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Developed by the Right Question Institute, the Question Formulation Technique, or QFT, is a structured method for generating and improving questions. It distills sophisticated forms of divergent, convergent, and metacognitive thinking into a deceptively simple, accessible, and reproducible technique.

The QFT builds the skill of asking questions, an essential - yet often overlooked - lifelong learning skill that allows people to think critically, feel greater power and self-efficacy, and become more confident and ready to participate in civic life.

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What is the QFT? - Right Question Institute

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The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) is a simple but rigorous step-by-step process designed to help […]

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This video shows how the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) may be used as a formative assessment - to determine students' understanding of a concept or their knowledge of a topic. Educators can use the QFT to assess their students at the beginning of a unit, as seen in this video, in the middle of the unit, and toward the end of the unit.

There are other creative ways to use the QFT, including as a summative assessment (see: " Making Questions Flow " to read more about how to use student questions).

In this video, Lucy Canotas, a fourth-grade teacher in Manchester, New Hampshire, uses the QFT for formative assessment purposes. "I'm interested to see what they can bring as questions to make me understand where they're still stuck or what they still don't know," she explains. To elicit students' questions about fractions, she designed a visual Question Focus (QFocus). She found that using the students' questions and work helped her better understand what they knew about this mathematical concept. This video shows each step of the QFT in an elementary-school classroom, and it shows how Canotas uses the QFT to collect information that helps her fine-tune lessons.

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Using the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) for Formative Assessment - Right Question Institute

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This video shows how the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) may be used as a formative assessment - to determine students' understanding of a concept or their knowledge of a topic. Educators can use the QFT to assess their students at the beginning of a unit, as seen in this video, in the middle of the unit, and toward the end of the unit.

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Using The QFT To Drive Inquiry In Project-Based Learning
by Drew Perkins, Director of TeachThought PD

Inquiry can be a powerful teaching and learning strategy.

When I came across the Question Formulation Technique by the Right Question Institute while reading A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger, I was excited for such a simple yet powerful tool to increase the quality of student inquiry. While there are many ways you can use the QFT in any classroom, and the Right Question Institute (RQI) provides some great examples on their website, it can be a valuable tool in a project-based learning setting as well.

This type of rich inquiry elevates student autonomy and collaboration in a "Yes, And" sort of way and helps create a culture focused on safety in discovery rather than intimidating teacher coverage.

Taking a look over the infographic you'll notice the QFT starts with a Question Focus. This is something that typically pushes the learner to take a side or provoke deep thought. Students then produce questions in a sort of 'question-storming' way that works best when they all contribute (in small groups) on one large chart paper (see video below) or whiteboard.

The synergy that can build from this type of collaboration is powerful as students essentially 'Yes, and...' the thoughts of others without judging or working to answer these questions. As the RQI folks note, the shift from being asked for answers to being asked for questions can really be powerful in building a safe learning environment. As students improve and work through the remaining steps of the QFT the opportunities for meta-cognition are rich and should improve as they become more comfortable with the process.

In the course of a PBL unit, there are several phases and I can see the QFT being used in all of them. Initially you want to create some sense of cognitive dissonance or emotional engagement around the project's challenge or problem and the QFT can help do that by using it as an Entry Event and hook. It's possible to use the QFT in a professional development setting to generate questions around data showing drops in student engagement and questioning over time.

Then, we use these questions to clarify the purpose in our resulting Driving Question for the workshop. As a classroom teacher you might engage students in the QFT as a way to better understand student passions and interests (Genius Hour, for example) and use that data to design a project weeks later but using a powerful Question Focus to kick your project off can generate student interest and excitement while activating their schema and helping to start your Need to Know list.

During a project there should be multiple opportunities for meaningful assessment as students work toward craftsmanship and refining their products. What if you used the QFT to assess student understanding of a text or teaching resource/material and generate meaningful conversation much in the same way a Socratic Seminar might to help spur deeper learning and differentiate?

It is also possible to use the QFT process in the service of helping students struggling to move forward with an iteration or just needing peer critique and most certainly in helping them add to their Need to Knows. What if you engaged students and experts collaboratively in the QFT around student products in a way that helped them display their thinking like and alongside actual content area experts?

As you're coming to the end of your project what if, instead of giving a traditional test, you used the QFT as a summative assessment as the video below shows? While this might force you (and your students) to think differently about summative assessments, a teacher/facilitator can learn a tremendous amount about content understanding while engaging students in critical thinking.
Conclusion
Ultimately, the QFT is a multi-faceted tool and the beauty of it is in its simplicity. It helps students have more of a voice and helps teachers shift from being the center of attention and thinking to to the facilitator creating scenarios allowing for great questions that effective PBL demands. It also helps create a mindset and culture where students become resourceful and empowered by their inquiry because it's just that, their inquiry. As teachers we need to ask great questions but we also need students to ask great questions.

They have them, but often aren't asked to share in meaningful ways. Designing great learning means we're asking questions important to our students and presenting them with opportunities to do the same. This can be a challenge at all levels but the QFT can help.
Using The QFT To Drive Inquiry In Project-Based Learning

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Using The QFT To Drive Inquiry In Project-Based Learning |

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Using The QFT To Drive Inquiry In Project-Based Learning by Drew Perkins, Director of TeachThought PD Inquiry can be a powerful teaching and learning strategy. When I came across the Question Formulation Technique by the Right Question Institute while reading A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger, I was excited for such a simple yet powerful tool to increase the quality of student inquiry.

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PBL is an approach that welcomes a variety of instructional strategies. It uses multiple best teaching practices to help students answer the driving question. Like constructing a building, begin with…

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Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions - Right Question Institute

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The deadline to register for this course is Friday, October 9. Online Course, October 20 - November 9Hosted at Harvard Graduate School of Education This online course, taught through the Harvard Graduate School of Education, explores best practices in the Question Formulation Technique. This fall, it will run October 20 - November 9.

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7 Questions To Guide Your PBL Implementation Plan
by Drew Perkins, Director of TeachThought PD
Grow your school with TeachThought PD Project-Based Learning Workshops
It's that time of year again where the students are walking out the door for the summer and the gears of next year start accelerating.

Spring and late summer (in the United States) is when we get the most inquiries for professional development, and without a doubt, recently PBL is our number one most requested area of growth.

Just like most things, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing well and that means being intentional about the process. We love the cultural shifts that can come with PBL and strongly advise leadership to engage in implementation planning sessions that focus on long-term sustainability instead of a just one-off workshop.

With all of our work we strive to be sure our work is aligned with your mission and vision but also seek to engage stakeholders in the deep considerations about your educational ecosystem that are necessary for long-term success.

Ideally this kind of work does not occur in a vacuum, isolated from those stakeholders like teachers, students, parents and community members who will be engaging in this pedagogical shift. As much as possible we encourage those folks to be a part of this process and if you're truly looking to support and empower your staff and students, it's important to engage in reciprocal accountability.

We're not talking about high-stakes accountability, but the kind of professional norms and expectations where you expect to be asked tough questions like those below.
7 Questions To Guide Your PBL Implementation Plan 1. Why Questions:
Why should we engage in PBL? What are the benefits and what is the evidence that supports this kind of shift?
2. What Questions:
What exactly is PBL, especially in our school? Can you show me examples of where it's been done effectively? Will we have access to quality professional development both externally and internally over a sustained period of time?
3. 'How' Questions
What are our next steps and where do we go from there? How do we know this won't be replaced by something else, sooner rather than later? How do we implement quality PBL?
4. 'When' Questions
When will we be starting and when will we have time to work to develop quality PBL? What does it look like in year two, three, and beyond? When will we be provided opportunities to refine our teaching craft in the context of PBL?
5. Guiding Questions
What questions will help us stay focused on growing teaching and learning with PBL? What questions are we trying to answer?
6. Quality Questions
How will we know we're doing quality PBL? How will we know we're getting better? What does the growth trajectory look like?
7. Assurance Questions:
What will happen if we struggle? How do we balance PBL with things like testing, accountability, curriculum, and pacing? How will you help us be successful?

Related: Ep. 34 Growing Better Professional Learning Communities With Dr. Richard DuFour

To be clear, these kinds of questions should be asked and considered for any major professional development initiative. The thinking behind the questions draws heavily on the work of the late Dr. Richard DuFour's last book, In Praise of American Educators, in which he discussed successful PLC's.

Reciprocal accountability can feel intimidating as you open your thinking to critical questions. It's this sort of democratization, however, that not only empowers others but actually grows true leadership while increasing the efficacy of the work in your school.

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7 Questions To Guide Your PBL Implementation Plan |

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7 Questions To Guide Your PBL Implementation Plan by Drew Perkins , Director of TeachThought PD Grow your school with TeachThought PD Project-Based Learning Workshops It's that time of year again where the students are walking out the door for the summer and the gears of next year start accelerating.

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There are a variety of ways to launch your PBL unit. Most of all you want the entry event to create excitement in your classroom. The use of video clips, simulations, field trips, guest speakers, and learning games help to engage students and create a desire to venture deeper into the subject matter of your PBL unit. Remember, the entry event should take place on the first day of your unit and it generally takes one class period or less. Let your students enjoy the activity and leave class that day feeling energized and excited about the next step of the project.

Entry Event Possibilities:

Websites such as YouTube offer a wide variety of video clips that can be utilized in the classroom. Choose your video carefully. Sometimes less is more. Showing a short clip and then allowing time for discussion or reflection works well.

There are numerous web-based simulations on a variety of topics. Use words such as "simulation", "interactive" and "educational" along with your topic of study to search for activities that may work well as your entry event.

Here is a link to Interactive Science Websites: http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/interact-science.htm

The possibilities are endless so put Google to use for you and find just the right simulation for your project. Simulations do not have to use technology. Set up a court room in your classroom, stage a debate or act out an event that correlates with your PBL unit.

Nothing beats taking a trip to a museum, nature center, zoo or another intriguing venue in your area. Engaging students in learning experiences outside of the classroom can be very powerful and memorable too. If you already take specific field trips each year, plan to launch your PBL unit after all of the students have had that common experience. You can build upon their excitement when you return to school the next day.

Virtual Field Trips:
Canʼt plan an off-site learning experience? Do the next best thing and connect via videoconference. Search the database on Twice ( http://www.twice.cc/) to see what is available to you. Some of these opportunities are FREE and some have registration fees. The use of mini-grants and PTO funds are great ways to fund a videoconference experience for your students.

Guest Speaker:
Your community is filled with experts (engineers, nutritionists, scientists, doctors and more) that just might be willing to visit your classroom and share their expertise if you call upon them. It just takes a little extra effort and planning before starting the project to arrange a visit from an expert. This could even be another staff member in your school. The school cook could do a short presentation on nutrition, the gym teacher could share information about body systems and how they work together, the principal could share trends in the building or future plans. Be creative. Skype and FaceTime are great tools to utilize if the guest speaker is not able to visit your school in person.

Song/Artwork:
Use iTunes to download music from a certain time period or popular music that supports your PBL unit. Another great idea is to rewrite the lyrics of a popular song to correspond with your project objectives. There are a number of songs/videos like this on YouTube and better yet, some even have students performing the songs. There are great resources online and in books which portray beautiful works of art to spark discussion and curiosity in your classroom.

Piece of Mock or Real Correspondence:
If you donʼt have connections to have a real person write to your classroom, it is okay to pretend. Go online and find the official logos of a company or organization and write your own letter challenging your students to solve a problem or come up with a plan for the community. Make it look official and professional and your students will be just as engaged as if it were the real thing. Pretend you are the CEO of Ford Motor Company and ask your students to design a car of the future that doesnʼt rely on fossil fuels. The possibilities are endless and using this piece of correspondence will create a "needs to know" for the next steps of your project.

Lively Discussion:
Share something from the news/current events or a situation that happened at school and allow time for students to openly discuss the topic. Allow them the freedom to express their ideas and accept all viewpoints. Once the excitement builds and youʼve captured their attention transition to your PBL unit and use their ideas from this discussion to enhance your project.

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There are a variety of ways to launch your PBL unit. Most of all you want the entry event to create excitement in your classroom. The use of video clips, simulations, field trips, guest speakers, and learning games help to engage students and create a desire to venture deeper into the subject matter of your PBL unit.

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The Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM

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We all know that Project Based Learning can provide a deep and meaningful learning experience for students by allows the them to really drive their own learning. If this approach seems intimidating to you, however, we invite you to check out our ever-growing PBL resource list!

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Overview:
Students will review how TV shows are made into modern movies, and then decide which TV show is the best fit, and how it might need to be changed​
The Question:
You are the head of a major movie studio. There has a been a trend of popular and classic TV shows being made into major motion pictures, and you want to profit from this development. What television show do you think should be made into a "blockbuster" movie? What are the issues involved when trying to make a TV show fit the big screen?

Students will review the elements of designing comic book characters, and use these techniques in their own creations. You are the head of the Creative Department of a major comic book publisher (such as Marvel or DC). It is your job to design the next comic book superhero-or super villain-who will capture the attention of large audiences (and hopefully spark movies, toys, and other merchandise). What should be the look, personality, and backstory of this new character?

Students will review the technology of cloning, and decide whether the cloning of family pets is a good business venture. You are wealthy businessman looking to invest in a new technology. A large research company wants your support (and money) to provide a service where it will clone family pets for a fee. What are the issues that need to be considered, and do you feel that it is a sound investment?

Overview:
Students will review information on advertising campaigns and decide on the true value of a Super Bowl commercial.
The Question:
You are business owner whose company might be on the brink of "making it big." In order to get more customers, you need to decide if the company should advertise during the Super Bowl. Is spending millions of dollars on a single commercial a good investment? What are the issues involved?

Students will review the history of Veterans Day, as well as different memorials that have been created to honor veterans. They will then decide on the best memorial for their town to adopt.​Every year, the nation celebrates Veterans Day to honor the men and women who have defended our country in a war. Your town wants to create a memorial dedicated to these Americans. What type of memorial would be practical and appropriate... and why?

Students will review the history and future of toys, and use that information to come up with a design plan for their own "perfect toy".
The Question:
You are a toy designer hoping to launch the next great toy that will be popular for years to come. What direction should you take in the design of this toy, and why will children be drawn to it?​

This exercise is actually for Saturday, but we won't be around then! It deals with Constitution Day, which normally falls on September 17th (the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution)... but since that's a Saturday, it is going to be recognized a day earlier this year. But because I got this done so late today, you probably won't get to it until next week if you plan to,

Students will review the characteristics of a successful learning environment, and decide what rules need to be in place to achieve it. Furthermore, they must consider how those rules can be easily displayed for students
The Question:
You are a teacher heading into a new school year. You need to come up with a few key classroom rules that are important to create a successful learning environment. The rules need to be clear and written in a way that can easily be posted in the classroom.

This week's exercise focuses on the weather, which has been a major issue along the East Coast this past week thanks in large part to Hurricane Hermine. The storm made landfall in Florida, and then proceeded to pour rain on pretty much every state bordering the Atlantic Ocean. That brings us to this week's exercise. Your students are going to become meteorologists, and they have to decide what their responsibility is as a major storm approaches, and when it strikes. What information do they need to give the people even as the storm is over 1,000 miles away, and is there a point when they might be causing needless anxiety instead of helpful tips?

Students will review maps and methods for tracking tropical storms and hurricanes, and make decisions about what warnings should be given and precautions should be taken as the storm approaches.
The Question:
You are a meteorologist, and you see one of the first tropical storms of the season form in the Caribbean. What are you going to be looking for over the next few days, and how will that impact what action you take?

﻿ Overview:
Students will review popular mobile apps, as well as tips for coming up with new ideas, and design their own mobile app.
The Question:
Every day, hundreds of new mobile applications-or "apps"-are created for smart phones and tablets. You are a developer hoping to design a new app that will become a hit. What will this new app do, how will the user interact with it, and who will be its target audience?

Overview: Students will review the uses of commercial drones as well as the major concerns, and use that information to decide how to proceed.
The Question: You are the mayor of the city. A new company in the area wants to use Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (known as "drones") for commercial purposes that will be useful to the citizens in the community. What are the issues that need to be considered, and should the company be allowed to operate these flying drones in the city's air space?

Students will review the movement to place a woman's face on money, as well as information to will help them decide who is worthy of the honor.​
The Question:
There is currently no woman pictured on paper money in the United States, but there is an ongoing movement to change that. If it is decided that there should be a woman placed on our money, which woman from American history is most deserving of this honor, and for what reason?

Students will investigate different holidays to determine the common characteristics. They will consider the benefits of a national holiday in terms of costs and national pride. In the United States, there are only ten "national holidays" (in February, for example, Washington`s Birthday is one, but Valentines Day is not). You are a Senator who will be reviewing the country`s policy for creating national holidays. What should the criteria be to make a day a "national holiday"?

Students will review the pros and cons of sports gambling, and then decide whether it is a good idea or not.
The Question:
Gambling on sporting events is against the law. It is, however, very common. In most cases, passionate fans simply make small wagers to make the games more exciting (such as during college basketball's "March Madness'). In some cases, much more money is at stake. Should gambling on sports be legalized so that it can become a way for fans to interact with the game? What are the issues involved?

Students will review the pros and cons of paying college athletes, and then decide on which direction the NCAA should take regarding this issue.
The Question:
College basketball and football are major industries, with lucrative television contracts and sold-out events across the country. While many individuals make money through these sports, the student athletes are not among them... it is against the rules to pay them. Is this fair? Should student athletes be paid for their services? You must decide on the best solution to this debate.​

Students will review different Awards Shows and decide what different type of Awards Show could be offered. Dozens of Awards Shows (honoring everything from movies to music to sports to social media) are featured on primetime television throughout the year. What is an Award Show that does NOT currently exist that people would be willing to watch on TV? Why would it attract a large audience, and what categories would be featured for awards to be given?

Students will review issues related to young people using Social Media and decide how they could be better educated.
The Question:
You are a school principal and you've noticed that your students are always using social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Skype/Hangout, etc.). It has been suggested that the school offer a class to help students use and behave on these sites the right way. Is this necessary? If so, what lessons should be included in the class?

Overview:
Students will review areas of concern within a school, and decide how they can bring about needed change and improvement.​
The Question:
As a student, there are certainly policies or programs at your school that can be improved upon. What is one area of the school where you'd like to see change, and what can you do as a student to help bring about that change?

Overview:
Students will review the history and future of toys, and use that information to come up with a design plan for their own "perfect toy".
The Question:
You are a toy designer hoping to launch the next great toy that will be popular for years to come. What direction should you take in the design of this toy, and why will children be drawn to it?

Students will review the efforts of expanding the NFL to Europe and decide what needs to be done to make it a successful process.

The modern calendar (known as the "Gregorian Calendar") is not set in stone. It was developed after centuries of scientific observation and trial and error. It's still not perfect. Simpler and more uniform calendars-such as the "International Fixed Calendar"-have been proposed. Would it be a good idea to improve our calendar, and what would be the issues involved?

Many holidays have a special character who represents the day (such as Santa Claus for Christmas or the Easter Bunny for Easter). Thanksgiving is an important holiday, but doesn't have a such a character. How would you choose one to represent Thanksgiving, and why might having a special character be good for the holiday?

The day after Thanksgiving (known as "Black Friday") has always been a huge shopping day. Stores have done so well, in fact, that they open earlier each year to allow more time for shoppers. Recently, many places have opened their doors on Thanksgiving Day, causing quite a stir. Why is this such a controversy, and should stores be open on Thanksgiving?

People are are so busy, trying to fit everything into a 24 hour day. The idea of daylight saving time appears to extend the day time hours during the late spring, summer and early fall, but does it really provide extra time? Is it really needed? Your task it to investigate DST and decide.

You are competing in a costume contest where the costumes must be homemade. The entries will be judged on concept, originality, and design. What costume will you enter into the contest and how will it be created?

Your class has been chosen to give a presentation about Labor Day at an upcoming school assembly. What should you say about Labor Day, and what is the best way to get across that message?

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Overview: Students will review how TV shows are made into modern movies, and then decide which TV show is the best fit, and how it might need to be changed​ The Question: You are the head of a major movie studio.

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One of the reasons I've heard teachers give for not trying project-based learning activities is that their time is SO limited. I completely understand having very limited class time. I've often wondered how our recesses are getting shorter and shorter, but we still don't seem to have enough class time to get everything done.

If you're interested in trying PBL, but time isn't on your side, try this process to fit it in:

Break the project into bitesize pieces.

Plan a long-term PBL that consists of small, bite size activities. Incorporate as many subject areas as you can in order to get the most bang for your buck. Keep each activity at 30 minutes or less, but have each activity build on the last. You want your students to make connections each day, so that it doesn't seem like you're just handing them random, quick work.

Don't overwhelm students with choices.

Project-based learning activities are so engaging for students because they get to make so many choices during it. Their project is not like any other student's PBL because they all have different perspectives. Many people dread trying PBL because their students don't use their time wisely as it is. What they don't understand is that project-based learning is still a guided activity. You need to give students choices within the framework of the project, not just let them loose to do whatever they please.

Here are some ideas:

If students are presenting their results as a presentation, give them a PowerPoint template, so that they don't waste an hour just picking their theme and getting slides set up. The content is what's important, not the design.

Give students a choice of 3 websites to find specific information on. If they're looking up party supply prices, don't just let them go on Google. Give them 3 easy to navigate websites to choose from. You'd be surprised by how much time this saves.

Prepare students for the PBL using mini-lessons.

You can save a lot of time by preparing students for their project. Use mini-lessons to give students the notes and skills they need for each part of the PBL. This means that when you get into your short project block, you can concentrate on facilitating instead of more direct instruction.

I personally make my projects math focused because I feel like it's an easy starting point. We do our mini-lessons as direct instruction and I differentiate within the project as needed.

Here are some of my favorites:

Sneak pieces of the project into other subject areas.

If students need to read about or research something for their project, incorporate that into your regular reading block. You can easily align reading and research from any project with almost any ELA standard. If students need to make calculations for their project, incorporate that into your math block. Not only is it great to make connections between subject areas, but you can "gain" more time by having the leg work incorporated into another subject block.

Set up supplies beforehand.

I like to start project-based learning activities after lunch if I can. This has several benefits, especially when I've had classes that seem to totally disengage after lunch. A key benefit is that you can have helpers come in and set up any necessary supplies beforehand. More often than not, my projects don't require this, so I just use the last 5 minutes before lunch to get the directions displayed. I used to have directions up and folders passed out when they came in from lunch, so they could immediately get started with no time wasted. I wouldn't even do a warm-up. Now that we're all digital, I load the directions into their Google classroom and they know to get started immediately.

Teach procedures.

I teach my students general procedures before our first PBL and I'm consistent with having them practice these procedures. This saves a lot of time because students know exactly what to do when they need help, need supplies, or are "done".

If you use these ideas, you CAN, and should, implement project-based learning activities with just 30 minutes a day! Check out this blog post series to get started: Implementing PBL from Start to Finish

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Implement project-based learning in only 30 minutes a day!

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One of the reasons I've heard teachers give for not trying project-based learning activities is that their time is SO limited. I completely understand having very limited class time. I've often wondered how our recesses are getting shorter and shorter, but we still don't seem to have enough class time to get everything done.

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Analyzing Student Work: Using Peer Feedback to Improve Instruction

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Students Discuss the Power of Learning Targets

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Seventh- and eighth-grade students in Jeanne Boland's class at the Odyssey School in Denver, CO, discuss the power of “unpacking” learning targets so that they can articulate a clear vision of the intended learning and criteria for success.

This video accompanies the book Leaders of Their Own Learning: Transforming Schools through Student-Engaged Assessment.

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- I can group ideas together within my body paragraphs to best support my thesis. - Alright, so at this point we've done a lot of work-- - When you go into the classroom, usually the first thing that we see for the day is our learning targets. - The learning targets aren't really just there. The teachers usually makes sure that everyone understands what's going on before they dive into the learning. - What I'd like to just know, what are some things that you're noticing right now. A lot of times the teacher will take time in the beginning of class to break down the learning target so we know what we're trying to go for and it gives kind of a purpose. - And I'd love you to have a conversation with the folks in your group about what you remember. And you can actually pull those pieces out. What were some of the things that were included in a body paragraph? - It sort of consists of like, RDF, or like a point or a statement. - [Student] It's more like about the book, - There's a lot of peer sharing and talking with the people at your table. And so you can kind of bounce ideas off the people that you're sitting with to see if maybe they have a better understanding of it than you do. - So, then once you set them up in the intro paragraph, your body paragraph is where you're like gettin' everything you need to understand. - I know personally what the teacher wants me to learn after she's explained the learning target at the beginning of class, but also I ask any questions and clarifying questions as to what I need to know. When you first get a learning target, a lot of people will kinda be unsure about what that really means and that's where the self-assessment comes in, like the Fist to Five, the thumb, so and actually I think it's really important for the teacher to see that too, to kind of assess for themself, OK so where do I really need to address with this group of students? Do they really get it? - So, thumbs up, thumbs down if you guys feel like that part is-- - Are they not really getting it at all? Then the teacher can feel confident they got this target, they really know what to do, they really know where they're going with it. And then, you know, when there's some students that are kinda this way, they can kind of assess, OK this student's gonna need some more help. And I think that really goes back to the whole topic of what Odyssey's really about is making sure that all students succeed and that all students are doing well. And then if no student is falling short, well the rest of them are moving ahead. - So, remember in the beginning of class when I said when your work on organization, there's a bonus? - I know when I understand a learning target when I feel like the confidence, I can say that I can do whatever the learning target says. 'Cause a learning target isn't necessarily just like, a purpose of what you're learning about. It's also a statement, so I think that once you do understand, that I think it's the confidence that you can present it in through a project or whatever the teacher's asking you to do. - I can see myself doing a project or doing something that goes along with the learning target. - You can see yourself producing something or having a project that is gonna capture that target. - Not just some students know what we're being asked to learn about, all students understand the concept. And I think that's a concept that is very great because if students don't really understand the concept of what they're trying to learn, then there's no way they can really succeed if they don't know what their purpose is. - You always know what you're doing and you're very rarely confused about things. - And then here's the evidence of how the-- - And I think that's like a lot of kudos to the teachers because they do take the time to explain everything at the beginning of class. And they also take the time to explain anything that you have questions about, individually or the whole class. So the whole class can get what you're trying to get.

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Students Discuss the Power of Learning Targets

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I can group ideas together within my body paragraphs to best support my thesis. - Alright, so at this point we've done a lot of work-- - When you go into the classroom, usually the first thing that we see for the day is our learning targets.

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What Are the SMART Criteria?

How to Write a SMART Goal

Paul J. Meyer, businessman, author and founder of Success Motivation International, describes the characteristics of SMART goals in his 2003 book, " Attitude Is Everything: If You Want to Succeed Above and Beyond." We'll expand on his definitions to explore how to create, develop and achieve your goals:

1. Specific

Your goal should be clear and specific, otherwise you won't be able to focus your efforts or feel truly motivated to achieve it. When drafting your goal, try to answer the five "W" questions:

Example

Imagine that you are currently a marketing executive, and you'd like to become head of marketing. A specific goal could be, "I want to gain the skills and experience necessary to become head of marketing within my organization, so that I can build my career and lead a successful team."

2. Measurable

It's important to have measurable goals, so that you can track your progress and stay motivated. Assessing progress helps you to stay focused, meet your deadlines, and feel the excitement of getting closer to achieving your goal.

A measurable goal should address questions such as:

How much?

How many?

How will I know when it is accomplished?

Example

You might measure your goal of acquiring the skills to become head of marketing by determining that you will have completed the necessary training courses and gained the relevant experience within five years' time.

3. Achievable

Your goal also needs to be realistic and attainable to be successful. In other words, it should stretch your abilities but still remain possible. When you set an achievable goal, you may be able to identify previously overlooked opportunities or resources that can bring you closer to it.

An achievable goal will usually answer questions such as:

How can I accomplish this goal?

How realistic is the goal, based on other constraints, such as financial factors?

Example

You might need to ask yourself whether developing the skills required to become head of marketing is realistic, based on your existing experience and qualifications. For example, do you have the time to complete the required training effectively? Are the necessary resources available to you? Can you afford to do it?

4. Relevant

This step is about ensuring that your goal matters to you, and that it also aligns with other relevant goals. We all need support and assistance in achieving our goals, but it's important to retain control over them. So, make sure that your plans drive everyone forward, but that you're still responsible for achieving your own goal.

A relevant goal can answer "yes" to these questions:

Does this seem worthwhile?

Is this the right time?

Does this match our other efforts/needs?

Am I the right person to reach this goal?

Is it applicable in the current socio-economic environment?

Example

You might want to gain the skills to become head of marketing within your organization, but is it the right time to undertake the required training, or work toward additional qualifications? Are you sure that you're the right person for the head of marketing role? Have you considered your partner's goals? For example, if you want to start a family, would completing training in your free time make this more difficult?

5. Time-bound

Every goal needs a target date, so that you have a deadline to focus on and something to work toward. This part of the SMART goal criteria helps to prevent everyday tasks from taking priority over your longer-term goals.

A time-bound goal will usually answer these questions:

When?

What can I do six months from now?

What can I do six weeks from now?

What can I do today?

Example

Gaining the skills to become head of marketing may require additional training or experience, as we mentioned earlier. How long will it take you to acquire these skills? Do you need further training, so that you're eligible for certain exams or qualifications? It's important to give yourself a realistic time frame for accomplishing the smaller goals that are necessary to achieving your final objective.

Used with Permission from The Meyer Resource Group,® Inc.

The Pros and Cons of SMART Goals

SMART is an effective tool that provides the clarity, focus and motivation you need to achieve your goals. It can also improve your ability to reach them by encouraging you to define your objectives and set a completion date. SMART goals are also easy to use by anyone, anywhere, without the need for specialist tools or training.

Various interpretations of SMART have meant that it can lose its effectiveness or be misunderstood. Some people believe that SMART doesn't work well for long-term goals because it lacks flexibility, while others suggest that it might stifle creativity. For more information on the potential weaknesses of SMART, see our article, Locke's Goal-Setting Theory.

Frequently Asked Questions About SMART Goals

What does SMART stand for?

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and T ime-bound.

What's an example of a SMART Goal?

Let's say you're a marketing executive, and you think you'd like to become head of marketing. This is a specific goal. You might measure your goal of gaining the skills to become head of marketing by deciding it will take five years. Ask yourself whether gaining these skills is achievable, based on your existing experience and qualifications. Are you at the right point in your career? Is it relevant to what you want? Give yourself a realistic time frame for accomplishing the smaller goals that are necessary to achieving your final objective.

How do I write a SMART goal plan?

Start by asking exactly what you need to accomplish. This will make your goal specific.

Quantify your goals. Measurable goals are easier to track, so build in milestones.

Your goal should be achievable. Is this something you can do with the resources at your disposal?

Think why you're setting this goal. How will it improve your life or career? This is what makes it relevant.

Know exactly when you'll have reached your goal. Have a firm schedule, and stick to it.

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SMART Goals - How to Make Your Goals Achievable

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Set SMART goals to clarify your ideas, focus your efforts, use your time and resources productively, and achieve what you want at work and in life.

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"The One Thing" by Gary Keller book animation summary/review | TridentLion

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Maybe you are a process owner trying to find the limitations of your current system. Maybe you are a manager befuddled by an episode of professional finger pointing. Maybe you are the UX guy drowning in a pile of consumer research. No matter the situation, affinity diagramming will help you to organize your thoughts and overcome your most recent workplace challenge.

What is an affinity diagram?

Formalized in the 1960s by Japanese anthropologist Jiro Kawakita, affinity diagrams can also be referred to as affinity charts, affinity maps, or the KJ method. Affinity diagrams are ideal for sorting large amounts of data or long lists of ideas into related groups. You can use affinity diagrams to:

Organize the results of a brainstorming session.

Improve processes.

Mediate professional conflict.

Develop innovative solutions.

Drive group consensus.

The theory of affinity diagrams is to harness natural creativity by facilitating an environment where everyone has a voice, conflict is minimized, and gut reactions are favored over analysis. Read on to discover how this happens.

How to create an affinity diagram

Affinity mapping is simple. Most people use sticky notes, markers, and a big blank wall, but all you really need is Lucidchart. Here's how it works.

1. Open a new Lucidchart document and title it with your challenge. The challenge should be written in the form of a question. For example, "How can we improve time management at the office?" Share your document with all participants and grant them editing access.

2. Have participants record their ideas on virtual sticky notes underneath the title question. Multiple participants can edit the document in real-time without overriding another participant's changes. No ideas should be thrown out, and participants should not be limited to a certain number of ideas. This allows everyone to contribute ideas openly without fear of being shut down. Also, because you are using Lucidchart, you don't have to worry about running out of sticky notes.

3. Without speaking to each other, everyone moves the sticky notes so that similar items are grouped together. This should be done in silence so that participants don't bias each other and smother natural instincts. If one idea doesn't fit with any of the others, it's okay to leave it as a stand-alone. Also, if a participant doesn't agree with the placement of an idea, they should feel free to move it. If an idea keeps being moved back and forth between multiple groupings, create multiple sticky notes with the same idea and put one in each of the contested groupings. This minimizes conflict. You should allow plenty of time for the process to occur. Several days may be ideal.

4. When they finish grouping the sticky notes, gather all of the participants, and together, choose a label for each grouping that has emerged. You can use one idea from the grouping that best represents all of the other ideas or choose a new title. If several groups seem related to each other, you may want to create a superheader that combines the groups.

You now have a completed affinity diagram that will help you to analyze your data, draw conclusions, and determine next steps.

Affinity diagramming in Lucidchart rather than with sticky notes makes it possible for anyone to participate, even those who are separated by distance. Participants can add ideas or create groupings at any convenient time, whether they are at home or the office. Additionally, Lucidchart increases the level of anonymity in this process because co-workers aren't watching as a participant goes to a physical wall and adds or moves a sticky note.

A specific affinity diagram example

Let's practice with an example. Say your content writing team is not producing as much content as you think they should be. You can use an affinity diagram to uncover any problems and come up with solutions to resolve them.

To start, you create a Lucidchart document with the title "What are the glitches in our content creation process?" After sharing the document with all of the relevant stakeholders, you give them time to record ideas at their leisure. The result looks something like this:

Now you ask everyone to organize their ideas into groups that are similar. Some of the sticky notes get moved back and forth, but after a few days, these are the results:

You schedule a meeting that all of the stakeholders attend, and you give titles to each of the groupings with more than one idea.

At this meeting, you also discuss ways to overcome these glitches. Because they are grouped into categories, it is easier to think about and determine root causes. Instead of solving 16 problems, you only need to solve five.

Affinity diagramming tips

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you make your first affinity diagram:

Affinity mapping works best when you limit your participants to five or six.

The process of ideation and grouping should be silent. Don't talk about it!

If you have fewer than 15 data points, affinity diagramming may not be necessary.

Don't overthink groupings. Go with your first instinct.

Affinity diagram template

Because affinity diagramming is an organic process, you don't want to restrict your team to a specific template. However, we have prepopulated this document with a title box and a few colorful sticky notes to get you started.

Click the image below to open this customizable template in Lucidchart.

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Affinity Diagrams: Your Key to More Creative Problem Solving

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Maybe you are a process owner trying to find the limitations of your current system. Maybe you are a manager befuddled by an episode of professional finger pointing. Maybe you are the UX guy drowning in a pile of consumer research.

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Have you ever involved stakeholders in design critiques, ideation sessions, or meetings devoted to analyzing research findings only to find them uninterested? And were the ideas and research findings ever ignored or forgotten? UX workshops have numerous benefits: educate people and make them empathic towards users, make stakeholders feel involved and responsible for ideas and research findings, create awareness of usability issues and design challenges, build common ground across all parties involved, and bring together many types of backgrounds and expertise.

However, in such UX workshops, it can be challenging to engage the team, and create order among diverse ideas and facts.

One method that helps teams collaboratively analyze research findings as well as ideas from ideation sessions is affinity diagramming. Often used in UX, affinity diagramming is adapted from the KJ diagramming method (named after author Kawakita Jiro).

Definition: Affinity diagramming refers to organizing related facts into distinct clusters.

Affinity diagramming is also known as affinity mapping, collaborative sorting, snowballing, or even card sorting. (However, in UX, 'card sorting' stands for a very specific research method for determining the IA of a site or application. In it, users sort index cards with category names and commands written on them.)

Affinity Diagramming in UX

While affinity diagramming as a method can be used by individuals as well as groups, in UX, it is used primarily by teams for quickly organizing:

1. observations or ideas from a research study

2. ideas that surface in design-ideation meetings

3. ideas about UX strategy and vision

Affinity diagramming in UX usually involves two steps:

A. Generating the sticky notes. In this step, team members write down ideas or facts on separate sticky notes.

During a usability session, the facilitator and the observers write observations, findings, or ideas - each on one sticky note.

During an ideation workshop, attendees or the workshop facilitator write each idea on a sticky note.

B. Organizing the notes in groups. After the test or the ideation session, the team has a workshop devoted to analyzing the notes by:

1. sorting them into categories

2. prioritizing each note, and determining the next steps in design or further research

Workshop Leader

It can be tiring to interpret and sort many notes, and attendees can lose interest if the meeting drags on. So, it's important to have a leader to keep the meeting moving quickly and productively. This person's job is to:

Communicate the agenda and goals.

Describe what people should be doing at each phase of the workshop.

Track and communicate time for each step.

Get all the notes on the wall.

Facilitate moving past any issues that may arise, such as helping the person who seems lost, or pairing people when one is idle and another is very busy.

Steps for Affinity Diagramming in UX

Before the Affinity-Diagramming Workshop

1. Choose a room that has walls on which sticky notes can be attached (e.g., glass or whiteboard). Alternatively, tape flip-chart paper on the walls and stick the notes on top, or use easels if walls are not tape-friendly.

2. Just before the meeting begins, enlist some help and put all notes on the wall, in no order.

3. Consider creating a few category names to help get the sorting started. For webpages, some common categories are: Search, Global navigation, Homepage, Legibility, Footer, Page layout. Stick these category names high on a blank part of a wall, so many notes can fit below.

4. Add a "?" category name for notes that are not understandable.

5. Put some pens or markers and blank pads of sticky notes on a table.

At the Start of the Meeting: Announce the Steps and Timing Guidelines

The leader should announce what the different steps of the process are and how long the workshop will take:

6. The general steps we'll follow are:

Sort into top-level categories.

Sort each of those categories into subcategories.

Summarize those categories.

Determine priorities (e.g., by taking votes).

Plan subsequent design meetings as needed.

No talking as you sort, please. It gets distracting and makes the process take longer. This meeting should take not more than 3 (usually 2) hours. We'll all need to work hard and quickly to make that happen.

Sort Notes into Top-Level Categories

The leader should describe the process and announce the time for this step:

7. Pluck a note off the wall and read it.

8. Look for a category under which it would make sense.

9. Stick it there.

10. If there is already a note that says the same thing, stack the notes on top of one another, so the most descriptive note is the only visible one.

11. If the note doesn't fit under any category, think of a new one. Use markers and blank sticky notes to write down any new categories.

12. Yell out the names of new categories as they are stuck on a blank section of the wall, so everyone knows when a new category has been created.

13. If you can't understand a note, move it to the "?" category. We'll try to make sense of that in the end.

14. Let's work to get these sorted within 30 minutes (or however much time you feel it will take).

15. I'll periodically yell out how much time we have left.

16. Questions? Let's go!

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In most browsers, hover over the video to display the controls if they're not already visible. Affinity-diagramming workshop for analyzing findings from user research on Marriott International's intranet

Sort Notes from Each Top-Level Category into Subcategories

Here are instructions for this step:

17. Everyone choose a category.

18. Categories with a lot of notes may require two people to sort them. Some people will be fast and will be able to sort multiple categories.

19. Look for related themes and sort those notes into subcategories.

20. Write the names for the subcategories on sticky notes.

21. When you finish sorting a category, look for another category that needs sorting, or for a person who could use help. Don't be idle.

22. Questions? Let's go!

Present Each Category

23. Anyone who sorted a category can start. Stand by it and read each finding, then summarize the category.

24. It's okay for the rest of the attendees to make related points or ask questions now. (But these comments add time to the meeting, so you may choose to skip this instruction.)

25. One-by-one, each person stand by her category and present it. Go clockwise around the room until all categories are done. If multiple people sorted a category, they can present it together, or choose one delegate.

26. Questions? Let's go!

Determine Priorities

Slightly different methods are used depending on whether the purpose of the workshop is to analyze usability-test findings or organize new ideas.

A. Usability-Test Findings

There are two common ways to determine which usability-testing issues have the highest importance: either by going through all findings and having people vote on their severity (high, medium, low), or by having people assign a finite set of points to those items they think are important and need to be fixed. The latter method often can be more effective and more immediately actionable than the former (which can result in many problems rated as "high importance").
Severity
27. The meeting leader reads each finding again and asks people to vote about its importance by show of hands: high, medium, and low. Whichever rating gets the most votes is the rating assigned to the problem.

28. Write the rating (H, M, or L) on each note.

OR
Points
29. Each attendee gets a certain number (usually 3) of importance points which she can assign to the items she thinks most need to be addressed.

30. Then, people walk around and stick a sticker (or draw a dot with a colored marker) on the items they wish to cast their votes for.

31. The voting rules differ by team and local preferences, but usually people are allowed to assign multiple importance points (up to their allocated maximum) to a single issue if they think it's crucial enough. For example, an attendee with 3 votes could assign two votes to one issue and one vote to another.

B. Design Ideation

Design ideas from ideation workshops can also be voted on, or assigned value in some other way. Two common methods are the one-hundred-dollar test and the NUF test.
One-Hundred-Dollar Test
32. When there are several design ideas for the same problem, give the group $100 (any currency will do) to split among the ideas generated, such that the total for the group of ideas equals $100. This method forces people to think in terms of each design's worth, and usually one design emerges more valuable than the other(s).
NUF
33. NUF stands for: New, Useful, and Feasible. Each design idea is rated on a 1- to-7 scale for each of these three attributes: 1) whether the team has used that design before (usually newer items are considered better); 2) whether the idea is useful and it solves the problem; and 3) how feasible it is for the team to implement the idea. The ratings are totaled, and the overall score is used to rank the ideas.

Capture

The resulting clusters and the determined priorities are the end product of the affinity diagramming. To record it:

34. Write the main points on flipchart paper so all can see them.

35. Take photos of the walls. By now the stickies are usually falling down, which signals the meeting's end.

End the Meeting

36. Assign follow-up tasks (or announce when these will be assigned).

37. Announce that a written report and (or) video recordings will be available.

38. Announce that design-workshop meetings will be scheduled, if appropriate, to design based on the outcome from affinity diagramming.

Timing for Each Step

The timing for each affinity-diagramming step can vary depending on the:

Number of notes

Number of meeting attendees

Attendees' experience with user research and affinity diagramming

Even with an abundance of notes, we suggest limiting the meeting to about three hours, and having a scheduled 10-minute break. It's also helpful to bring out some treats at key times - for example, while people are sorting categories into subcategories.

We like to keep most meetings between 90 minutes and 2 hours. Below are some general timing guidelines for each step:

Variations on the Affinity-Diagramming Process

In ideation workshops, teams often sort ideas after they generate them, within the same workshop.

For affinity diagramming of research findings, some teams prefer to sort the sticky notes after each participant's test session, and again after all (four to eight) sessions. Here are some pros and cons of this variation:

Benefits

Benefits of sorting after each session are that:

It helps the team gain a shared understanding after each user.

It reminds the team members of what they saw, right when their memories are fresh, which can help with further discussions and with observing future test sessions.

It may ultimately be faster if your team members tend to take a lot of notes.

It enables you to summarize results quickly when you plan to make design changes between user tests - for example, for rapid prototype testing with very early design iterations.

Drawbacks

It takes a lot of time, and the same benefits may be achieved with just a quick discussion after each test.

It can deter stakeholders from coming to the final, posttest affinity-diagramming meeting.

Who Should Sort Notes

Anyone can come to the affinity-diagramming meeting. In particular, anyone who:

Attended all or some of the usability-test sessions or design workshop

Has an interest in the design that was tested, or in any changes that will be made to that design

Conclusion

I used to think that, as a user researcher, my job was to make the information I collected about users as understandable and digestible as possible for my team. And as a designer, I was supposed to come up with the best design solution. While I still feel these things are true, I have learned that insulating stakeholders from all the false starts, design ideas, details and messy notes taken in tests does them a disservice. To educate other team members, involve them in design, build consensus, and increase sensitivity to usability issues, get them involved in taking notes, sorting them, and discussing them rather that protecting them from these processes.

Reference
Karl Ulrich, 2003. KJ Diagrams. The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA Raymond Scupin, 1997. The KJ Method: A Technique for Analyzing Data Derived from Japanese Ethnology. The Society for Applied Anthropology

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Affinity Diagramming: Collaboratively Sort UX Findings & Design Ideas

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Have you ever involved stakeholders in design critiques, ideation sessions, or meetings devoted to analyzing research findings only to find them uninterested? And were the ideas and research findings ever ignored or forgotten?

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Traditional design methods struggle when dealing with complex or chaotic problems or with large amounts of data. The affinity diagram organizes a large quantity of information by natural relationships. This method taps a team's analytical thinking as well as creativity and intuition. It was invented in the 1960's by Japanese anthropologist Jiro Kawakita and is sometimes referred to as the KJ Method.

For around 50 years affinity diagrams have been an essential pillar of what is known as the Seven Management and Planning Tools, used in Japan. The seven management and planning tools are used in leading global organizations for making and implementing better team decisions.

Use an affinity diagram to:

1. Understand what is most important from ambiguous data

2. Tame complexity

3. Identify connections in data

4. Create hierarchies

5. Identifying themes

6. Identify what factors to focus on that will support the most successful design possible from a customer's perspective.

An affinity diagram is a method used to organize many ideas into groups with common themes or relationships. Affinity diagrams are tools for analyzing large amounts of data and discovering relationships which allow a design direction to be established based on the associations. This method may uncover significant hidden relationships.

When to use Affinity Diagrams

An Affinity Diagram is useful when you want to:

1. Make sense out of large volumes of chaotic data

2. Encourage new patterns of thinking. An affinity diagram can break through traditional or entrenched thinking

Strengths

1. It is a simple method

2. Supports innovation

3. Causes breakthroughs to emerge

4. Helps groups come to consensus about most important issues

5. Multiple people can combine their ideas by post-it notes and be organizing/clustering them

6. Organizing generates useful discussion

7. Build critical thinking skills

8. Allow for involvement of each team member

9. Helps a team see the big picture and where the biggest problems are

10. Post-It notes are a flexible method to organize ideas into various levels of groups and sub-groups

11. It is both a creative and analytical method

12. Promotes the emergence of breakthrough thinking

13. Most effective when applied to a team with varied perspectives and open mindedness

14. Is useful to make sense of complex apparently unrelated ambiguous or chaotic data

15. It makes your analysis highly visible to others in the company

Weaknesses

1. Good facilitation is required when there is a lot of data expected

2. Affinity diagrams are not portable or mobile

3. Affinity diagrams occupy a large space for an extended time period

4. Can be time consuming when there are a large number of peices of data

5. The small size of post-it notes and the effort of writing forces you to be brief

6. It is an analog and physical activity

7. The rationale behind particular groupings can get lost

8. Affinity diagrams are temporary and must be photographed for permanent record

9. It may be difficult to find individual pieces of information/data.

Select your team

Care should be taken in choosing your team. As many groups and diverse points of view involved in a design delivery and use of the service as possible should be represented.

1. Keep groups to six people or less

2. Break large groups into smaller groups of six or fewer people

3. Have a diverse team with different gender, age, occupation, and status represented

4. Have at least two or three people with two or more areas of expertise such as technology and management or administration and design. T-Shaped team members make the team more flexible and help group collaboration.

5. Involve external and internal stakeholders such as customers, suppliers. internal business management, engineering, design, and sales

6. Invite customer facing people where possible because they will have more empathy for the client/user.

Appoint a moderator

1. Create handouts with clear instructions

2. Provide copies of research summaries

3. Take breaks every 90 minutes

4. Photograph the map as it is being built

Moderator Skills

1. Effective listening skills

2. Flexibility

3. Customer empathy

4. Sincerely interested in people

5. Enthusiasm

6. People management skills

7. Able to establish common direction and buy-in

8. Understand group dynamics

9. Authority

10. Neutral and objective

11. Patient and persistent

12. Guide discussion promptly

Stuff You Need

RESEARCH TOOL

To make sense of a large body of research data. This approach can be used to establish connections between different pieces of research, to uncover insights from the data that

can then be used to develop design concepts. With this approach, the team can develop a hierarchy of significance of the connections or themes and the insights. This hierarchy helps to establish the levels of focus for different ideas and themes uncovered by the research for the ideation design phase.

Brainstorming Tool

Affinity diagrams can also be used during the ideation or idea generation phase of a design project. When the technique

is used for ideation it helps synthesize a large number of design ideas. The design team can decide which ideas are the best ideas and then combine features of various ideas to develop themes and variations through iterative cycles of brainstorming, affinity diagrams and synthesis.

Gather Your Data

First gather your data. Break the data down into pieces. For example, if an interview subject has raised several interesting points during an interview transcribe the interview, highlight the interesting points then copy each point onto a separate post it note. Use only one color post-it notes at this stage. The most common color used at this phase for the raw data is yellow.

Find Your Space

Once you have selected your team, your moderator, and space to work, spread the ideas randomly across a wall, a whiteboard or large table. A ﬂoor in a little traffic area also can work for this stage of the process. You need plenty of space.

Affinity diagrams work best with more than 100 discreet pieces of information and work effectively up to several thousand pieces of data.

Clustering

Hand a block of blank 2"x 3" yellow post-it notes to each team member.

You can use the "Rule of 7 pm or minus 2". The summary should have no less than 5 and more than 9 words in it, including a verb and a noun. Use also simple cartoon sketches and a combination of drawings and words. Gather your team around the place where you have placed the post-it notes. Look for ideas that seem to be related.

Go for volume, suspend judgment, build on each other's ideas and set a strict time limit. Allow 30 or 40 minutes for brainstorming ideas.

The moderator then asks the team to take two ideas that seem to belong together and place them together, at least, three feet away from the other post-it notes. Keep moving post-it notes into the groups until all the post-its have been placed into groups. It is OK to replace another person's group If it doesn't make sense to you.

Some groups may have only a small number of items. The type of relationship that you see will depend on your background, your profession your personality and your life experience.

Move related ideas into groups and continue moving the post- it notes until all notes are in groups. Some ideas may not seem to ﬁt a group. Place those ideas into a group. If a note belongs in two groups, make a second note.

It is best that no one speaks at this stage, so different perspectives are represented. Work silently. Ask the team to move the ideas into groups based on their gut instincts and without talking. This approach encourages unconventional thinking and discourages one person from steering the affinity. It is important to maintain silence at this stage, as it ensures that each member has an equal opportunity to apply their perspective without being influenced to conform to others' thinking.

Ask your team not to struggle over placing the data into groups. use gut instincts. If consensus is not reached, make a duplicate of the idea and place one copy in two groups. The idea written on each post-it should be a phrase or sentence that clearly conveys the mean- ing to people who are not on the team. Make the notes large enough to be readable from 10 feet distance.

HEADERS

Hand out a block of blank 2" x 3" blue post-it notes to each team member. Using the second color of post-it notes, ask each participant to assign a name to each group. Write a header above each cluster that describes what connects the data in the group. Use a different color post-it notes for the headers. Blue is a color that is often used for headers. You can use any color, but it should be the same color for all headers and a different color than the color utilized in the previous phase. The most efficient use of space is to position the post-it notes in a group vertically with the header above the group.

To create headers ask for each grouping: "What key words summarize the central idea that this grouping communicates?" Sometimes a post it from within the group can be used as a header.

Create a heading for each group that captures the theme of each group. Place it above the group. A header should capture the association or affinity among the ideas contained in a group. The team develops headers by discussing and agreeing on the wording of the header post-it notes.

Review each group and write down a name that best rep- resents each cluster on the new set of sticky notes. Do not use full sentences for headers but summarize the association with just one or two words.

If a group has two themes, then split the group into two groups. If two groups share the same theme combine the two groups into one or move the two groups near to each other and place a header above the headers of the two groups that defines the association of the two groups.

Making a simple title involves abductive thinking, which is the best form of problem solving for complex, changing and ambiguous problems. Some notes will not ﬁt into any group. Put these in a separate group.

When people slow down it is time to break the silence, and start discussing the groups that have emerged. When consensus is reached, move on to the next step.

SUBHEADERS

If two groups have the same theme then place an additional header in a third color above those two groups. Leave the previous headers in place. Pink is commonly used for a combined header of two groups. This type of header is sometimes called a super header. Repeat the process until the number of groupings is between 5 and 9 groups. Ask each participant to read through the post-it notes in each group.

The moderator should then say "We Will now see if we can combine some groups. Please nominate two groups that you think we can combine. Only combine groups that have the same theme but not groups that are subsets of one another"

VOTING DOTS

Give each participant 3 adhesive dots and ask them to place the dots next to the header of the three groups that they think are most important in relation to the design goals.

1. What are the user needs?

2. What are the needs of the business?

3. What technologies are most appropriate?

After each person has voted tally the number of votes for each group.
This gives you a hierarchy of importance for the themes in order to address these themes in the next phase of the design process, the ideation phase.

This is a way of efficiently selecting from a large number of ideas the preferred ideas to carry forward in the design process.

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Design Thinking Methods: Affinity Mapping

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Traditional design methods struggle when dealing with complex or chaotic problems or with large amounts of data. The affinity diagram organizes a large quantity of information by natural relationships. This method taps a team's analytical thinking as well as creativity and intuition.

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We know feedback is important. But what happens when students ignore it? In this article and podcast, we explore how to integrate feedback into every part of the learning process so that students can increase in metacognition during their PBL and design thinking projects.

When Feedback Goes Unnoticed

We've all been there before. You sit down in front of a Google Document and leave tons of specific comments only to realize that the student didn't even bother to open up the document again. Or maybe you leave specific comments on essays only to watch students check their grades and then immediately toss the essays in the recycle bin. Students often view feedback as something that occurs after the learning is over. However, authentic feedback is an integrated part of the learning process.

Feedback is critical for building metacognition. If you look at the metacognition cycle, students need to be able to assess the task, determine their strengths and weaknesses, plan their approach, implement strategies (while also modifying and adjusting), and then reflect on their progress. This type of metacognition requires students to know how they are doing.

Here's where the feedback comes in. Through self-assessment, peer feedback, and teacher feedback, students gain a deeper understanding of their progress. They can then plan for their learning, making frequent adjustments along the way. This is especially true with project-based learning and design thinkin g, where the learning is iterative. Students engage in tons of tiny experiments, making little tweaks to both the process and the product. Here, the feedback should fuel the learning.

Unfortunately, I've had moments when this didn't happen. I remember crafting projects where the only true feedback occurred at the very end when I filled out a rubric. When I first created a makerspace, I remember focusing so much on the hands-on side of learning that I never asked students to self-reflect or to offer any kind of peer feedback. When we hit a time crunch, I had an easy time justifying prototyping but a harder time justifying feedback and revision.

However, I also had times when students made the most out of feedback. In these moments, they grew in their understanding of the concepts and the skills within the standards. They internalized the design process and grew as creative thinkers. They improved in their craft, whether it was in multimedia design or in coding. But more importantly, they began to develop a growth mindset.

Seven Strategies for Improving Student Feedback

The following are some ideas for how we can integrate student feedback into the learning process. This is based on trial and error (in other words, I've made tons of mistakes in this area) but also from observing other teachers who are really strategic about how they use feedback in project-based learning.

#1: Explain the purpose of the feedback

Right now, I'm sitting at a Starbucks with my laptop open, reading a student's initial unit plan. Her initial concept is genius and I'm convinced this set of lessons could be stellar. However, she still struggles with objectives and she hasn't thought strategically about how to vary the grouping. I also wonder if she's being too optimistic about how quickly her students will accomplish the task. Right now, my feedback is on the craft of her lesson. How does this initial lesson look and what does she need to do to improve it? In this moment, the feedback is very product-driven. Other times, however, I will focus my feedback on the process or on the acquisition of a skill.

As we think of the larger scope of feedback, it's important for students to know what they are receiving feedback on and why it's important. You might provide students feedback on their ability to use the design thinking process in a project. Or you might provide feedback on their current product so that they can continue to revise and improve it. Or you might focus more on the standards themselves, asking students to identify key areas where they need to improve.

Here's where it helps to be explicit with students by saying something like, "I'm not going to give you feedback on your documentary right now but I'd like to talk to you about how the process is going, so that you can figure out how you might use this process in the future." Or you might say something like, "We're going to take a look at your current progress on your project and compare it to your initial project management document so that you can see if you are on schedule." Note how this includes both the rationale for feedback and the parameters for it.

#2: Don't provide a grade with your feedback.

In my experience, when I provided a grade with the feedback, my students focused almost entirely on the grade and not on the feedback. This was true for rubrics, for checklists, or for overall grades on things like blog posts or documentaries. Jennifer Gonzalez has an excellent thought-provoking post on this topic. She suggests the following steps:

Write comments on student work and write the grade on the rubric separately

Return just the papers to the students.

Have the students read your feedback and write three observations and two questions based on your feedback

Have the students use the rubric to give themselves a grade.

Conference one-on-one with students and have them share their rubric while you share your rubric with them. This helps clarify any misunderstandings they might have.

Give them a chance to revise their work.

I've actually been using a modified version of this with my current pre-service teachers as they develop their lesson plans and unit plans. As a result, each teacher candidate has a clear sense of what they know, what they don't know, and what they will do to improve.

#3: Provide revision time in class.

Often, in education, we value speed and accuracy more than depth and mastery. Students take timed math tests and focus on fluency in reading. They watch the tight time deadlines, knowing that if they fall behind, they'll be seen as slow. I've seen some students struggle with the whole idea of revision because they've rarely needed to revise their work at school. But if we want students to make sense out of feedback, we need to block out time for revision.

This is why I love using project-based learning and design thinking. Both of these frameworks include a section for student revision. This is possible, because they spend less time in direct instruction and they are often learning multiple standards at the same time. Students in a PBL classroom are also assessing as they go rather than stopping to take a multiple choice test. In the process, they gain additional time to focus on making sense out of their feedback and using it to revise their projects. Here, students begin to view revision as an iterative part of the process rather than a punishment for getting things wrong.

#4: Build bridges from feedback to revision.

Ask your students the question, "What are you going to do with this feedback?" Often, they struggle with this. In their schooling experiences, they have typically had a grade and walked away. Or, in some cases, they had a teacher who told them, "Use _________ feedback for __________ revision." The goal, though, is for students to become self-directed. If they understand the purpose of the feedback, they are better able to make modifications, set goals, and own the learning process.

#5: Use a mix of feedback tools.

Use a variety of tools and structures to guide students in the feedback process. Vary it between open-ended and tight, diagnostic and descriptive, qualitative and quantitative. You get the idea.

Tracking Goals: Students create their own goals. These can be quantitative or qualitative. Then they keep track of the progress. It might mean a graph, a progress bar, or simply a description of progress.

Self-reflections: Here students answer reflective questions about what they are learning, where they are struggling, and what they need to do next.

Verbal Feedback with Sentence Stems: Students can engage in meaningful feedback through open-ended reflection questions, where they share their insights with a partner or a group. They can also use diagnostic questions to figure out what they need to improve or they can compare and contrast strategies.

Structured Feedback: Here students use a visual or a graphic organizer to guide them in the feedback process. It might complete a SWOT assessment (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), a carousel activity, a see-think-wonder, or a 3-2-1 feedback document. It could be any number of quick, visually-structured self-assessments, group assessments, or peer assessments.

Student Surveys: Sometimes students struggle with open-ended self-reflection questions. Surveys provide a blend of the objective and the subjective. So, they might use a Likert scale, selecting specific words from a bank, or ranking items. This added structure helps students make sense out of something that can feel abstract.

Self-Assessment Rubrics: Students are able to look at the progression from emerging to mastering with specific descriptions in various categories. They are able to gain an accurate view of how they are doing, while also having a clear picture of where they need to be.

Checklists: These can be a powerful diagnostic tool that students use before, during, and after a task. Pilots, doctors, and engineers all use checklists as a way to determine whether their work has fit specific criteria. When students use checklists, they are learning how to make sense out of systems. There's actually a great book on checklists called The Checklist Manifesto that I highly recommend.

#6: Vary the Grouping

If you visit a skatepark, you'll notice that feedback is happening everywhere. Some of it is verbal, with skaters offering tips for one another in how to accomplish a trick. Sometimes, a skater will simply need another set of eyes. Other times, they might videotape a trick and analyze it to figure out what to do next. But the reality is that nobody at the skatepark depends solely on experts and coaches for feedback. They are constantly engaging in self-assessment.

According to John Hattie, self-assessment and self-grading are two of the most powerful educational interventions (learn more here and here). This makes sense. Self-assessment increases student ownership and self-awareness. Students are able to assess what they know, what they don't know, and what they will do in the future. This, in turn, boosts metacognition. You can find some of these self-assessments in the toolkit at the bottom of this post.

It also helps to use peer-assessment. I use a twenty-minute peer conferencing system. Similar to Critical Friends, this structure helps students engage in constructive criticism and honest feedback on one another's work. This creates a culture of collaboration and sends the message that vulnerability and candor are valuable in a classroom setting. You can download the full resource by signing up for my newsletter and for the assessment toolkit at the bottom of this post.

Here's how the structure works:Still, there is a time and a place for teacher feedback. This is why I love one-on-one conferencing. Here, the students meet individually with the student while classmates engage in project and workshop time. Again, this is one of the strengths of using a PBL framework. You get the opportunity to maximize face time through short, five-minute conferences. When I taught self-contained (all subjects), I would meet with every student at least once a week. When I taught departmentalized (one subject with multiple groups) I would aim for once every 2-3 weeks.

I used three different types of conferences. The feedback conference is all about learning specific skills that students are missing. Each student must ask the teacher a series of questions based upon an area where he or she is struggling. Think of it like consulting or even short tutoring sessions. This is a chance for targeted one-on-one attention and explicit help with a strategy. Students guide the process, tapping into the teacher's expertise. The reflection conferences have a different focus. Instead of telling students what to do, the goal is to draw out student reflection. The teacher uses a series of reflective questions to lead students through the process of meta-cognition and into the setting and monitoring of goals. The final approach is the mastery conference. Unlike the reflection conference, the focus here is less about reflecting on the process and more about students judging their own mastery of the content. We use the Standards-Based Assessment Grid (attached to the resource you can download) as a way to figure out the level of mastery on particular standards.

#7: Make it visible.

A colleague of mine named Keelan recommended Making Thinking Visible and it has reshaped my thoughts on metacognition and reflection. When the learning is explicit and visible, feedback goes from an abstract idea to a set of concrete steps. This is why I love the idea of creating visual representations of feedback. Whether it's a concept map, walking through the steps kinesthetically, or maneuvering around concepts with sticky notes, feedback becomes even more powerful when it is visible to the student.

The bottom line is this: assessment isn't something you take. It's something you do. And feedback isn't something that happens when things are over. It's something that happens throughout the learning process. The more we can integrate feedback and revision into the projects and lessons, the better off our students will be. They will have more ownership of the process and they'll increase in the metacognition they need in order to grow into life-long learners.

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Seven Strategies for Improving Student Feedback - John Spencer - Medium

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We know feedback is important. But what happens when students ignore it? In this article and podcast, we explore how to integrate feedback into every part of the learning process so that students can increase in metacognition during their PBL and design thinking projects. We've all been there before.

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Project-based learning (PBL) is starting to catch on across the country and it's important that we understand why it works. As we look for answers to close the opportunity gap, for our historically oppressed groups in society, it's useful to see the connections between PBL and culturally responsive teaching (CRT). Both CRT and PBL push us to teach deeply, be relevant, and develop skills. They also redefine the student to teacher relationship and change the learning process.

But why does it work?

After reading Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, by Zaretta Hammond, three years ago, I see the justification for so many of our educational reforms and initiatives. Not all (Open Court, hyper testing, double Math and English) but PBL is one of them and it is very culturally responsive! Culturally responsive teaching is the ability to "recognize students' cultural displays of learning," the "use of cultural knowledge as a scaffold," the promotion of "effective information processing," all while teachers are "being in relationship and having a social-emotional connection" with students (pp 15, Hammond).

However, be advised, PBL can be done in a culturally non-responsive way, such as:

The project is tacked in at the end of a unit or made optional

The question comes from the teacher or the textbook

There is only one answer and diverse viewpoints are suppressed

Projects are done individually and overly competitive

Students become focused on the product and not the skills

Students are not prompted to reflect on their learnings about the process

The content is not relevant to youth, students or color, or the present day

Here are 5 culturally responsive reasons for doing PBL:

1) Students do the heavy lifting in PBL

PBL puts student inquiry at the center of the learning, propelled by curiosity. Instead of teachers spoon feeding students, what Paulo Freire would call the banking approach to education, PBL asks students to research and present their learning. Students become the experts and teachers become supporters. Additionally, teachers facilitate these learning spaces, add fuel to the fire, and keep the party going.

Zaretta Hammond writes about engaging students by putting them in a "productive struggle" in order to create more independent learners. Students need to "chew" on the content and use cognitive routines to develop deep understanding.

This directly connects with the High-Quality Project Based Learning Framework (HQPBL). One component is "intellectual challenge" where students "investigate problems" and "focus on concepts, knowledge, and skills." The days of memorizing dates, facts, and names are long gone.

We have spent decades crippling students and making them dependent on teachers. We have wasted their time with worksheets, fill in the blank questions, and copying definitions. We have dumbed it down, especially for our students of color. But they are capable of much more and PBL can make that happen.

2) PBL starts with a hook and sparks curiosity

The brain pays attention to, "something relevant, something that stimulates curiosity, or something that elicits a strong emotional response. Picture, puzzles, sound, and other attention getters..." (pp 125) This is the hook, project launch, or entry event. It can be a cultural reference or an artifact.

PBL is best kicked off with a provocative question, a challenge, or better yet, a controversy. This gets students excited, intrigued, and drives the learning. The brain will be locked in. The HQPBL Framework calls this students engaging in "work that makes an impact on or otherwise connects to the world beyond school, and to their personal interests and concerns." What else matters?

Organizations like New Tech Network call this an entry event or entry task. This should kick off authentic research. It helps to have a crafty essential question or controversial news clip.

3) PBL allows for an authentic application of knowledge

"The brain has 5-10 minutes to begin processing the input" and this is where we use "movement, repetition, story, metaphor, or music to help the brain to process." (pp 126). Later, we have "24-48 hours to revisit, review, and apply..." (pp 127). This is where projects come in! Get them creating!

Further, Bloom's Taxonomy was recently revised to place creation at the top of the pyramid, instead of evaluation. Why, because it's where the learning happens. Stop saying you don't have time for it. That's like saying you don't have time to ensure student truly learn the content. This creation connects with Hammond's discussion of the "elaboration of knowledge". Our brains want to make meaning by organizing content into existing understanding and doing something new and different with the information.

One goal of PBL is to develop 21st century and common core skills more deeply. Students will need these skills in higher education and their future jobs. The vehicle is PBL and the approach is culturally responsive. Students should do something with their knowledge, and something that doesn't have an easy answer.

4) PBL harnesses collectivism

Collaboration is coded into our culture, the way we learn best, and kids already love to socialize. Here's a contrast between individualism and collectivism, followed by a study of the level of collectivism in various cultures.

This chart would suggest that only some groups benefit from group work, structured student talk, and discussion. However, even our European and Northern Asian descendants will benefit by developing collaboration skills. These are the "soft skills" now desired by today's workforce and definitely necessary for anyone hoping to lead any group of people.

True PBL requires students to talk, work in groups, and make meaning of academic language. This "chewing on the content" and translating it back and forth between students, allows students to put knowledge in their long-term memory. It also builds literacy and academic vocabulary.

Group work also reduces the "amygdala hijack" caused by having to perform in front of the whole class, at the pace of the students who raise their hands first. We know that kids love to work together and we know that adults are required to do this. Productive teamwork releases oxytocin, priming the brain to learn.
It also builds the relationship between the teacher and students, through partnership and a breakdown in the traditional hierarchy. See this summary of building learning partnerships with students, from Hammond's ready for rigor framework.

5) Extra Credit: PBL empowers students to address social justice issues
Learning for the sake of learning is not good enough, and not engaging. We've seen this. A student with their head down or checked out. Students are demanding to know why any of this matters, especially as they see societal contradictions surrounding them. So let's get them applying their content and skills!

Critical pedagogues like Freire wrote that we can engage and best educate oppressed students by supported them to act upon their society. PBL, done with a lens towards critical pedagogy pushes/invites students to attempt to solve our most difficult challenges (immigration, poverty, pollution, police brutality, globalization).

This empowers students to take action on their world, with a charge to make it better. Oppressed students just might realize their true power, engage in their learning, and get access to higher education. They can hold our country accountable to its ideals and offer a solution we haven't considered. What if?

What Leaders Can Do

Read about Culturally Responsive Teaching, or better yet, attend a workshop

Learn about PBL by reading Transforming Schools with PBL by Bob Lenz or attending NTAC or PBL World. (See books and conferences)

Check out Cult of Pedagogy's PBL overview

Review the Framework for High-Quality Project Based Learning

Try to create your own PBL unit

Form a PLC at your school focused on PBL

Weave CRT and PBL elements into your staff PD and highlight your pedagogical moves

Create space for staff to reflect on the mental models, bias about education, and privilege

Want to learn more about PBL? Check out our books.

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5 Things That Make Project-Based Learning Culturally Responsive

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Project-based learning (PBL) is starting to catch on across the country and it's important that we understand why it works. As we look for answers to close the opportunity gap, for our historically oppressed groups in society, it's useful to see the connections between PBL and culturally responsive teaching (CRT).

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Project-based learning (PBL) continues to gain momentum as a powerful approach to teaching and learning, and for good reason. Research indicates that when implemented well, PBL improves student motivation and achievement, and helps students master skills that are essential for college and career readiness.

Yet I sometimes run into teachers and administrators who question whether PBL can be used successfully with all students, which ultimately brings up a question of equity. We know that PBL can be a powerful tool to eliminate achievement gaps and help students of all backgrounds develop critical 21st-century learning skills that prepare them to thrive. But how do we ensure that PBL is accessible to all learners?

To answer this question, it helps to have a working definition of equity. I like the definition that Elena Aguilar uses in " Deeper Learning Means Educational Equity in Urban Schools ": Equity means that "every child gets what they needs in our schools-every child regardless of where they come from, what they look like, who their parents are, what their temperament is, or what they show up knowing or not knowing."

Ensuring that all students, regardless of background, experience the powerful effects of high-quality PBL starts with making sure that PBL is implemented with every child and not reserved for those deemed academically gifted or otherwise "ready for PBL."

The following three strategies, highlighted by Eric Jensen in Teaching with Poverty in Mind, can help in introducing rigorous content when implementing PBL. While Jensen's work focuses on working with students living in poverty, these strategies can benefit all students.

Expect All Students to Succeed-and Support Their Success

Jensen points out that when teachers believe students can do well, students perform better-and when teachers believe students have deficits, they tend to perform poorly. In the context of PBL, this translates into designing rigorous PBL units and communicating to all students that we believe they can succeed. Ultimately, the goal is to lead students to believe in themselves.

Rigorous PBL involves projects that are designed around engaging topics and driving questions that compel students to dig deep during the process of inquiry, and to think critically about issues and big ideas. In some cases, rigorous PBL units may seem daunting to students who otherwise struggle academically. Leading these students to believe they can succeed often involves strategic scaffolding of content, skills, and processes within the PBL experience. It may also mean using differentiation strategies to support student success.

In all cases, it includes the use of formative assessment so that teachers and learners identify and address gaps in understanding throughout the PBL experience.

Promote Relationship Building

PBL is highly collaborative, and relationship building is critical to establishing a classroom culture where collaboration flourishes. Jensen notes, however, that intentional relationship building is even more important for students in poverty since poverty can hinder healthy relationship development. He also points out that it's not just teacher-student relationships that matter-student-student and teacher-teacher relationships are also critical in establishing a culture where all students thrive.

The schools and classrooms where I've seen the strongest relationship-based cultures are ones where students have input on establishing norms and processes, where team building happens throughout the year so that students and teachers know each other well, and, on the teacher level, where teachers have regular opportunities to collaborate to design meaningful PBL experiences for students and discuss student supports.

Making sure students feel known is an especially important aspect of relationship building.

Empower Students

According to Jensen, one of the best ways to engage students raised in poverty is to provide them with "instruction that includes them and their interests" and then to let them take charge of their learning.

While PBL is designed to do exactly this, not all PBL is created equal. High-quality PBL focuses on challenging problems and issues that students find compelling, and emphasizes student voice and choice in project design and implementation. The most powerful PBL I have experienced takes relevance and student voice even further by engaging students in action projects where they investigate and address critical problems in their communities and around the world.

This approach can be especially empowering when it incorporates service learning, an approach to teaching and learning that aligns well with PBL (see the K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice). The National Action Civics Collaborative is a great starting point for looking at examples of meaningful PBL projects. These projects not only engage students but empower them to make a positive impact on their community and the world beyond their classroom.

By planning PBL experiences around these core strategies, we can help all students, regardless of their background, get what they need to access and experience the true power of PBL.

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Ensuring That PBL Is Accessible to All | Edutopia

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Project-based learning (PBL) continues to gain momentum as a powerful approach to teaching and learning, and for good reason. Research indicates that when implemented well, PBL improves student motivation and achievement, and helps students master skills that are essential for college and career readiness.

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Formative assessments occur frequently throughout a project. Teachers monitor the class, determining how well students are progressing. This immediately informs the teacher on how he or she might adjust and improve. Students also receive feedback, enabling them to improve as well.

1. The Carnegie-Mellon website includes a few specific examples:

draw a concept map in class to represent their understanding of a topic

submit one or two sentences identifying the main point of a lecture

turn in a research proposal for early feedback

2. PBL Learning provides a multitude of resources, with a section dedicated to assessment , including several examples and links to many more. Many are likely familiar.

Student Self-Assessment

3. The West Virginia Department of Education provides an extensive list of formative assessment tools organized by type (Questioning, Exit/Admit Slips, Kinesthetic Assessments, etc.). Each type of formative assessment contains both examples and links to more information.

Observations effectively require the teacher to walk around the classroom taking notes in some format to record what the teacher sees and hears the students learning.

Slips require students to briefly respond in writing to question prior to leaving class.

Kinesthetic Assessments require students to show understanding through movement. They provide a math example in which students build a graph on the floor of the classroom by going to stand at specified coordinates.

4. Buck Institute for Education (BIE)

of a Google hangout with several educational professionals describing their specific implementations of assessment activities. Or, you can just go to BIE and search "assessment" for other resources.

provides a way to administer formative assessments digitally.

Bell work or Exit/Admit slips could work really well in GoogleDocs . From the "Create" button, choose "Form" and make your survey!

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Formative Assessments - PBL Assessment Strategies

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Formative assessments occur frequently throughout a project. Teachers monitor the class, determining how well students are progressing. This immediately informs the teacher on how he or she might adjust and improve. Students also receive feedback, enabling them to improve as well. 1.

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PBLWorks_Thinking Routines and Project PATH_0

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~ Gary Kelly, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

I recently read The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Resultsby Gary Kelly and was struck by its beautiful simplicity. Kelly posits when we try to do too many things at once, we're highly unlikely to do anything well; and rather we "need to be doing fewer things for more effect instead of doing more things with side effects."

Now if you're in the field of education, you may have just read that quote and wondered if Kelly was sitting around your last staff meeting, or maybe even rhetorically asked yourself if he was mocking the last district initiative memo you received.

As teachers fighting to survive the rapidly changing educational landscape, we've all experienced feeling like we're asked to do too many things, and as a result, do few things (maybe some days, even zero things) well. As an educator supporting teachers through project-based learning (PBL) implementation, I see this strife far too often.

How might we use Kelly's logic to go about doing PBL with fidelity and quality? And not lose our teachers through the process?
Well, let's just do ONE thing and do it well!
I've attended (and been guilty of facilitating) countless workshops that introduce teachers to PBL through robust frameworks, checklists, and lists hidden within graphics that define quality projects. Regardless of the district, demographic, or level of experience, the reaction is the same, and likely in this order:

1. Awe

2. Agreement

3. Overwhelm

4. Frustration

5. Helplessness, and maybe even rejection

Put simply, It's too much too fast.
VIDEO: The Building Blocks of Project-Based Learning
When I work with teachers new to PBL, the first thing I do is take them through an experiencethat grounds our learning in " the why " of PBL -- and not my why, or the district's why, but their why. Then I ask them to look at a variety of frameworks and lists for effective PBL, and use those as a lens for viewing student work. From there, the staff identifies only three mutually agreed upon tenants of quality PBL that they'll commit to for the year. And from the three, I ask them to just pick ONE of those tenants to focus on as they design their first project.

This simple approach mentally frees teachers and allows them the space to focus on getting really good at ONE part of PBL. Maybe it's student collaboration, maybe it's growth mindset, maybe it's field work... Whatever it is, let's scaffold, assess, and give our teachers the tools and support they need to do this one thing really well.

By providing a focus and fostering agency, reflection, refinement, and growth, we begin to live the deeper learning model for our students and are more likely to have success; thus resulting in a confidence boost, not just for the teacher, but for their students and communities as they begin their PBL journey.

After all, as Gary Kelly says, "the majority of what you want will come from the minority of what you do."

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Getting Started with PBL: Do ONE Thing Really Well

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Gary Kelly, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results I recently read The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Kelly and was struck by its beautiful simplicity.

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In project based learning trainings, it seems like there's always something important left out: organization. I believe that organization is a key piece of the PBL structure. These 4 steps will get you organized and ready to start any project based learning scenario!

One of the major stresses that comes with implementing project based learning is organizing it all. There are a lot of moving pieces that you don't have with traditional lessons. There are people to schedule, and there is a good deal of research material to keep track of. One of my strengths is organizing these moving parts, so I'm excited to share my tips with you!

Step 1: Plan with Intention

The most important organization tip I can give is to plan with intention. Knowing how you are going to organize your inquiry, critique, and more, is the first step to project based learning that is not chaotic.

The planning guide I use to help me get organized can be found here. It's also pictured below, in a lesson plan created by a teacher for my course.

Step 2: Organize Guests & Helpers

There are a lot of people to organize over the course of a project based learning scenario. In any given PBL, I have to schedule:

Guest speakers

Helpers

Audience/community members

I do this in two ways. First, I keep a calendar on my desk (and on the learning wall) that notes who is coming in when. Second, I use Signup Genius to set up the dates and times people are coming in and email them reminders. I also put phone numbers on my personal calendar, so that I can make sure they get a phone call the day before as well. There's nothing worse than expecting a guest speaker or audience member to come in, and they forget to show up.

Step 3: Prepare Student Organizational Procedures

Procedures are key in project based learning. If you want everything in your classroom to run like a workplace, and not a circus, you will need to be consistent on procedures for a lot of different things.

Organizational procedures are just as important as collaboration procedures. Before your class even begins, plan how you will have them organize their research and work. This includes having a plan for:

1. What organizers students will need to record information (will you create these, or will your students?)

2. Where students will keep individual research

3. Where collaborative groups will keep their work

4. Where large end products will be stored as students are working on them

5. How to prevent disruption if a student, or the teacher, is absent

These procedure organizers are from my online course, Implement Project Based Learning from Start to Finish. In the course, there's an entire module on procedures for PBL.

Step 4: Create a Learning Wall

This learning wall can be done on a large bulletin board or any wall in your classroom. Just make sure that you have room for the following elements:

Articles and Q&A about anything on your "Need to Know" list

The driving question displayed

Copies of resources you provide

A daily and weekly task list

The project calendar

I refer to this learning wall at least ten times a day. We use it to keep us on track with our goals and tasks for the project, as well as to share ideas.

A digital "wall" can be used as well, if you'd prefer to keep everything in a Google Drive that everyone can access. Even though we have 1:1 devices, I prefer to have a physical visual of all of this, but I do still drop digital copies of a lot of it into Google Drive - in case students choose to do some work from home.

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4 Steps to Organizing Project Based Learning

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In project based learning trainings, it seems like there's always something important left out: organization. I believe that organization is a key piece of the PBL structure. These 4 steps will get you organized and ready to start any project based learning scenario!

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Resources for Assessment in Project-Based Learning

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Looking for tools and strategies for effective assessment in project-based learning? To support you, we’ve assembled this guide to helpful resources from Edutopia and beyond.

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How to Use PBLWorks' Rubrics for Success Skills in PBL

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Start Small But Mighty: Voice and Choice in PBL

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Read on for three different ways you can provide student voice and choice in your project, while also upholding structures to ensure content mastery.

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I wanted to take some time dissecting how I use project based learning in an elementary classroom. I'll break down the process I use for project based learning (PBL) and ease that overwhelming feeling you might have.

I'll preface this post by letting you know I'll be referencing my own resources throughout because it's how I use project based learning in my class, specifically this one.

One of the initial issues I had with project based learning was how unstructured it was for young students. Remember, I'm talking about elementary students. Giving kids an idea or driving question then asking them to try and solve it doesn't work very well. These students need structure AND the ability to solve complex issues. It was that reason why I started creating my own project based learning resources for students (and other teachers). I wanted a simple, effective, and laid out approach to introduce PBL activities that could be easily differentiated to students. I teach special education and I wanted materials that would engage students and push them into new territory

Just so you know, I love project based learning.

I'm going to refer to this incredible chart (below) that I've made throughout this post because it's important to understand that project based learning COMPLETELY depends on the kids (or class) you teach (based on my own professional opinion). Let me say that again: PBL looks different for EVERY SINGLE teacher and class. The depth and complexity will be different for each student--and that is okay. It's just like any other concept or piece of curriculum--your students will drive how you teach.

Four main issues ( structure, independence, technology/research, and literacy & numeracy skills) will determine how I have to work with each of my students. This is the case for teachers around the world, it's why PBL varies so much from class to class and student to student.

The younger the students, the more hands-on the teaching must be (see my handy chart). Primary and intermediate students need the most structure, which is why integrating PBL into elementary grades can be tough. They also need more guidance with the technology. You don't want them playing Minesweeper on "accident" the whole time.

But let's back up and start at the beginning-

Why do I use project based learning with my students?
(Professional Answers)
-Authentic learning, real-world learning
-It works for all levels of learners
-Kids use their own prior knowledge and skill sets
-Social Aspects (collaboration, solving disagreements, asking for feedback)
-I want my students to experience something different.

(Fun Answers)
-It's messy and filled with surprises.
-I get to tell kids "yes" to all their questions.
-Constant discovery and conversation
-Kids want to go home work on it then come back the next morning and tell you.
-Art is always involved.
-It's always different.
-I see students connect in ways typical lessons wouldn't let them.

What are the problems I face when doing it in class?
-Time frame and constraints
-Students don't know how to pick topics
-Student independence levels with technology and research
-Figuring out how to share it with an audience
-Literacy and math skills needed at primary age

What are the benefits I see?
-Engaged and motivated students
-Increased student independence
-Kids recoginzing their strengths and skills
-More risk-taking
-Willingness to fail...and try again
-Do you want me to keep going?

Depending on where you look there can be anywhere from 5-9 steps for project based learning, so I'll try to stick with what I think are the biggest and baddest.

The Essential Question, The Driving Question
I like to give younger students the idea, question, and/or topic. It takes the bad groupthink out of the mix. I've given students choices and options, but have found that to be ineffective for younger students. The driving question or task comes from me.

And this is also where I go off-roading rather than following the typical project based learning formula because the essential or driving question isn't always a single question (to me). Sometimes it's a task or objective that include tons of moving parts. I know, it's a little different.

The example I'll use is this: The students have been asked to run a music festival in their town.

" But that's not a question," you're thinking. I know. But it is a complex issue that can be related to communities or interests of students which requires a high level of thinking and problem solving. It's also open ended so every kid can choose their own adventure. I want students to create something completely original and unique that solves an issue.

Starting with a single idea or task for everyone also give the kids more structure. They need to run a music festival, but they don't know how they're going to do it. And they're all in the same spot (as a class).

For an introduction I like to show a video or film clip to get the kids interested. We talk about what we saw, what's involved and see what kinds of information we can learn from it. Current events work really really well and kids see the immediate connection. Also-never underestimate the power of pop culture in the classroom.

CLASSROOM IDEAS TO GET STARTED:

-Introduce with a video but don't give an explanation.

-Find a read aloud book that matches with the PBL.

-Complete the brainstorm as a class.

-Use the white board or resource (projected) and complete with the students.

-Share your own personal experiences.

-Ask your students to predict what the PBL activity will have.

Research and Planning, Sustained Inquiry
How do I get elementary students to research and plan when they haven't been taught? How do I send them to research on the internet when they don't know where to look? These are issues that are still tough for middle and high school kids.

CLASSROOM IDEAS TO GET STARTED:

Feedback, Revising, Editing

Angela Potchka along with other sixth grade teachers spent the last two weeks showing students how to operate and maintain a food truck business. Lessons included creating menus, adding and pricing menu orders, and discussing potential obstacles they could face along the way. The lesson culminated with a classroom discussion and hands-on experience from several Fort Wayne food truck owners.

If you teach special education (like I do) then you definitely want to read why project based learning should be in every classroom. PBL gives kids (at all levels) opportunities to find what they're great at when it come to how they learn and take in information. It's also the perfect way to pull in those reluctant learners.

If you're interested in PBL and still want to know more, see my top ten tips to easily get you and your class started. These are the ten tips that I live by in my classroom and when I'm introducing it to others. Don't make it difficult, make it meaningful.

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I wanted to take some time dissecting how I use project based learning in an elementary classroom. I'll break down the process I use for project based learning (PBL) and ease that overwhelming feeling you might have.

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Developing Executive Function With Priority Lists

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As an educator, I like many of you, have been so pleased to see the recent focus on addressing the holistic needs of children through Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). The push in recent research and resources related to SEL reminds us that students have so many more needs than what our school day allows us to address AND that we must find ways to bridge the home-school connection for our best shot at developing successful graduates. Project Based Learning (PBL) affords us a wonderful opportunity to engage our school community as a whole by honoring and involving parents in their child's learning.

In my last post, I shared four communication tips for helping keep parents informed of project work in your class. This post will take it one step further and offer up five hands-on ways to engage parents in your PBL classroom.

1. Invite parents to be guest speakers.
Because PBL always has somereal-world context, that easily lends itself to parents finding connections to what students are learning. Perhaps when parents read your project emails they immediately connect to the project through a trade they have, their current job, or a passion they would like to share. On your project calendar you can note where workshops may be happening and invite parents to come in and speak to the topic or share some sort of related artifact. Over the course of project work, I had parents come in to talk about everything from marketing strategy and architecture, to how to use power tools. Every time, regardless of the content or skills being offered up by parents, the students loved it and parents felt honored - it was always a win!

2. Invite parents in to provide project feedback.
A best practice in PBL is Project Critique. As you approach the end of a project, you can invite parents in to be a part of a formal critique session, you can have students sit down with a parent for structured feedback on writing, or have them sit in as a panel for presentation feedback. Outside eyes help raise the stakes for student work and they also often provide an authentic "end user," or simply an audience for student presentations. This allows you to provide more support to students throughout the day and also makes parents feel like they're bringing value to the quality of project work; another win!

3. Ask parents to be project work time "hands."
I've never met a teacher who didn't confess that project work time is exhausting! When students are in the final stages of a project and in "building mode," it makes you wish you could clone five versions of yourself to be with every group. This is a wonderful time to invite parents in to help you manage the process of project work, especially with younger students. While we hope to develop agency in our students through PBL, truth be told it's a process, so as they're developing those skills it's helpful to provide them with as many resources as possible - one of which can be parents! I would often assign parents to a specific station and rotate groups through. For example, if we were building, I would always put a parent at the power tools station, or if we were doing some intensive technology use I would have them provide me with tech support that students could sign up for as needed. You can invite parents to sign up for project work time using a basic SignUpGenius form - two sets of hands are better than one!

4. Enlist a field work coordinator.
Ah field work - possibly the coolest part of PBL but also the most exhausting. Coordinating field trips and guest speakers can easily feel like a part-time job, and who has time for that? Enroll a parent to take on this logistics gig for you. They can help you make calls to community locations, coordinate with guest speakers, collect permission slips, and even help build a community connections database using a simple spreadsheet for you to reference for future projects.

5. Run a project slice for parents.
Dump Back-to-School Night on its head and consider doing a project slice with your parents. A project slice is simply a day in the life of a project. If you only have an hour with parents then give them a quick background description, have them do a group activity from the project, and then debrief the process with them to help educate them on what PBL looks, sounds, and feels like. While this may feel like a wild and crazy idea, I would be hard pressed to find an adult that doesn't experience a slice of a project and say, "Wow, that was so much more meaningful than traditional learning." Gain a win early in the year so that parents are on your team and more likely to support your work during the year.

VIDEO: The Building Blocks of Project-Based Learning

I pride myself on being realistic about PBL implementation, so I want to acknowledge that the five tips above all require advance planning - and sometimes we're surviving day by day. If you're feeling swamped and the thought of these five tips makes you feel overwhelmed, then just start by documenting what you're doing this year and set up some systems and structures that will allow you to more readily start these practices next year. Or as I always recommend, just do the ONE thing that's going to give you the most juice for the squeeze!

For additional tips and ideas for supporting parents with PBL, check out CraftED's newly published PBL for Parents Quick Guideand Project Planning Workbook.

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Bridging the Home-School PBL Connection: 5 Wins When Involving Parents

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As an educator, I like many of you, have been so pleased to see the recent focus on addressing the holistic needs of children through Social and Emotional Learning (SEL).

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Minds in Bloom is excited to have RuthAnn Lane from Learning Lane guest posting for us today! RuthAnn has written a great blog post all about authentic project-based learning in the classroom. As an experienced PBL educator herself, RuthAnn shared some really fantastic tips and insight! Keep reading to learn from her and to get ideas for implementing PBL yourself.

A few years ago, I sat across from a teacher*, who was new to our building. I had been given the privilege of mentoring her for her first year in our project-based learning school.

"How is your class doing with your first PBL unit?" I carefully inquired.

She let out a huge sigh and looked close to tears.

"I can't make it work with Tier Time, a 90-minute reading block, 60 minutes of math, 30 minutes of writing, and a mandated morning meeting. Plus, now we have 20 minutes of Social Emotional lessons twice a week. Where can I possibly fit PBL in this schedule?!"

She motioned frantically at the color-coded blocks carefully plotted on her printed Excel spreadsheet. My heart broke for her.

Could this be you? Are you feeling overwhelmed and underprepared to tackle implementing project-based learning in your classroom? Whether you are a veteran teacher with 20+ years of experience or a brand new facilitator, the idea of changing your approach to teaching can be terrifying. As a certified PBL teacher, with experience in both primary and intermediate PBL environments, I am eager to help make the transition to authentic project-based learning easier for you. Below are five tips and tricks I have learned for implementing authentic project-based learning in your classroom.

1. Keep it real for your class.

During our next meeting, the teacher I mentioned above pulled out a beautifully printed lesson plan. "I found this online and printed it off. I'm going to do this project. I don't want to reinvent the wheel. The students build a birdhouse, and it goes perfectly with my standards," she stated proudly. I hesitated and said, "Have you talked about this with your kiddos?" She replied, "No...but it's hands-on, so they will like it. It's better than a worksheet." This time, my heart sank.

It is crucial that your PBL unit aligns with, supports, and assesses your standards. But, giving students voice in what they do and having the flexibility to allow them choice in how they do it are defining characteristics of authentic project-based learning. The question isn't whether or not this building activity is quality but rather...is it truly quality PBL? Without student direction integrated in, then the answer is "no." Authentic PBL gives students the opportunity to guide the project through voting, suggestions, and implementation. Student voice goes deeper than allowing them to choose if they want to make a birdhouse out of a milk carton or wood. It is allowing them to decide if building the birdhouse is even what they want to do to help birds.

It is tempting to simply download a perfectly aligned and assessed unit from a website and implement it step-by-step. Instead, I would encourage you to look at these units for their parts. Wait until you have developed the topic of your project-based learning unit with your students and written a driving question, and then download a unit and pull it apart for the resources that work for your class. Be aware that your students may change the direction of the project throughout, so it's better not to invest a great deal of money in multiple projects. There are many websites that offer these units for free to download.

2. Build a toolbox.

As you teach project-based learning, you will notice that students tend to enjoy the same topics. Often, popular topics like pets will be the subject of student interest. Saving resources from previous projects helps you to avoid having to "reinvent the wheel," so to speak. It is so easy to forget where we found that great article or what the title of that video was that answered a Need to Know question. Start a Google Doc where you simply paste links to the items you find. Fill in your lesson planner with yourself in mind so that revisiting it is easier. Begin a file on your phone of images you have taken for each PBL. Take pictures of book covers or pages of the Math textbook that support your PBL units. Create your own Pinterest board for either project-based learning in general or for each specific unit. My favorite method is to use binders. I collect student work throughout the project and print off my lessons and images I have taken to remind me of what I did for each topic. My husband jokes that I single-handedly maintain a slipcover company somewhere. But it is a method that works well for me.

Building a toolbox is a great way to save yourself time and energy, but sometimes you are at a loss for where to find resources. That is where online communities come into play. Check out the many Facebook groups that are related to project-based learning. I run one specifically for Elementary Project Based Learning, but that are so many others. Join several and post in multiple groups when you need help. The hashtag #projectbasedlearning has over 54,000 posts on Instagram! Don't be afraid to post on these resources asking for advice, feedback, or ideas.

3. Project-based learning is a round hole...for the round peg.

The most common point of stress for new-to-PBL teachers is how to "fit PBL in." With everything going on in the day, it feels like another task added. In truth, the PBL approach does ask for more in-depth planning than following a basal or using downloaded lesson. However, project-based learning is not a pit stop you make on your daily academic journey. Instead, it is the vehicle by which you drive your classroom.

Remember the teacher I told you about at the beginning of this article? How she struggled with juggling writing, reading, math, and fitting in PBL? The idea that it must have its own time during the day can be so overwhelming. But in truth, project-based learning is about using the project's topic to teach the standards in our subject.

For example, a few years ago my first grade students wanted to help circus elephants. We had just finished a unit on endangered animals, and we were on the hunt for our next PBL unit. My students had earned a marble party and voted to watch Dumbo. During the scene where Dumbo's mother is whipped, one of my tiny little boys began to cry. As with any first grade room, the others were immediate in their compassionate need to help him. "What's wrong?!" they all inquired. "Elephants are endangered, and she is getting hurt," the boy finally burbled. "But it's just a cartoon. It's not real," one girl comforted. "Right, Mrs. Lane?" Oh, reader, my heart. "I'm not sure, friends," I fibbed. "I'll find an article about it for tomorrow." As the students finished the movie, I sat down quickly at my desk and hunted for the perfect article. My objective for the following day was to teach key details. Using the same graphic organizer from my basal, I swapped out the given article for the one I found. The students were enthralled as they read about elephants being freed from circuses due to abuse, looking for key details related to the article's topic.

You see, dear reader, it is not about making project-based learning fit. It is about integrating it into what we are already doing. This increases engagement in our lessons tenfold, which is why PBL is such an effective tool for educating.

4. Get down with the project-based learning lingo.

Project-based learning has several vocabulary words, acronyms, and phrases that are confusing to the facilitators who are just beginning. Don't let the language intimidate you. In fact, by integrating it into your classroom and using it with your students, you will help equip your students to navigate those same words. By treating these words like academic vocabulary, you yourself will find that you gain a deeper understanding. There are many YouTube channels, blogs, and websites that can help you navigate the jargon. In fact, you can simply Google words like "driving question" or "community partner" and find many videos and articles to help explain their meanings. If you want an easy-to-access tool, I have created PBL-specific academic vocabulary word wall cards.

5. Master and then move to more.

Many facilitators who have just finished their first project-based learning training, workshop, or book feel that they must integrate all of the elements that make PBL authentic from the beginning. But, in order to truly master project-based learning, it is less overwhelming to focus on one major skill each unit. My recommendation would be that for your first unit, you focus on establishing integration of standards and student voice. Listen to your students' likes and dislikes, their interests, and their passions. Couple these with the standards that drive your instruction. Rewrite story problems to be about elephants instead of granola bars. Swap that chapter book you always read for one that relates to the topic. This is the core of any quality PBL unit. Then, for your second unit, pick a new focus, while maintaining the progress you have made in standards and student voice, perhaps integrating community partners throughout?

Becoming a veteran project-based learning teacher takes multiple units. In every unit, throughout your journey, you will find you learn something new and are more of an expert in one area than another. Continue to reflect and revisit as you develop your units, and you will find that each one will become a little easier to plan, a little less overwhelming, and, above all more, effective and authentic for your students.

Happy PBLing!

*This scenario is a combination of multiple interactions with new to PBL teachers.

RuthAnn Lane is a certified Project-Based Learning teacher with a degree in Elementary Education (K-6) and a license in Reading. She has experience in both primary and intermediate grades. She is married to an amazing man/book hauler. And, currently, she is a stay-at-home mom with her 2-year-old daughter and twin 6-month-old boys. She dreams of homeschooling her kiddos using the PBL approach to education. RuthAnn runs a Teachers Pay Teachers store and a Facebook group for Elementary PBL teachers.

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5 Tips for Implementing Authentic Project-Based Learning - Minds in Bloom

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Minds in Bloom is excited to have RuthAnn Lane from Learning Lane guest posting for us today! RuthAnn has written a great blog post all about authentic project-based learning in the classroom. As an experienced PBL educator herself, RuthAnn shared some really fantastic tips and insight!

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PZ’s Thinking Routines Toolbox | Project Zero

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The Toolbox organizes the Thinking Routines into categories that describe the types of thinking the routines help to facilitate. Some routines appear in more than one category, and some routines have different versions that offer modifications for specific age groups or more specific conceptual challenges.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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the power of graphic organizers comes from the nature and types of cues they provide anatomy of a graphic organizer.

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The power of graphic organizers comes from the nature and types of cues they provide Anatomy of a Graphic Organizer. - ppt download

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Differentiating Instruction: It’s Not as Hard as You Think

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High School Teachers Meet the Challenges of PBL Implementation

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National Center on Universal Design for Learning

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Using Entrepreneurship to Transform Student Work

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As my colleagues and I were building curriculum for our ninth grade project-based program, we found that most of our conversations centered not on potential projects themselves, but rather on building student self-motivation and self-mastery. We realized that our program's measure of success was whether the students learned to take charge of their own learning and find a joy in it.

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After inspiration from Teach Like A Pirate by Dave Burgess, and participating in my first #tlap chat on Twitter, I decided to take the plunge into Genius Hour!

First of all, I have finally learned what the Twitter hype is for education. And let me tell you...
it is
EXHILARATING
Exciting!
Refreshing
Supportive
Your own PLC
After participating in the #tlap chat for an hour, I joined another Twitter chat...#ed (something or other).
At first I just watched the action...then I got brave and answered one of the questions...and How Self-fulfilling it was for me to have people from across the US and other countries like what I said! And people started re-tweeting what *I* said, and people started following me! Including Dave Burgess! And Superintendents of Schools AND other teachers AND other Genius Hour people!
Truly exciting. I felt energized. I couldn't even fall asleep from the excitement after the chats.

WHICH led me to GENIUS HOUR.
The people of my new found PLC (Professional Learning Community OR PLN-Professional Learning Network), were chatting about Genius Hour...Intrigued, I inquired about it. They led me to check out this site GENIUS HOUR and HERE...then I was PUMPED
So I sat on it for a while
And I researched
I looked up all the greatness that has come of it...after all...Google did it...
And I thought
Then I got BRAVE and decided to put my thoughts together and approach my Principal.
After sharing my new found passion, Genius Hour with my Principal, he asked me to type up a proposal on how I can make it work in my THIRD GRADE CLASS (I mean, *most* of genius hour is done at the upper levels). He asked me how it fit with Common Core... He asked what the plan was...What in the curriculum would I have to get rid of... He asked me alllll kinds of questions...and I am proud to report that I was prepared for his questions!
My Principal even said he was impressed...
So, my next step was to put it all in writing.
I submitted my proposal.
I waited at least a week to hear back.
THEN HE APPROVED IT!
WOO HOO!
Then FINALLY...YESTERDAY (Thursday...because it was 1/2 day School Improvement Day on Friday)...
I introduced it to my class.
I'm a very confident teacher.
With that said...I was soooo nervous to tell my class about this new adventure...
Would they be mature enough?
Would they wonder about bigger things?
Would this even take?

I had been kinda prepping the kids since I turned in my proposal... I told them that I turned in something to the Principal that I was REALLY excited about and hoped that he approved my "thing"...
THAT was peaking their curiosity...
Then Thursday... I said to my class... we really have to stay on task today so we can get to something special this afternoon... (they were like-oh, a party? extra recess? treat?)..... (which made me even more nervous because it was none of those things...it's more work)
So....while they were at PE, I set up the computer/projector to show the Pep Talk by Kid President

They came in and I hit PLAY...
They giggled, laughed, kept looking at me
Then after the video was over, I asked them what they thought....why do you think I showed this to you (to make us laugh? anti-bully? to be on a team?)
THEN one student said it.... TO BE AWESOME? To DO SOMETHING GREAT?
YES!!!! YES!
Then we gathered on the carpet and I revealed my chart tablet/anchor-chart-maker....
It just said "GENIUS HOUR" at the top with a not-so-great-drawing of a lightbulb...
I said to the kids...
Have you ever had a teacher yet who said...Go learn WHATEVER you want? (noooooo)
Teachers have a set guideline/standards/Common Core that we HAVE to teach you...
Then I said it...
"Boys and Girls...I'm giving you every Friday to work on WHATEVER project you want for 30 minutes" (there was cheering and hollering and confused looks)
Let's brainstorm some of your wonderings...some of the things you just want to learn more about... you're whys and hows...
And I went crazy on the chart paper with questions...
AND of course, kids tried to answer other kids questions with quick answers...
And I said...now is not the time to answer...we are just writing and asking questions...
And the questions got better and better and more betterer! (yes, I am aware of my silliness with my lack of real words)
I stopped mid-way and told them there were just a few "rules" or "expectations"...
The project has to be approved by ME
The wondering/passion project has to be something that can't be answered quickly
There has to be an end project...(they couldn't believe it could be a movie, or photos, or making something, or poster, or dance, or or or)
And we would take until about November to complete the GENIUS HOUR project...
AND that I have it planned to PRESENT our AWESOMENESS to the SCHOOL BOARD!

So here's the TWO pages worth of questions and we HAD to STOP because it was time to go home.

Don't mind the sloppy writing... I was writing speedy lightning fast!
Some teachers have had the students write on Post-Its and bring them up... that might be where I go for the next one... I think this worked perfectly for our first time...
The students were ridiculously energized.
I kept listening to them talk about all their ideas they had.
I sent a letter home to parents explaining Genius Hour.
Went something like this...

Today, I asked my students what parents thought of the Genius Hour idea... All were positive.
They can't wait until Friday to get going!
I'm currently working on the Genius Hour Approval Form for the kiddos to fill out with their sketched plan...

Using Twitter, I'm asking my PLC for ideas, suggestions...I'm even chatting one on one with a 3rd grade teacher in Missouri... It's her first year doing this too!
PLEASE feel free to chat with me about this!
Go BE AWESOME!!!!!

I hope you feel the passion like I do!

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After inspiration from Teach Like A Pirate by Dave Burgess, and participating in my first #tlap chat on Twitter, I decided to take the plunge into Genius Hour! First of all, I have finally learned what the Twitter hype is for education. And let me tell you... it is EXHILARATING Exciting!

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I am a first grade teacher who has taught for twenty years. When I look at my students and see how much the first grade classroom has changed over time, it is hard for me to imagine what jobs will be out there for them in 15 years. However, what is clear is that there are specific skills -- both academic and interpersonal -- that my students will need to possess to find a successful career. The Common Core standards clearly outline what my students need to be able to master when they leave first grade, however there are also other crucial skills that many educators are calling the 4 C's: Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking and Creativity that are skills highly desired by future employers.

As a teacher I have asked myself, "How do I integrate the Common Core Standards and start teaching these other highly desirable skills in first grade?" My answer to this question has been found in Project Based Learning (PBL).

My biggest challenge has been where to start. I purchased PBL in the Elementary Grades, and I decided to start small. I started the year with the usual review of the alphabet. But this year, all of the letters coincided with local animals. Letter F was the Yellow Legged Frog. Students found out that this local frog has become a "species of concern". Students wanted to help save this little creature and so our first project for the year was: How can we help save the Yellow Legged Frog? The link below shows how beginning first graders were able to help save our local Yellow Legged Frog.

During the second half of the year, my students became involved in the Trout in the Classroom project. Our three first grade classes have been a part of this project for several years. We have gathered activities, made PowerPoint presentations, and found books that we have used for several years to teach this unit. However, I wanted to turn this unit into a PBL experience. I felt relatively successful with my first attempt at PBL with the Yellow Legged Frog Project but decided I really needed to review the Common Core science and writing standards so that I could address as many standards as possible during this project. I also wanted to give my students a meaningful purpose to what they were learning. Thus, the most important things I considered when I started to convert our fantastic unit into a PBL experience, were:

1. The Driving Question

The driving question for this year's Trout in the Classroom project became: "How do we teach others to successfully raise trout eggs and help them understand the importance of keeping our watersheds healthy?" This driving question gave true purpose to what students were learning throughout this project.

2. The Common Core standards that can be incorporated throughout the unit

In the movie link below, you can hear which standards were addressed throughout this unit.

3. The local agencies or experts that could lend experience or insight into my students' understanding of the subject matter

For this project, we partnered with Trout Unlimited, California Fish and Game Department, Marin Municipal Water District, and the Watershed Stewards Program.

4. The audience outside of our immediate classroom community

Our audience became a classroom in San Francisco where a friend of mine teaches kindergarten.

I can see how PBL is the vehicle by which I can teach both the Common Core Standards and the 21st century competencies to my first graders. I am also very excited that I don't have to throw out all the great units I have taught in the past, but instead can view them through a PBL lens. This requires just those four things outlined above to get started. In the future, I am looking forward to using just those four basic ideas to help my kindergarten teacher friend turn her oviparous animals unit into a Project Based Learning experience!

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An Example of PBL in Early Elementary: How I Started

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I am a first grade teacher who has taught for twenty years. When I look at my students and see how much the first grade classroom has changed over time, it is hard for me to imagine what jobs will be out there for them in 15 years.

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Latest stories Previous Next The donkey-whisperer using tech to translate the ee-aws Apple Classroom: The 3 key features and 4 questions to ask right now The Teacher’s Guide: Using Shared iPads on iOS 9.3 and later What are Managed Apple IDs and what should teachers know? How to help every child fulfil their potential What

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Two adventurous fifth grade teachers explore their new PBL pilot program as they learn what it means to align student projects with learning standards.

Editor's Note: Matt Weyers and co-author Jen Dole, teachers at Byron Middle School in Byron, Minnesota, present the third installment in a year-long series documenting their experience of launching a PBL pilot program.

Photo credit: Matt Weyers

Byron Middle School fifth grade students at their Kiva Fundraiser Night.

Project Planning: The Evolution

When we began to plan our first cross-curricular PBL project, we were extremely excited. The process of thoughtfully designing learning experiences that would blend our learning goals with a strong measure of authenticity for the students was a challenge we looked forward to. We went into the summer operating on two project-planning assumptions:

1. That Jen and Matt (the authors) would be true generalists, allowing the students to simply have "class" and flow back and forth between the two of us without dividing the day into specific subjects.

2. That we would enter the school year with a skeleton outline for the bulk of the 10-12 projects we wanted to complete throughout the year.

Unfortunately, we ended up falling short on both accounts. We ascertained quite quickly that we would need a daily schedule to ensure that all students were exposed to the necessary content. The logistics of managing students who were "choosing their own adventure" in their project work was too much for us to handle at that point. In addition, the creation of a daily schedule required us to specialize by subject. Matt would ensure coverage of language arts and social studies standards, and Jen would secure learning experiences for science and math. Similarly, the time required to plan projects and create resources was greater than we anticipated. We entered the school year with multiple rough project ideas, but only three that we felt were adequately developed for implementation.

Mapping Projects to Standards

Project planning has been one of the most exhaustive yet rewarding aspects of the PBL methodology. To begin planning, we initially sifted through electronic PBL project libraries for ideas, but eventually we came to understand that in order for projects to be authentic to our students and local community, we needed to plan and develop them ourselves. We found the combination of Buck Institute for Education's Project Planning Documents and the curriculum-mapping feature of the online program Mastery Connect to be the "Holy Grail" of project-planning tools.

The Project Planning Documents allow us to formulate the overall structure and function of the project, including specific standards addressed, driving question, assessments, and authentic audience. On the other hand, Mastery Connect gives us the ability to electronically assign standards across all subjects to specific projects delineated on the Project Planning Documents. We are then able to create quizzes and rubrics designed to electronically assess the specific standards that we feel students should master. The highlight of this approach is that student results will automatically populate into Mastery Connect, allowing us to provide targeted interventions to students not yet demonstrating proficiency.

Depth of Content and Parent Involvement

As with any new experience, using PBL has forced us to reevaluate our own beliefs and understandings in a multitude of ways. The first reevaluation is our assumption of how a school day should be organized. We are growing more comfortable with the notion that not all projects lend themselves well to all major content areas. For example, we've spent the first six weeks of school working on a microfinance project through Kiva.org, but have not yet taught a single science lesson. However, we've reached significant depth of content with our students while asking them to:

1. Utilize expository writing from internet research

2. Multiply decimals and percentages while calculating interest rates and return on investment

3. Practice speaking, viewing, and media literacy standards by preparing speeches for our Kiva Fundraiser night.

This depth of content has been far beyond what the two of us have ever previously accomplished.

The second reevaluation is the level of parent education and communication that needs to take place. We've consistently heard from families that they would like to know in greater detail what specific skills (teaching standards) we are working with on a day-to-day basis. There have already been several conversations with families concerned that their children will not be receiving enough traditional instruction to keep them on pace with their peers in other classrooms. We have come to understand through these conversations that, although we know as teachers what specific standards we're addressing, if we want PBL to become a more widespread method of teaching in our district, we need to meet these concerns head on through increased communication. At the suggestion of one of our concerned parents, we will form a parent-led "focus group." This group will be designed to inform families about the tenets of PBL, as well as synthesize any questions, comments, or celebrations that families might have into a singular communication with us.

In summation, this year has been exactly the type of authentic learning experience we sought for our students and for ourselves as professionals.

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PBL Project Planning: Matching Projects to Standards

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Two adventurous fifth grade teachers explore their new PBL pilot program as they learn what it means to align student projects with learning standards. Editor's Note: Matt Weyers and co-author Jen Dole, teachers at Byron Middle School in Byron, Minnesota, present the third installment in a year-long series documenting their experience of launching a PBL pilot program.

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Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at OU

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Universal Design for Learning (Part 2): UDL Guidelines

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What are the myths you hear most often about project-based learning? Here are some PBL misconceptions I encounter with surprising regularity:

"Projects may be fun, but they'll never prepare students for ____ [fill in high-stakes test of your choice]"

"If kids work in teams on projects, one or two will do all the work and the others will coast"

"PBL won't work with my students because they are ____ [fill in the challenge of your choice]"

"I'll never have time to cover all my content if I spend time on projects"

"Projects just aren't rigorous"

"Parents will wind up doing most of the work"

"We can't do PBL because we don't have ____ [fill in the technology of your choice]"

Once you start listening for PBL myths, you'll hear them in the most surprising places. During a long flight recently, I was reading to pass the time. I nearly tossed my e-reader when author Liane Moriarty had her adult characters in Big Little Lies scrambling to finish their children's projects. (To be fair, her adults-behaving-badly were comically misguided on many levels. But still.)

If we dispel the myths, we can concentrate on helping teachers and students achieve the meaningful learning that's possible through high-quality PBL. So, let's get busy.

Projects versus PBL

Let's tackle the biggest myth first -- that projects are fun but fluffy. Not academically rigorous.

There's a reason why this misconception endures. Many of today's adults remember doing "projects" when they were in school. Remember those dioramas, solar system mobiles, and other assignments that involved lots of cardboard and Styrofoam but probably not much inquiry or critical thinking? Chances are, those hands-on activities were assigned after the serious learning was over.

My colleagues at the Buck Institute for Education have been outspoken about distinguishing between projects and project-based learning. They rightly describe PBL as main-course learning, not dessert. (Read their "Main Course" blog post.) The point isn't that short-term, hands-on activities are without merit. Rather, you can't expect students to gain the full benefits of PBL unless you give them time and the instructional support needed for an extended, in-depth, inquiry experience.

Students might, indeed, construct a final product to apply and demonstrate what they've learned. But that product won't be the whole project, and it will result from a process that incorporates collaboration, critical thinking, and improvement through feedback and multiple drafts. The Edutopia video, "5 Keys to Rigorous Project-Based Learning," sets the record straight by focusing on PBL as a route to rigorous learning.

Coverage vs. Deep Learning

Here's a related myth -- that you won't be able to cover your curriculum if you're spending class time on PBL.

Wrong again.

PBL isn't an add-on or side trip to your students' learning. It's the main event.

When teachers design PBL experiences, they start with a thorough understanding of their content standards. Moreover, teachers consider the reasons why those standards matter. What are the big ideas of their discipline? How do those ideas connect to the world beyond the classroom? Good projects make content standards relevant. That makes learning more purposeful and concepts more memorable for students.

Teachers who are new to PBL (and parents who don't understand the difference between projects and PBL) sometimes need convincing that students will, indeed, master academics this way. Looking at the research about PBL can help overcome skepticism. Here's a research overview.

The Shape of Deeper Learning

A new report from the American Institutes for Research, offers a look at the learning that happens in high schools where project-based learning is a core instructional strategy. Schools included in this proof-of-concept study are part of the Deeper Learning Community of Practice, an initiative of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. (Read an earlier post about deeper learning.)

Deeper learning, in a nutshell, emphasizes academic content, critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, effective communication, self-directed learning, and an academic mindset. Schools in the Deeper Learning Network use PBL as an instructional strategy to accomplish these goals.

What happens in deeper learning settings? According to AIR report, students master academic content through projects that also emphasize critical thinking, collaboration, and communication. They understand the real-world context for their studies. They benefit from a range of assessments -- including long-term (portfolios and exhibitions) and formative feedback -- and also from differentiated instruction during projects. They not only prepare for college admission, but develop the habits of mind to be successful in college.

More Myths to Bust?

Which myths do you hear most often when it comes to PBL? How do you counter the misconceptions? Please add your thoughts in the comments, and let's do some myth busting together.

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What are the myths you hear most often about project-based learning?

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As they step into the 2020-21 school year, teachers across the country are facing a wholly unique set of challenges brought on by the novel coronavirus, including the question of how best to deliver instruction when circumstances require that their delivery diverge-in some cases substantially-from what's been effective in the past. Because Responsive Classroom educators devote time at the beginning of each school year to teaching routines and procedures so students can engage in safe and independent learning, one question you might be asking yourself right now is: How do I teach my routines and procedures when my classroom is either fully or partially online and when I know that this format could change in the blink of an eye?

As you consider how your routines and procedures will be different this year and plan how to teach them, Interactive Modeling will be a critical tool in making sure all students can learn, feel safe, and experience a sense of belonging. Regardless of the format you start the year in, the first step is to take time to review the list of routines and procedures you teach your students. Next to that list, add a column for the routines and procedures you'll teach your students for online learning and a column for the routines and procedures you'll teach in a hybrid learning model. This will help you feel more prepared to support your students in any instructional setting.

Once your list is complete, plan out how you will use Interactive Modeling for your online routines and procedures, just like you would do in person. For example, how will students access their lessons, turn in work, contact you, or use a strategy like Space and Time? The format used for your Interactive Modeling may vary based on your school's instructional delivery method.

In-Person or Hybrid Learning

If you're teaching in person part or all of the time, walk students through what they will do if and when they are completing schoolwork at home. Then consider taking a class period for students to model for you how they will access a lesson and complete their work. They can pretend you aren't there and that they are at home working independently. End the class period by offering feedback and making note of places you may need to offer reinforcement or reteaching.

Virtual Learning

If you are starting your school year online, your modeling might be done in a video that students can watch on their own. For student practice, host a "classroom period" where students are logged on and complete their work. During this time, you can message, email, or communicate in some other fashion the feedback students need in order to be successful.

Preparing for a Format Change

If you think your school might switch with short notice to fully online instruction, take a moment to brainstorm the first thing students will need access to in order to be successful in your class. Give them several opportunities to practice accessing this resource and give feedback so students feel prepared. Keeping it simple by only focusing on accessing the resource allows students to focus on their in-person or hybrid routines and procedures.

Rather than thinking about what you can't do, take this school year as an opportunity to reimagine your class's routines and practices.

Written by Heather Young, Middle School Teacher and Responsive Classroom Consulting Teacher

Tags: Transitions, Virtual Learning

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Using Interactive Modeling to Create Consistency in a Changeable Situation | Responsive Classroom

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As they step into the 2020-21 school year, teachers across the country are facing a wholly unique set of challenges brought on by the novel coronavirus, including the question of how best to deliver instruction when circumstances require that their delivery diverge-in some cases substantially-from what's been effective in the past.

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As materials come out of storage, your classroom space comes to life and you begin envisioning the excitement, engagement, and meaningful learning your students will experience in the upcoming school year.

Below are three teaching practices that can help you make this vision a reality. Each of these practices promotes active teaching over direct teaching: Rather than education being a one-way street in which a teacher lectures, learning becomes a collaboration between teacher and students. And if you're looking for a way to get started with Responsive Classroom in your classroom, these practices are a great way to begin.

1. Academic Choice

Academic Choice is a three-step strategy that involves planning, working, and reflecting. These steps invite students into the learning process by giving them a voice in the how or what of learning and granting them the autonomy to explore.

Planning

Present students with options for how to meet the day's learning goals. Prompt students to consider what will be the best choice for them - something that will both challenge them and connect to their interests. For example, if a lesson plan calls for students to make a personal connection to a story the class is reading, you could have students choose between painting a scene, making a collage with captions, or writing a poem.

Working

Students bring that choice to life through hands-on interaction with new concepts and materials. They explore, practice, experiment, and problem solve while you provide feedback through reinforcing language and prompt further engagement by posing open-ended questions. You might tell a student who is drawing, "I see you are trying a new skill. You're stretching yourself." Or, you might ask a student, "What would be a good caption for the image you just cut out?"

Reflecting

Give students the opportunity to consider what they learned, assimilate new ideas, and consider possibilities for future use. Reflecting is often most successful when done with partners or in small groups, where students get the chance to practice speaking and listening skills. The opportunity to chat about what they experienced also provides students with a sense of closure that makes transitioning to a new subject more natural.

2. Interactive learning structures

Interactive learning structures promote participatory learning by getting kids moving, talking, and thinking together. They can be used to introduce new skills and concepts or deepen understanding of old ones. In place of lecturing or solitary learning, interactive learning structures get students collaborating in a variety of ways that accommodate a wide range of learning styles and aptitudes. Students also get to practice essential speaking, listening, and thinking skills, important interpersonal skills such as cooperation and responsibility, and new ways to interact with content.

Check out some examples: Carousel, Inside-Outside Circles, and Museum Walk.

3. Interactive Modeling

When a skill, routine, or behavior needs to be done in a specific way, such as using scissors safely or reading with a partner, try Interactive Modeling. This invaluable practice increases students' academic engagement and grounds their understanding of how and why the skill is important by inviting them to be active participants and mindful observers. It can be especially helpful at the beginning of the school year. The steps of Interactive Modeling are:

1. Say what you will model and why - This lets students understand the skill's significance in relation to both the classroom rules and their own goals.

2. Model the behavior - Do this without narration and let students observe the details.

3. Ask students what they noticed - Here, students get to define, rather than be told, what it is they need to know.

4. Ask students to model the same behavior - By observing multiple models and modeling the behavior themselves, students get a clear mental image of the desired behavior.

5. Again, ask students what they noticed - As with the third step, this is a chance for you to make it clear to students that their observations matter.

6. Have the class practice - This gives students firsthand experience with the new behavior.

7. Provide feedback - Your immediate feedback cements the learning of the lesson for students.

(We've also got examples of these steps applied to a variety of skills, from perseverance to walking in a line, in our Interactive Modeling articles.)

Academic Choice, interactive learning structures, and Interactive Modeling give students an opportunity to do the things they love-talk, sing, dance, perform, observe, build, create, collect-all while encouraging them to be engaged, curious, and thoughtful as they explore new concepts and skills.

Tags: Joyful Classrooms

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If you're looking for a way to get started with Responsive Classroom in your classroom, these practices are a great way to begin.

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Teacher Collaboration: Spreading Best Practices School-Wide

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Introducing Project Based Learning in your Classroom

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This video is part of the Introducing Project Based Learning in your Classroom course on the Teacher Academy. Find out more on http://academy.schooleducationgateway.eu/en/web/developing-project-based-learning-in-your-classroom

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What is UDL? Universal Design for Learning Explained (3 minutes)

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UDL and Assessment | An Introduction to UDL and Assessment

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Learning Walks: Structured Observation for Teachers

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We just can't get enough of marble tracks at our house! I almost bought the boys a nice wooden set last Christmas, but I'm so glad I didn't! Making our own has been more fun, and it's different every time! Last year, we made a marble run with paper towel tubes and other items from the recycle bin, and this summer we made one out of pool noodles.

When I saw the "marble coaster" idea in the Sept. 2012 Family Fun magazine, I knew we had to try it! They used rims cut from paper plates to make the track. What a genius idea!

The magazine says to cut the rims off some paper plates. Then, create a track design by using paper towel rolls as supports. They cut their first support at 0.5 inch, then 1 inch, then 1.5 inches, etc. They used glue dots to attach the supports to the track.

Well, we didn't have any glue dots (we've never tried those, actually - are we missing out?) and we only had one paper towel roll which Owen partially ruined by cutting while I was working on the plates. So, we supplemented with supports built from wooden blocks.
Note: The first plates I bought did not work. The plain white plates don't have a rim that works for a track. Look for plates with a design on them and a smooth rim around the edge.
The verdict? It was a LOT of fun! The track was a little tricky to set up, but we easily compensated for our steeper track by adding "guard rails" made from paper plate rims turned the opposite way. We also added a jar lid at the bottom to catch the marble so that it wouldn't roll onto the floor where our newly-crawling baby could get it. This was not an independent activity for little ones. I used hot glue to attach the sections of track and to attach it to the few cardboard supports that we had. We didn't attach the track at all to the block supports. However, once the track was made, Owen (age 3) enjoyed rolling the marble down over and over while exclaiming, "It works!"
To make the set-up easier, I would try building from the bottom up. Also, the less steep the track is, the easier it will be to keep the marble under control.
The next day, Aidan added on to the original track, and Dad helped him to make a more exciting layout!

This layout is not attached to any supports - it's just resting on block towers! Aidan had a blast, but Owen couldn't play with it without ruining it...
So, to sum it all up:
The paper towel roll marble run wins for cost - we didn't have to buy anything for it. However, it probably required the most time and parent help.

The pool noodle marble run wins for ease of set-up. The kids can do this one totally by themselves other than the initial slicing of the pool noodles. But, we had to buy the pool noodles (not a big expense, however).

The paper plate marble run is less work for mom or dad than the paper towel roll option. It's also cheap to make, and the curved plate track pieces lend themselves to really exciting layouts.

Aidan says he likes them all equally well. So there you have it!
What marble runs do your kids like to build?

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Paper Plate Marble Track - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

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We just can't get enough of marble tracks at our house! I almost bought the boys a nice wooden set last Christmas, but I'm so glad I didn't! Making our own has been more fun, and it's different every time! Last year, we made a marble run with paper towel tubes and other items from [...]

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Projects and Project-Based Learning: What's The Difference?

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Teacher establishes routines, procedures, transitions, & expectations for student behavior - Ex 8

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Supporting Families to Boost Students’ Success

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The Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM

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Have you ever paired project based learning and the arts? These 5 PBL and arts lessons can be used in any classroom. Best yet they're easy to plan!

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See what a difference project-based learning makes for middle school math students as part of a federal i3 project using ConnectEd's hands-on math curriculum.