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Collaborative team space

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Handouts, checklist, rubrics, etc

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KDDC Summit Day 1

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Ridgill

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Project-based learning can provide an intentional and effective opportunity to integrate the arts across disciplines and curriculum. While valuable as a stand-alone discipline, arts education can be given further power and value when used in a PBL project as part of the core curriculum.

When teachers begin designing PBL projects, they often start small, maybe with a recommended idea to internalize the design process and a reflection on how to improve. As teachers become more familiar with PBL, integration is a great next step for taking it up a notch. This is where the arts come in! If you are thinking about your next PBL project, consider using one or more of these intentional moments to integrate art.

The Arts as the Entry Event

When launching a PBL project, it is crucial to have an entry event that engages students and creates excitement for the project. From movies and music to activities and simulations, teachers can launch a project with one or more entry events that relate to the arts. Start the project with an art anchor text, not only to build inquiry, but also to keep the momentum going along the way by revisiting that anchor.

The Arts in Culminating Products or Performances

PBL demands voice and choice in how students spend their time and how they show their learning. Each project culminates in a presentation or product that is presented to a public audience. The best products meet the needs of the audience, which means that creating the project must focus not only on relevance, but also on engagement. Teachers can use this design element to further leverage the arts by providing an arts product as one or more of the choices. We know students can show their learning in a variety of ways and through multiple intelligences. In addition to a persuasive letter, consider a collage or songbook of lyrics.

The Arts as Scaffolding

Students need scaffolding through a variety of instructional activities that will arm them with the skills and content they'll need to be successful on the project. As you consider this scaffolding, include arts-related activities. Use these activities to help students process their content and represent their thinking. For example, have students do a "tableau" activity where they represent the structure of the cell. From this, the teacher helps students metacognitively and transparently connect this individual activity to the larger project. Students learn from this arts-based activity during the project and will apply it to their product. Role-plays, simulations, music comprehension strategies, visual processing, dramatic acting -- all these activities and more can help support and scaffold the many learning targets within a PBL project.

The Arts As Formative Assessment

Similar to assessing their students' culminating products or performances, teachers must formatively assess learning objectives and skills throughout the PBL project. As students participate in scaffolding and activities, use the arts as the method to formatively assess content and 21st century skills. If you are assessing collaboration, use a visual representation as evidence.

While arts integration in the core discipline alone is valuable, doing it within the context of a PBL project can make the integration seamless as well as valuable. PBL projects provide a space to meet multiple learning targets, whether those are core discipline standards or arts standards. Whether or not you are intending to assess arts standards on your PBL project, you can still find intentional instructional moments for using the arts, not only to value them, but also to create engagement for everyone. Your students can learn the arts as well as learning through the arts.

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Project-Based Learning as a Context for Arts Integration | Edutopia

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Project-based learning can provide an intentional and effective opportunity to integrate the arts across disciplines and curriculum. While valuable as a stand-alone discipline, arts education can be given further power and value when used in a PBL project as part of the core curriculum.

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Libby / Suttle

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What is Project-Based Learning?

Project-based learning hails from a tradition of pedagogy which asserts that students learn best by experiencing and solving real-world problems. According to researchers ( Barron & Darling-Hammond, 2008; Thomas, 2000), project-based learning essentially involves the following:

students learning knowledge to tackle realistic problems as they would be solved in the real world

increased student control over his or her learning

teachers serving as coaches and facilitators of inquiry and reflection

students (usually, but not always) working in pairs or groups

Teachers can create real-world problem-solving situations by designing questions and tasks that correspond to two different frameworks of inquiry-based teaching: Problem-based learning, which tackles a problem but doesn't necessarily include a student project, and project-based learning, which involves a complex task and some form of student presentation, and/or creating an actual product or artifact.

These inquiry-based teaching methods engage students in creating, questioning, and revising knowledge, while developing their skills in critical thinking, collaboration, communication, reasoning, synthesis, and resilience (Barron & Darling-Hammond, 2008). Although these methods of inquiry-based teaching differ slightly, for simplicity they're combined in these pages and referred to as project-based learning or PBL.

Learning Outcomes

Studies comparing learning outcomes for students taught via project-based learning versus traditional instruction show that when implemented well, PBL increases long-term retention of content, helps students perform as well as or better than traditional learners in high-stakes tests, improves problem-solving and collaboration skills, and improves students' attitudes towards learning ( Strobel & van Barneveld, 2009; Walker & Leary, 2009). PBL can also provide an effective model for whole-school reform ( National Clearinghouse for Comprehensive School Reform, 2004; Newmann & Wehlage, 1995).

A 2016 MDRC/Lucas Education Research literature review found that the design principles most commonly used in PBL align well with the goals of preparing students for deeper learning, higher-level thinking skills, and intra/interpersonal skills ( Condliffe et al., 2016).

Keys to Project-Based Learning Success

Researchers have identified several components that are critical to successful PBL (Barron & Darling-Hammond, 2008; Ertmer & Simons, 2005; Mergendoller & Thomas, 2005; Hung, 2008). While project-based learning has been criticized in the past for not being rigorous enough, the following features will greatly improve the chances of a project's success:

1. A realistic problem or project

aligns with students' skills and interests

requires learning clearly defined content and skills (e.g. using rubrics, or exemplars from local professionals and students)

2. Structured group work

groups of three to four students, with diverse skill levels and interdependent roles

team rewards

individual accountability, based on student growth

3. Multi-faceted assessment

multiple opportunities for students to receive feedback and revise their work (e.g., benchmarks, reflective activities)

multiple learning outcomes (e.g., problem-solving, content, collaboration)

presentations that encourage participation and signal social value (e.g. exhibitions, portfolios, performances, reports)

4. Participation in a professional learning network

collaborating and reflecting upon PBL experiences in the classroom with colleagues

courses in inquiry-based teaching methods

You will find much greater detail on these four key components, along with step-by-step instructions on how to put them into place, in the next section.
Continue to the next section of the PBL research review, Evidence-Based Components of Success.

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Project-Based Learning Research Review | Edutopia

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Studies have proven that when implemented well, project-based learning (PBL) can increase retention of content and improve students' attitudes towards learning, among other benefits. Edutopia's PBL research review explores the vast body of research on the topic and helps make sense of the results.

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Homework

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Learn more about Project Based Learning (PBL) at : http://bie.org/. High school students reflect on their experience of project based learning and describe how they not only learned a great deal of content, but also practiced the 21st century skills needed for personal and workplace success.

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Protocol

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Protocol

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An Introduction to Project-Based Learning

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Even MORE great resources added by our staff for you to use with your students!!

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Staff will do a Close read on this on training day

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This is our checklist to go through with our staff on Training Day - this is what WE need to make sure to follow and demonstrate with our own PBL Events.....

What is PBL?

Project Planning Forms

Developing an Idea

Writing a Driving Question

Tips from the Classroom

Planning & Preparing

Assessment in PBL

Engaging Project Launch

Tips from the Classroom

Managing the Project

Classroom Culture

Guiding Inquiry

Tips from the Classroom

Reflecting & Perfecting

Celebrating Success

The Last Day

Tips from the Classroom

Sharing Your Project

Critical Friends

Next Steps

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Video - Example Project "Middle School  Balloon Car"

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Video - Example Project "Middle School  Balloon Car"

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Learn more about Project Based Learning (PBL) at : http://bie.org/. Landry Middle School 8th grade students work on a project focused on cars that integrate science, language arts, math, and technology. This video was produced by Edutopia. Learn more at http://www.edutopia.org