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contributed by Mike Kaechele
Many facilitators of Project-Based Learning workshops begin by having participants envision the characteristics of their ideal graduate from their school or grade level (sometimes called their portrait of a graduate).

Educators individually answer the prompt, "What do you want your students to know and be able to do after their year with you?" Then the responses are collected and documented as a whole group.

Many of the characteristics listed are 'soft skills,' a term that I have come to despise. What I have realized is that the characteristics of an ideal graduate are actually social and emotional competencies. After running this protocol with teachers, I now follow it up by showing the CASEL competencies and have them make connections between their ideal graduate goals and the five CASEL categories and their subheadings.

This naturally leads to the question: if these SEL skills are high-priority goals as a school and they mostly fall outside of our content standards, then how do we teach, practice, and assess SEL competencies?

The next question is when do we, as classroom teachers, have time to do this in our already overwhelmingly busy schedule? My answer, of course, is project-based learning. PBL is the perfect structure to teach, practice, and assess SEL skills and content standards simultaneously. Let's consider a few of the ways that students can develop SEL skills while at the same time learning content through PBL.
Self-Awareness
A low-hanging fruit example is for students to explore their identity in a project centered on who they are or their role in the community. Adolescents love to explore and share who they are becoming. Identity work is an opportunity for students to discover the connections between seemingly different members of the classroom leading to cohesion and appreciation of diversity.

Over time in a PBL classroom, students develop confidence based on the quality of work that they share and the feedback that they receive through public presentations. Students view themselves as productive members, contributing to the community in powerful ways, ultimately leading to self-efficacy.

See also What Are The Different Types Of Project-Based Learning?
Self-Management
As students jump into inquiry, they will need to manage the 3 T's: their time, team, and tasks. Robust PBL puts students into situations where there will be healthy conflict between team members as they navigate solutions to the project's dilemmas.

This is an excellent opportunity to provide students with scaffolding and tools to manage deadlines, disagreements, and expectations from community partners. PBL teachers use the Need to Know process, group contracts, scrum boards, and other structures to teach students to address their own challenges rather than organizing everything for them.
Relationship Skills
Two of the most important skills that students need today are collaboration and communication. In PBL, students work not only with each other but often with experts from the community. They learn how to give and receive productive feedback to each other. Students present their findings in both written and spoken forms. Communication skills are practiced daily.

Additionally, students learn how to navigate personality challenges and differences of opinion in productive ways. Team members must divide up the work and then share their findings with each other to complete their project tasks. Collaboration is a key element of a well-functioning PBL team.

See also Examples Of Student Work In Project-Based Learning
Social Awareness
In PBL, students learn to work together with all different kinds of people, both in the classroom and in the community. Building on the class culture, when developed through identity work, students appreciate that difference can lead to creativity and a valuing of shared humanity rather than divisiveness.

Another skill that can be developed in PBL is empathy. Students must investigate the project challenges from multiple perspectives. They may interview or take on the role of various views in the community. Students appreciate the nuances of an issue by deeply considering how opposing voices have legitimate concerns and opinions.
Responsible Decision-Making
Problem-solving is at the heart of PBL. Student teams engage in Rich Inquiry to understand the project challenge. They empathetically consider all viewpoints in their proposed solutions. They reflect on potential expected and unexpected results. Students then make real decisions and monitor the results of them.

Students find that they can have a voice in their community and make a difference right now. This leads them back to Self-Awareness as students see themselves as powerful change-makers, building the knowledge and skills to help address and fix needs in their community.

Ultimately cultivating SEL skills in students is a major part of the 'final product' of project-based learning.

Of course, students do not come to our classrooms with these SEL skills fully developed, but the PBL framework gives the opportunity for teachers to teach, practice, and assess the competencies naturally throughout the day. PBL protocols and tools enable this process to be smooth and ongoing.

What educators quickly realize is that the SEL competencies listed in the ideal graduate protocol are not separate from the learning curriculum. Instead, they are the requisite skills that empower students to collaborate together in the inquiry process.

So rather than finding time to add SEL lessons, PBL educators discover that teaching SEL competencies throughout the year saves time in classroom management and leads students to deeper learning of their content standards. Most importantly, it helps create the next generation of leaders in this world.

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How Project-Based Learning Can Promote Social-Emotional Learning Skills

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contributed by Mike Kaechele Many facilitators of Project-Based Learning workshops begin by having participants envision the characteristics of their ideal graduate from their school or grade level (sometimes called their portrait of a graduate). Educators individually answer the prompt, "What do you want your students to know and be able to do after their year with you?"

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Ending Project-Based Learning Units With a Call to Action

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Generating a call to action for their audience can give students a sense of agency and have a big impact outside the classroom.

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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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Hand out from a QPAT (?) presentation. Great ideas to engage students in a service learning project

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By inspiring young students, we truly believe that education has the power to change lives and help them realize their full potential. Our Incubator 2.0 workshop was designed for teachers by teachers to foster student initiatives, projects and activities that help develop project-building skills right in your classroom!

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Incubator 2.0 - project development resources

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Incubator 2.0 - project development resources

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great list of resources including professionals, organizations, web links, and downloadable
documents that can assist you in taking your students to the next level of project development.

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Welcome to the resources page!

If you are here, your students have probably gone through the Incubator project-launching workshop and
are ready to launch their projects!

We have compiled a great list of resources including professionals, organizations, web links, and downloadable
documents that can assist you in taking your students to the next level of project development.

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If you are here, your students have probably gone through the Incubator project-launching workshop and are ready to launch their projects! We have compiled a great list of resources including professionals, organizations, web links, and downloadable documents that can assist you in taking your students to the next level of project development.

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Thinking at IDEO - Insight, innovation, & a healthy dose of play

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IDEO is a global design company. We believe a better future is for all of us to design. Explore thinking, Insight, innovation, & a healthy dose of play.

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Elementary - High School: Service Learning Project Examples

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Elementary - High School: Service Learning Project Examples

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Shelburne Farms' Sustainable Schools Project is a professional learning model designed to help schools use sustainability as an integrating context for curriculum, community partnerships, and campus practices. We orient our work around the belief that educators are leaders in creating change in schools and communities toward a healthier and more just world.

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Please click here if you are not redirected within a few seconds.

Images
Continuum of Voice: What it Means for the Learner - Make Learning ...

kathleenmcclaskey.com

Images may be subject to copyright.

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Please click here if you are not redirected within a few seconds. Images Continuum of Voice: What it Means for the Learner - Make Learning ... kathleenmcclaskey.com Images may be subject to copyright.

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A guide to explore entrepreneurship skills and investigate entrepreneurship in the community

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A guide to explore entrepreneurship skills and investigate entrepreneurship in the community

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EntrepreneurShip Investigation (ESI) is an exciting, interactive, and comprehensive curriculum project designed for youth, ages 10-19. ESI uses a variety of tools to help participants develop their entrepreneurial skills and find their business niche. Through exciting activities, case studies and current technology, participants are transformed into budding entrepreneurs!

After completing all levels of the curriculum, youth will have the skills and tools to start their own business, as well as have a completed business and marketing plan - the "road map" to the entrepreneur's success.

Finally, participants will learn that they can do all of these things without moving to a large city. The ESI curriculum provides an opportunity to reach young people; enabling them to explore opportunities they can create for themselves with the support of their community.

What makes ESI unique?

ESI is truly a pioneer in the field of youth entrepreneurship education for several reasons:

Developed with four audiences in mind:

4-H Clubs

Middle and high schools

Youth organizations

Community organizations

Written in partnership with organizations representative of each of the target audiences

Research-based

Uses current technology through web-based activities

Is accessible and affordable to anyone

Provides instructions and direction for leaders and teachers through the leader's guide

Aligned to school standards for easy classroom use

Latest News:

*NEW* ESI Featured in: 3 Ways to teach kids to be entrepreneurs
Biz Kidz camp focuses on budding youth entrepreneurs "
Camp makes entrepreneurs of middle schoolers "
More ESI Resources

Need assistance or have questions when ordering these materials? Contact:

Michael Riese
Extension Marketplace Coordinator
mriese3@unl.edu
402.472.9053

Have questions about the Curriculum? Contact:

Andy Larson
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Extension Educator
alarson20@unl.edu
402-472-9008

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EntrepreneurShip Investigation (ESI) is an exciting, interactive, and comprehensive curriculum project designed for youth, ages 10-19. ESI uses a variety of tools to help participants develop their entrepreneurial skills and find their business niche. Through exciting activities, case studies and current technology, participants are transformed into budding entrepreneurs!

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Features checklists, rubrics and scales!

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Features checklists, rubrics and scales!

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A tool to help teachers progress from a beginning to gold standard PBL teacher

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A tool to help teachers progress from a beginning to gold standard PBL teacher

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Project Based Teaching Rubric

This rubric describes beginning, developing, and Gold Standard levels for Project Based Teaching Practices for K-12 teachers and features detailed, concrete indicators that illustrate what it means to teach in a PBL environment.
Teachers and school leaders can use this rubric to reflect on their practice and plan for professional growth.

Log in to get this resource...

To view or download this resource, log in here.

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Project Based Teaching Rubric This rubric describes beginning, developing, and Gold Standard levels for Project Based Teaching Practices for K-12 teachers and features detailed, concrete indicators that illustrate what it means to teach in a PBL environment. Teachers and school leaders can use this rubric to reflect on their practice and plan for professional growth.

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Teacher collaboration across disciplines provides middle school students with work that reinforces learning and develops their research and writing skills.

Allison Shelley / American Education

Revision and organization are essential parts of schoolwork but can be challenging for both teachers and students. I teach English, and a few years ago, my social studies colleague and I developed a portfolio process that shows students the value of revision and the power of organization by integrating technology. By providing opportunities and specific directions to archive and harvest from their work, we helped students develop lasting habits of organization and revising.

Collaborating Requires New Planning and Grading Methods

This collaborative integrated project requires a different approach to planning and grading. Early in the school year, we met after school and created a timeline for the different phases of the project. Before each phase, we planned together to identify tasks like creating materials, presenting mini-lessons, and posting assignments. Then we worked independently on those elements, sharing them with each other as we drafted.

While students worked on each weeklong phase of the project, we worked with them in both their English class and social studies classes. Students had access to the rubrics we developed to assess research, content, analysis, and conventions for each paper. When papers were completed, we graded a few together with those rubrics to build consistency, and then we divided the rest of the grading in half.

We both used the resulting grades in our own class's gradebooks. Although it took about an hour to plan together for each phase, we found that the reduced grading saved us time. Besides that, we found that collaborating made our research and writing lessons simply better. Working simultaneously among our students allowed us to share observations with each other, reflect, and then modify instruction immediately or in the future to better differentiate and respond to student needs in content or skills.

The project spanned the school year as students developed their knowledge and skills. Over the years, my colleague and I reflected on what worked well and modified the project to fit our students' needs and the rhythms of the school year.

Create a Month-to-Month Timeline

Last year, the following timeline worked well for us.

In October, students chose from a list of people who were influential in American history from the early exploration of North America through the end of the American Civil War. Students studied that person intermittently throughout the school year. In both Social Studies and English class, students conducted research to build background knowledge about their person and then wrote three research questions about the person's influence. After more research, students wrote a paragraph in response to each question.

In November, we directed them through organization and revision. Students created a Portfolio folder in their Google Drive and moved their research notes and paragraphs to those folders. We provided mini-lessons about informative essays (thesis statements, introductions, conclusions, and transitions). Then students integrated their archived paragraphs into a thesis-driven essay of at least four paragraphs.

In January, organizing and revising continued. Students moved their informative essays into their Portfolio folders, then reflected and revised using their rubrics and our comments. After that, we used models of argumentative essays to show students how to mine their research notes, consider what their person might have done that was controversial, and finally write a research question about that issue.

Before doing additional research, students harvested information from their notes and essays that applied to their argumentative thesis statement. We encouraged them to reuse as much of their existing content as possible for their new essays and modeled this process for them-showing examples of informative and argumentative essays that shared content. Students were often surprised that they were allowed to reuse their existing content, thinking that was "cheating."

In February, we archived work and got creative. Students added their argumentative essays and notes into their Portfolio folders and reflected and revised again, using teacher feedback. In the next phase of the project, they wrote a historical fiction piece based on a true event from their person's life. They were encouraged to use any resources they had already found or developed. As they completed this work, students commented that they understood their people and their circumstances in a deeper, more personal way, saying these historical figures suddenly seemed like real people.

In April, we played with "horizontal history": Students researched what was occurring in the arts, science, or technology during their person's lifetime and how those events might have impacted or been impacted by their person. Students added paragraphs about their findings to their Portfolio folders.

In May, we hosted a history celebration to end the project. With a teacher-provided template and using their previous research, students created a Google Slides presentation highlighting the influence and lasting impact of the figure they had studied all year. Students presented their slides to their classmates, focusing both on their person and their own learning. Even during the presentations, they continued to make connections among the historical figures their classmates had studied.

This portfolio project deepened student learning in social studies and strengthened their skills in research and writing. Students became experts on their historical figures and realized how history is connected and reverberates across years and continents. Through scheduled, purposeful organizing and revising, students developed lasting learning practices.

The project continues to open our eyes to different content and styles of instruction. It operates like integrated, authentic professional development. As we work and reflect together during the project, our teaching repertoires evolve in ways that carry over into our instruction throughout the year. It's made us more curious, inspired, and open to change. When one of us finds an intriguing idea or piece of research, we share it and consider together how we can use it to improve learning in our classes.

What started as a way to help students develop writing, researching, and organizing skills has turned out to be an integral part of their learning in seventh grade and onward, with the unexpected benefit of being ongoing professional development for their teachers.

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A Month-to-Month Guide to Interdisciplinary Instruction

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Teacher collaboration across disciplines provides middle school students with work that reinforces learning and develops their research and writing skills. Allison Shelley / American Education Revision and organization are essential parts of schoolwork but can be challenging for both teachers and students.

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What's the opposite of scaffolding a lesson? Saying to students, "Read this nine-page science article, write a detailed essay on the topic it explores, and turn it in by Wednesday." Yikes! No safety net, no parachute-they're just left to their own devices.

Let's start by agreeing that scaffolding a lesson and differentiating instruction are two different things. Scaffolding is breaking up the learning into chunks and providing a tool, or structure, with each chunk. When scaffolding reading, for example, you might preview the text and discuss key vocabulary, or chunk the text and then read and discuss as you go. With differentiation, you might give a child an entirely different piece of text to read, or shorten the text or alter it, or modify the writing assignment that follows.

Simply put, scaffolding is what you do first with kids. For those students who are still struggling, you may need to differentiate by modifying an assignment or making accommodations like choosing a more accessible text or assigning an alternative project.

Scaffolding and differentiation do have something in common, though. In order to meet students where they are and appropriately scaffold a lesson or differentiate instruction, you have to know the individual and collective zone of proximal development (ZPD) of your learners. Education researcher Eileen Raymond says, "The ZPD is the distance between what children can do by themselves and the next learning that they can be helped to achieve with competent assistance."

So let's get to some scaffolding strategies you may or may not have tried yet. Or perhaps you've not used them in some time and need a gentle reminder on how awesome and helpful they can be when it comes to student learning.

1. Show and Tell

How many of us say that we learn best by seeing something rather than hearing about it? Modeling for students is a cornerstone of scaffolding, in my experience. Have you ever interrupted someone with "Just show me!" while they were in the middle of explaining how to do something? Every chance you have, show or demonstrate to students exactly what they are expected to do.

Try a fishbowl activity, where a small group in the center is circled by the rest of the class; the group in the middle, or fishbowl, engages in an activity, modeling how it's done for the larger group.

Always show students the outcome or product before they do it. If a teacher assigns a persuasive essay or inquiry-based science project, a model should be presented side-by-side with a criteria chart or rubric. You can guide students through each step of the process with the model of the finished product in hand.

Use think alouds, which will allow you to model your thought process as you read a text, solve a problem, or design a project. Remember that children's cognitive abilities are still in development, so opportunities for them to see developed, critical thinking are essential.

2. Tap Into Prior Knowledge

Ask students to share their own experiences, hunches, and ideas about the content or concept of study and have them relate and connect it to their own lives. Sometimes you may have to offer hints and suggestions, leading them to the connections a bit, but once they get there, they will grasp the content as their own.

Launching the learning in your classroom from the prior knowledge of your students and using this as a framework for future lessons is not only a scaffolding technique-many would agree it's just plain good teaching.

3. Give Time to Talk

All learners need time to process new ideas and information. They also need time to verbally make sense of and articulate their learning with the community of learners who are engaged in the same experience and journey. As we all know, structured discussions really work best with children regardless of their level of maturation.

If you aren't weaving in think-pair-share, turn-and-talk, triad teams, or some other structured talking time throughout the lesson, you should begin including this crucial strategy on a regular basis.

4. Pre-Teach Vocabulary

Sometimes referred to as front-loading vocabulary, this is a strategy that we teachers don't use enough. Many of us, myself included, are guilty of sending students all alone down the bumpy, muddy path known as Challenging Text-a road booby-trapped with difficult vocabulary. We send them ill-prepared and then are often shocked when they lose interest, create a ruckus, or fall asleep.

Pre-teaching vocabulary doesn't mean pulling a dozen words from the chapter and having kids look up definitions and write them out-we all know how that will go. Instead, introduce the words to kids in photos or in context with things they know and are interested in. Use analogies and metaphors, and invite students to create a symbol or drawing for each word. Give time for small-group and whole-class discussion of the words. Not until they've done all this should the dictionaries come out. And the dictionaries will be used only to compare with those definitions they've already discovered on their own.

With the dozen or so words front-loaded, students are ready, with you as their guide, to tackle that challenging text.

5. Use Visual Aids

Graphic organizers, pictures, and charts can all serve as scaffolding tools. Graphic organizers are very specific in that they help kids visually represent their ideas, organize information, and grasp concepts such as sequencing and cause and effect.

A graphic organizer shouldn't be The Product but rather a scaffolding tool that helps guide and shape students' thinking. Some students can dive right into discussing, or writing an essay, or synthesizing several different hypotheses, without using a graphic organizer of some sort, but many of our students benefit from using one with a difficult reading or challenging new information. Think of graphic organizers as training wheels-they're temporary and meant to be removed.

6. Pause, Ask Questions, Pause, Review

This is a wonderful way to check for understanding while students read a chunk of difficult text or learn a new concept or content. Here's how this strategy works: Share a new idea from discussion or the reading, then pause (providing think time), and then ask a strategic question, pausing again.

You need to design the questions ahead of time, making sure they're specific, guiding, and open-ended. (Even great questions fail if we don't give think time for responses, so hold out during that Uncomfortable Silence.) Keep kids engaged as active listeners by calling on someone to give the gist of what was just discussed, discovered, or questioned. If the class seems stuck on the questions, provide an opportunity for students to discuss in pairs.

With all the diverse learners in our classrooms, there is a strong need for teachers to learn and experiment with new scaffolding strategies. I often say to teachers I support that they have to slow down in order to go quickly. Scaffolding a lesson may, in fact, mean that it takes longer to teach, but the end product is of far greater quality and the experience much more rewarding for all involved.

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6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use With Your Students

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What's the opposite of scaffolding a lesson? Saying to students, "Read this nine-page science article, write a detailed essay on the topic it explores, and turn it in by Wednesday." Yikes! No safety net, no parachute-they're just left to their own devices. Let's start by agreeing that scaffolding a lesson and differentiating instruction are two different things.

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Community Mapping Tool: Walk around to know about assets and needs

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Community Mapping Tool: Walk around to know about assets and needs

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Here’s a simple definition for service learning with details and resources for planning a unit.

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A flexible, seven-unit program based on the real-world writing found in newspapers, from editorials and reviews to personal narratives and informational essays. 

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A flexible, seven-unit program based on the real-world writing found in newspapers, from editorials and reviews to personal narratives and informational essays. 

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A flexible, eight-unit program based on the real-world features found in newspapers, from editorials and reviews to personal narratives, profiles and podcasts.

"The Writer's Block," originally published in The New York Times Book Review in 2019. Credit... Grant Snider

What can the news, features, essays, interviews, photos, videos, podcasts and graphics in The New York Times teach your students about composing for a real audience? So much, we hope, that the units we detail below are just a beginning.

Our annual writing curriculum is both a road map for teachers and an invitation to students. For teachers, it organizes our offerings - lesson plans, writing prompts, mentor texts and student contests - into eight distinct units, each of which focuses on a different genre of writing that your students can find not just in The Times but in all kinds of real-world sources.

For students, it offers confirmation that they have something valuable to say, a wide range of choice in how to say it, and a global audience eager to listen. Promoting student voice has always been a pillar of our site, but in these extraordinary times we think it is critical. Through the opportunities for publication woven throughout each unit, we want to encourage students to go beyond simply consuming media to becoming creators themselves.

Though our offerings are aimed at middle and high school students, we know that they are used up and down levels and across subjects - from elementary school to college. So have a look, and see if you can find a way to include any of these opportunities in your curriculum this year, whether to help students document their lives, tell stories, express opinions, investigate ideas, interview fascinating people or analyze culture. We can't wait to hear what they have to say!

Writing prompts to help students try out related skills in a "low stakes" way.

We publish new writing prompts every school day, and have since 2009. You can find categorized collections of these prompts, or just scroll through to see the latest. Your students can respond on our site, using our public forums as a kind of "rehearsal space" for practicing voice and technique.

Daily opportunities to practice writing for an authentic audience.
If a student submits a comment on our site, it will be read by Times editors, who approve each one before it gets published. Submitting a comment also gives students an audience of fellow teenagers from around the world who might read and respond to their work. Each week, we call out our favorite comments and honor dozens of students by name in our Thursday " Current Events Conversation " feature.

Guided practice with mentor texts.

Each unit we publish features guided practice lessons, written directly to students, that help them observe, understand and practice the kinds of "craft moves" that make different genres of writing sing. From how to "show not tell" in narratives to how to express critical opinions, quote or paraphrase experts or craft scripts for podcasts, we have used the work of both Times journalists and the teenage winners of our contests to show students techniques they can emulate.

"Annotated by the Author" commentaries from Times writers - and teenagers.
As part of our Mentor Texts series, we've been asking Times journalists from desks across the newsroom to annotate their articles to let students in on their writing, research and editing processes, and we'll be adding more for each unit this year. Whether it's Science writer Nicholas St. Fleur on tiny tyrannosaurs, Opinion writer Aisha Harris on the cultural canon, or The Times's comics-industry reporter, George Gene Gustines, on comic books that celebrate pride, the idea is to demystify journalism for teenagers.

But in the 2020-21 school year, we also started asking teen winners of our contests to analyze the craft moves they made that led to successful work. Check out their ideas on how to choose a great topic, embed evidence, use metaphors and more.

A contest that can act as a culminating project.

Over the years we've heard from many teachers that our contests serve as final projects in their classes, and this curriculum came about in large part because we want to help teachers "plan backwards" to support those projects.

All contest entries are considered by experts, whether Times journalists, outside educators from partner organizations, or professional practitioners in a related field. Winning means being published on our site, and, perhaps, in the print edition of The New York Times.

Additional support for teachers.
For each of the eight units in this curriculum, we offer either on-demand or live webinars that feature Learning Network editors as well as teachers who use The Times in their classrooms. Our webinars introduce participants to our many resources and provide practical how-to's on how to use our prompts, mentor texts and contests in the classroom.

We also invite teachers to join our P.L.C. on teaching writing with The Times, where educators can share resources, strategies and inspiration about teaching with these units.

Below are the eight units we will offer in the 2021-22 school year.

September-October

This unit was first developed in 2020 to acknowledge the profound effects of that tumultuous year on a generation of teenagers. Our open-ended invitation to "show us - in words or images, video or audio - how the events of this year have affected you" resulted in a deluge of extraordinary submissions, some of which were featured online and in a special print section.

Now, as schools reopen, teachers have asked us to run the unit and related contest again, this time to acknowledge a new set of issues and concerns. We all hope to return to something that looks like "normal life" soon, yet we will all return changed. How can we make space for students to process their experiences, but be mindful that these months have been traumatic for many? How could a project like this one help bring school communities together? And how might teaching students to document and reflect give them skills they can use, in and out of the classroom, for the rest of their lives?

This time we are asking, Who are you now? How do you think the last year and a half has shaped - and will continue to shape - you and your generation? What can you show or tell us that might help explain what it's like to be a teenager in 2021? In answering these questions, students can choose any aspect, big or small, of what it means to be growing up in this moment, and send us work in almost any medium they can upload digitally.

Writing will be used as a tool throughout the unit to help students brainstorm, compose and edit, and all students will be asked to craft written artist's statements to accompany their submissions. (Contest dates: Sept. 15-Oct. 27, 2021)

October-November

While The Times is known for its award-winning journalism, the paper also has a robust tradition of publishing personal essays on topics like love, family, life on campus and navigating anxiety. And on our site, our daily writing prompts have long invited students to tell us their stories, too. Our 2019 collection of 550 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing is a good place to start, though we add more every week during the school year.

In this unit we draw on many of these resources, plus some of the 1,000-plus personal essays from the Magazine's long-running Lives column, to help students find their own "short, memorable stories" and tell them well. Our related mentor-text lessons can help them practice skills like writing with voice, using details to show rather than tell, structuring a narrative arc, dropping the reader into a scene and more.

As part of our "Annotated by the Author" series, we also spotlight the work of three teenage winners of this contest. We invite students to use their advice, on keeping conclusions open-ended and using metaphors, for example, as inspiration and to submit their own stories to our Third Annual Personal Narrative Writing Contest. (Dates: Oct. 13-Nov. 17, 2021)

November-DECEMBER

Book reports and literary essays have long been staples of language arts classrooms, but this unit encourages students to learn how to critique art in other genres as well. As we point out, a cultural review is a form of argumentative essay. Your class might be writing about Lizzo or " Looking for Alaska," but they still have to make claims and support them with evidence. And, just as they must in a literature essay, they have to read (or watch, or listen to) a work closely; analyze it and understand its context; and explain what is meaningful and interesting about it.

In our Mentor Texts series, we feature the work of Times movie, restaurant, book and music critics to help students understand the elements of a successful review. In these and other guided lessons, we also spotlight the work of teenage contest winners from previous years.

As a culminating project, we invite students to send us their own reviews of a book, movie, restaurant, album, theatrical production, video game, dance performance, TV show, art exhibition or any other kind of work The Times critiques. (Contest Dates: Nov. 10-Dec. 15, 2021)

January-February

How can focusing on one form of journalistic writing teach students cross-curricular skills like researching, asking effective questions, listening, note-taking, fact-checking, storytelling, connecting with local experts, and, of course, writing and editing to compose with clarity, voice and style?

We hope to show students how to do all of this in our related writing unit. First, we will introduce them to Times profiles across sections, inviting them to read pieces about people who range from the world famous to the locally distinctive.Then, our curriculum will help walk students through the steps of choosing someone they are interested in to research, interview, photograph and introduce in their own short profile pieces.

Stay tuned for more information. Contest Dates: Jan. 5-Feb. 16, 2022

February-March

Informational writing is the style of writing that dominates The New York Times as well as any other traditional newspaper you might read, and in this unit we hope to show students that it can be every bit as engaging and compelling to read and to write as other genres.

Via thousands of articles a month - from front-page reporting on politics to news about athletes in Sports, deep data dives in The Upshot, recipes in Cooking, advice columns in Style and long-form investigative pieces in the magazine - Times journalists find ways to experiment with the genre to intrigue and inform their audiences.

This unit invites students to take any STEM-related discovery, process or idea that interests them and write about it in a way that makes it understandable and engaging for a general audience - but all the skills we teach along the way can work for any kind of informational writing. Via our Mentor Texts series, we show them how to hook the reader from the start, use quotes and research, explain why a topic matters and more.

At the end of the unit, we invite teenagers to submit their own writing to our Third Annual STEM Writing Contest to show us what they've learned.(Dates: Feb. 2-March 9, 2022)

March-April

The demand for evidence-based argumentative writing is now woven into school assignments across the curriculum and grade levels, and you couldn't ask for better real-world examples than what you can find in The Times Opinion section.

This unit is, like our others, supported with writing prompts, mentor-text lesson plans, webinars and more. But thanks to the fact that we've run the related contest for eight years now, we also have several lesson plans and videos that focus on winning teenage work, on topics as varied as policing, anti-Asian racism, toxicity in gaming, saving the snow day, the "life-changing magic" of being messy and how "Animal Crossing" might save Gen Z.

At a time when media literacy is more important than ever, we hope that our annual Student Editorial Contest can encourage students to broaden their information diets with a range of reliable sources, and learn from a variety of perspectives on their chosen issue. (Dates: March 2-April 13, 2022)

April-May

Most of our writing units so far have all asked for essays of one kind or another, but this spring contest invites students to do what journalists at The Times do every day: make multimedia to tell a story, investigate an issue or communicate a concept.

Our annual podcast contest gives students the freedom to talk about anything they want in any form they like. In the past we've had winners who've done personal narratives, local travelogues, opinion pieces, interviews with community members, investigative journalism and descriptions of scientific discoveries.

As with all our other units, we have supported this contest with excellent examples from The Times and around the web, as well as with mentor texts by teenagers that offer guided practice in understanding elements and techniques. (Contest Dates: April 6-May 18, 2022)

At a time when teachers are looking for ways to offer students more "voice and choice," this unit, based on our annual summer contest, offers both.

Every year since 2010 we have invited teenagers around the world to add The New York Times to their summer reading lists and, so far, over 70,000 have. Every week for 10 weeks, we ask participants to choose something in The Times that has sparked their interest, then tell us why. At the end of the week, judges from the Times newsroom pick favorite responses, and we publish them on our site.

Our related Mentor Text feature spotlights the work of past winners, explains why newsroom judges admired their thinking, and provides four steps to helping any student write better reader-responses.

Because this is one of our most open-ended contests - students can choose whatever they like, and react however they like - it has proved over the years to be a useful place for young writers to hone their voices, practice skills and take risks. Join us! (Contest Dates: June 10-Aug. 19, 2022)

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Teach Writing With The New York Times: Our 2021-22 Curriculum

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A flexible, eight-unit program based on the real-world features found in newspapers, from editorials and reviews to personal narratives, profiles and podcasts. What can the news, features, essays, interviews, photos, videos, podcasts and graphics in The New York Times teach your students about composing for a real audience?

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Find tips on how to collect real-world problems for your students and a framework to start and monitor their projects.

Frances Roberts / Alamy Stock Photo

"Why should I learn this?" "When am I ever going to use it?" "How is this information important for my life?" Students have asked these questions year after year in my classroom. They have longed to see how our content connects to the world.

One day I received an email from the assistant superintendent saying that the proposed school budget was in danger of being rejected and he needed someone to advocate for student funding and security improvements. My eyes fell on the empty desks in front of me. What if I gave this local problem to my students? Using persuasive language to encourage others to adopt a budget falls squarely within my academic curriculum. By tackling this challenge, students might use content to impact the world around them. The students created a public service announcement and spoke at the county budget hearing. Months later, the budget passed, and for the first time in years, it was almost fully funded.

The budget project was the beginning of the Community Problems Bank. Helping students address community challenges by using our content merges the best aspects of service learning, project-based learning, and growth mindset. Because every problem in life requires different tools to solve, the process is useful for all disciplines.

Collecting Possible Problems

First, I determine which real-world challenges are suitable for a bank. I collect problems for the bank by scanning the local news and reaching out to local government agencies, nonprofits, and other local businesses.

I reach out in person and give the community organization background information on my class and time frames for our projects. I ask only one question: What problems do you see in the local community or in your specific organization? Some organizations immediately share problems, a few politely refuse, and a few ask to meet my students. Whether they add to the bank or not, every person has asked to be listed as a resource for students.

Once there are a few dozen problems, I introduce students to the list. Students are free to give input or add problems they feel are missing.

Organizing the Problems Bank

To begin creating a Community Problems Bank, I enter all of the problems into the first column of a spreadsheet. Putting newer problems at the top allows students to quickly see new additions. You can curate a list that fits your grade level and students.

The next three columns are labeled "Standards/Initiatives," "Explore," and "Coaching/Resources to Help." The Standards/Initiatives column is a space to add in the specific class content or school initiatives that will benefit the learner while solving the problem. In the Explore column, I add the names of students working on each project, as well as a link to their project planning sheet. As work progresses, students and I add important information, questions, resources, and failures in the Coaching/Resources to Help column.

To pair problems with standards, determine which curricular knowledge or skills your students may need to tackle each challenge.

Using the List

You can use the problems bank to teach a concept to the entire class, or you might allow students to form groups and select their own standard-aligned problems to try to solve during or after a unit of study.

No matter what method you choose, give students structure when they tackle big problems. A project planning sheet will guide students through the design thinking process to generate solutions.

Once weekly, I hold three-to-four-minute project check-ins during which students share updates, and I give coaching, guidance, and feedback. Check-ins are a great time to do mini lessons and look for indications of content mastery or needs.

My students also reflect weekly on their progress toward solving or "moving" the problem, as well as the associated standards. These reflections provide formative insight and allow me to create whole-group lesson plans as well as individual action plans to help students master content.

Taking on real-world problems comes with the risk of failure. There is no answer key to the problems in the bank, so students have to learn and be coached through failure. A group of students in my class wanted to address Alzheimer's disease. The standard paired with the problem was developing interview skills. They talked to family members, researched the disease, and learned about effects from a local care home. They had mastered the standards associated with interviewing for my content, but they were unable to come up with a solution for the disease.

I coached them and pushed them to look for a new solution. It took them a few days, but they decided to stop focusing on the disease and to find a way to help the families of people with Alzheimer's. They recorded the memories of Alzheimer's patients at a local facility and gave the recorded memories to the patients' families. The students were upset because they hadn't solved the big issue, but they didn't let failure stop them from reframing the problem and finding a solution. Along the way, they learned perseverance, determination, and compassion for others.

Over the years, my students have failed and succeeded in solving community problems. No matter whether they succeed or fail, each class walks away with a new respect for learning. "This class has taught me that the more we learn, the more prepared we are to tackle the problems around us," a former student said. "We may not solve all the problems today, but one day with more knowledge and skills we might."

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Find tips on how to collect real-world problems for your students and a framework to start and monitor their projects. Frances Roberts / Alamy Stock Photo "Why should I learn this?" "When am I ever going to use it?" "How is this information important for my life?"

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of videos, planning forms, rubrics, blogs, and more. Whether you want to learn about PBL, or find classroom resources, our materials will support your journey.

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Thomas Widd and Religious Conflict

While Thomas Widd was committed to the betterment of deaf people, he arrived in Quebec in the late 1860s, at a time when all institutions (schools, hospitals, charities) were defined as either Catholic or Protestant. There were no "neutral" institutions. Accordingly, he called his school the Protestant Institution for Deaf-Mutes, and in the years immediately preceding the school's opening in 1870, he was involved in a controversy in the local press over the potential dangers to deaf Protestant children if they had to attend Catholic schools. This gallery of documents shows how Widd was not only part of the deaf community, but also engaged with debates in the larger society. In these documents, The Montreal Witness was a Protestant newspaper, while the True Witness was a Catholic one.

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While Thomas Widd was committed to the betterment of deaf people, he arrived in Quebec in the late 1860s, at a time when all institutions (schools, hospitals, charities) were defined as either Catholic or Protestant. There were no "neutral" institutions.

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WHY should I plan for reflection?

By definition, reflection is serious thought and consideration about an idea or experience. In PBL classrooms, I've found the benefits of reflection are astounding! Students experience:

deepened learning, via

sharpened analytical skills and

integration of new knowledge with previous knowledge & experiences

Students who are able to explain why they are completing a task or why the activity is important to their final product are one step closer to the integration of new knowledge.

Upon WHAT should students reflect?

Reflection should be ongoing and throughout the project, not solely at the end once the project is complete. As project designers, we can anticipate many of students' "Need to Know" questions for the project, to inform our thinking about what students can reflect on. To anticipate the "Need to Know" questions consider:

What are the necessary questions students will need to pose?

Which content-based questions do you expect, knowing your students' skill sets?

What product-based questions may arise?

Let's look at how some BIE project planning forms can help. Planning with the end in mind is easier when we have already considered what we expect students to experience. The anticipated "Need to Know" questions:

stem from the Key Knowledge listed on the Project Assessment Map we create;

help us choose an effective question focus when using the Question Formulation Technique to spark inquiry as we gather students' questions; and

help us select standard-based checkpoints and learning targets

For example, take a look at the Medical Interns Project Assessment Map (on the BIE website here) below:

The Key Knowledge, Understanding, and Success Skill listed for the final product are informational writing, circulatory system, and critical thinking. These are the three main areas where we'd anticipate students' content-based and product-based questions to arise and thereby drive instruction. Herein lie the key learning experiences upon which we can plan for students to reflect. Look closely and we can notice that the key knowledge about the circulatory system is going to be formatively assessed via reflective journal writing.

Let's look deeper into the Medical Interns project design forms to explore this question of planning for student reflection.

HOW will students reflect?

Student reflection can occur both informally and overtly throughout a project. We can integrate reflection into our design:

On page 2 of the Project Design: Overview form in the Reflections Methods section, individuals, teams, and whole classes can perform any of the following strategies to reflect on the key learning experiences:

Journal/Learning Logs

Whole Class Discussions (e.g. Harkness Discussions & Socratic Seminars)

Surveys

Focus Groups

Fishbowl Discussions

On the Project Design: Student Learning Guide form, Checkpoints/Formative Assessments are important for reflection planning. For each Learning Outcome/Target on the Student Learning Guide, we can strategically scaffold the final products' anchor learning targets by associating each checkpoint with a reflection strategy based on the Key Understanding or Skill.

For example, in the Medical Interns project (above sample is also here), for the Learning Outcome/Target "I can write a report to inform a patient of his/her diagnosis," reflective journal writing is incorporated as a Checkpoint/Formative Assessment method.

We can also build the culture of our classrooms to incorporate strategies such as the Think-Pair-Share strategy. Think-Pair-Share can be employed to "breadcrumb" students through the reflection process. When given a problem or prompt, students can individually think on their reflection, pair with a partner to discuss their responses and then share aloud to the class where their reflections are similar or where they diverge.

John Dewey said it best: "...we learn from reflecting on experience." Creating a learning experience is all the more purposeful with strategic reflection. Happy Designing!

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PBL in the Mirror: Planning for Student Reflection

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By definition, reflection is serious thought and consideration about an idea or experience. In PBL classrooms, I've found the benefits of reflection are astounding! Students experience: deepened learning, via sharpened analytical skills and integration of new knowledge with previous knowledge & experiences Students who are able to explain why they are completing a task or why the activity is important to their final product are one step closer to the integration of new knowledge.

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Peek behind the curtain at the story behind amazing projects: Better World Projects here Created in collaboration with Harvard Graduate School of Education, Models of Excellence is an open resource featuring exemplary pre-K to 12th-grade student work. Learn more about why student work matters.

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Peek behind the curtain at the story behind amazing projects: Better World Projects here Created in collaboration with Harvard Graduate School of Education, Models of Excellence is an open resource featuring exemplary pre-K to 12th-grade student work. Learn more about why student work matters.

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Subscribe to the Creative Classroom Podcast The Creative Classroom podcast is consistently ranked in the top 10 K-12 podcasts on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe below to get equipped and inspired to boost creativity and spark innovation in

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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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Start planning your next PBL project with confidence, using this step-by-step form as your guide.

Why is a project planner important?

When you're ready to design a project for your classroom, it's helpful to have a framework to capture your ideas and organize your plans.

A Gold Standard PBL unit has a lot of pieces to plan: your goals for student learning, entry event and driving question, major product(s) students will create, daily lessons, and more.

It's also a good idea for a school to use a common framework for PBL unit planning, so teachers can collaborate using the same language, and share projects more easily with colleagues.

So we've created a Project Planner to support you in the planning process.

The Project Planner has five parts:

1. Project Overview: Key features of your project

2. Learning Goals: Standards, success skills, literacy skills, rubrics

3. Project Milestones: Significant steps in the project

4. Project Calendar: Day-by-day activities in the project

5. Lesson Planner: Supporting resource with guidance on planning daily lessons to meet the needs of all learners

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Start planning your next PBL project with confidence, using this step-by-step form as your guide. Why is a project planner important? When you're ready to design a project for your classroom, it's helpful to have a framework to capture your ideas and organize your plans.

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It's been said that necessity is the mother of invention.

So many educators who have not previously thought about virtual learning in their classrooms or schools are now confronted with that possibility because of the COVID-19 virus crisis. Working remotely can be a difficult enough transition in any case, but doing it in a Project Based Learning environment is particularly challenging, with the level of student collaboration, targeted support, and community interaction inherent to Gold Standard PBL.

How can a PBL teacher keep students connected and engaged, so a project is just as powerful as what would be expected in their face-to-face classroom? This post is intended to provide some resources that can help you answer this question.

One thing to point out up front is that just like a PBL classroom is different from a traditional classroom, virtual PBL will look different from a typical online course. PBL can't effectively be reduced to a scripted process of reading text, watching videos, completing virtual worksheets, and taking multiple choice quizzes. The same level of inquiry, questioning, critique, reflection, scaffolding, and collaboration will still be there, albeit in a remote learning setting.

The move to virtual learning is enhanced by the wide availability of technology that would have made such a transition much more difficult only a few years ago.

The edtech market has exploded with new products in recent years, as has technology in general, as more and more companies move to remote, home office arrangements. This reality is certainly something that PBL teachers can leverage, given the fact that many projects intentionally blur the lines between traditional learning and the type of work that's happening in our communities.

Whole class, project team, or one-on-one meetings can now be done with Zoom, including relatively short meetings with small teams via their free option) or with Whereby. Mural and Explain Everything are virtual white boards that can be used not only for targeted instruction, but are also fantastic for remote brainstorming and problem ideation. Trello is an example of a tool that helps individual students keep track of project action items and share them with their project teams - a really valuable skill students need to master regardless of context. Teachers can also take advantage of Nearpod as a way to create customized online instruction that targets the individual needs of each student and accommodates the norm of a PBL classroom to provide just-in-time instruction to individual or groups of students.

Also see this article about how another member of our National Faculty, Lacrecia Terrance, uses tech to support struggling students.

PBL teachers can also adapt other general and edtech-specific tools to each of the elements of Gold Standard PBL.

Here are just a few examples that PBLWorks' National Faculty member Honor Moorman included in her recent presentation at the Texas Computer Education Association Convention, Leveraging Tech to Create Gold-Standard PBL Experiences for Students:

Challenging Problem or Question: Parlay Ideas, Advanced Google Search

Sustained Inquiry: Insert Learning and Webjets

Authenticity: SketchUp/AutoCAD and Nepris

Student Voice & Choice: Flipgrid, Padlet, Voicethread, Glogster, ThingLink, and backchannels such as YoTeach.

Reflection/Critique & Revision: SeeSaw, Write About, and Kaizena.

Public Product: Canva, Adobe Express, and Soundtrap

The above provides a small sampling of possible tech tools that can help the transition to a virtual PBL environment. But considering the vast array of choices in this space, it's also a good idea to work with your IT support staff and do your own research via platforms such as EdSurge, Common Sense Education, and LearnPlatform.

The coronavirus outbreak has likely created a sense of urgency in your school or district to begin making virtual learning plans.

Take advantage of this by prototyping aspects of a virtual PBL environment with students by doing mock virtual meetings and test-driving new technology. This allows you to scaffold the process with students while you still have the capability to adjust or supplement them with live follow up and one-on-one coaching.

You should also be intentional and proactive in thinking about how the normal routines in your PBL classroom will be replicated in a virtual environment. Use this time as an opportunity to get student input regarding clear expectations, protocols, and norms everyone will follow if the decision is made to go virtual. Items to consider might include frequency and agendas for team meetings, ways students can upload work and demonstrate mastery of learning targets, sign-ups for one-on-one check-ins with students, and when and how whole-class instruction will occur.

Just because you are not in the same physical classroom as your students doesn't mean that you can't still nurture individual and team relationships. Online tools such as Mural allow you to do virtual team building exercises and warmups. Also make a point to check in frequently with students who may be unsure of how to continue their project work, but also will likely be worried and somewhat disconnected in this new arrangement. Provide a two-way street of frequent communication, including virtual "office hours" where students can reach out individually or via a Zoom call to address needs they may have.

Remote learning does raise issues of access and equity.

Most of what has been discussed so far assumes reasonable internet or mobile phone access, which may not be the case for all your students. Network with your peers who have flipped classroom experience, including your local and virtual PLNs, to see what resources and approaches you can adapt to a remote PBL environment. Our friends at TeachThought also have some excellent tips on how to proactively address and manage equity of access in these situations. And here's a free Digital Equity Toolkit from the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN).

Kay Sturm, another PBLWorks National Faculty member, suggests using a tiered approach, given that schools will have different levels of access to technology, both at home and on campus. Canvas your students now to see what access options they have and then develop protocols and packages appropriate to each.

Even the "no tech" option - especially in a PBL environment - should be more than just a packet of worksheets! If your students don't have computers or internet access away from school, you could:

Offer specific types of activities that are engaging, hands-on and contribute to the larger project goals, such as collecting data, or a daily "get outside" mindfulness observation routine.

Provide students with a package of sample articles, data sets, or open-ended problems (with graphic organizers or project checklists) that they could use with the design process to build empathy, define the problem, and ideate solutions.

Ask students to prototype designs for project products with whatever materials they had available, or write proposals for solutions to problems.

Have students interview family members or neighbors, or make phone calls to distant people, to get additional expertise and feedback for prototyping or proposal-writing.

Assign art-based projects, or project-related books they can read at home.

Ask students to do an individual project, where they pick a topic of interest and explore it on their own (e.g., family history; the physics of baseball or skateboarding; the science of cooking) then create videos, podcasts, or a written product.

There is a small silver lining.

As research has shown us and design thinking facilitators like to remind us, constraints often lead to greater creativity. This serious global crisis has made it a priority for educators to develop concrete plans for high-quality virtual learning environments. And while Project Based Learning brings its own unique challenges, we do not need to revert to approaches that are not conducive to PBL teaching and learning. Take the view that this renewed emphasis on virtual learning is an opportunity to further align PBL to the realities of the future of work.
Other online learning examples & resources specific to the coronavirus outbreak: Additional PBLWorks blog posts about tech tools for PBL: PowerPoint presentations on remote teaching:

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School Closures? Using PBL in Remote Learning

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So many educators who have not previously thought about virtual learning in their classrooms or schools are now confronted with that possibility because of the COVID-19 virus crisis. Working remotely can be a difficult enough transition in any case, but doing it in a Project Based Learning environment is particularly challenging, with the level of student collaboration, targeted support, and community interaction inherent to Gold Standard PBL.

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How to Make Sure That Project-based Learning is Applied Well in Schools

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How to Make Sure That Project-based Learning is Applied Well in Schools

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To get at the depth of purpose and engagement necessary for learners today, there's work to do in PBL. The way out of the box is to encourage teachers to let go, take risks, live with uncertain outcomes-and design projects that matter. Enter the world as it is at this time-as a place of wide open spaces and immense needs. Invent and deliver projects that retain the full power of PBL and, in the process, push education forward to meet its mid-century destiny. How? Here are five big ideas:

See PBL as a mind shift, not a method. PBL offers a great structure for problem solving - it's a Monday morning solution. But the process of PBL, when done well, takes students deep. It can awaken as well as teach, help students dig into their psyche a bit, and actually mature young people in ways that problem based and front of the room instruction can't touch. PBL gives us a path forward out of the industrial past and into a world that requires a deep set of attitudes and skills necessary for navigation. But since the future is not fully unveiled, PBL teachers should be mission-driven, fueled by a sense of urgency and contribution.

Put challenge first. Obviously, standards need to be addressed. That's why starting a project plan by listing standards to be taught has become conventional advice from today's PBL top trainers. I disagree. Teachers see standards as a helpful guide and organizer, but orienting to standards alone is dispiriting; they are not the grail we seek.

Once the human mind sees a list, it's in check-off mode. Instead, start with a challenge that excites students. Daydream. Muse. Envision students' faces at the end of the project. Once the vision and intention is fixed-and a teacher feels the challenge-that's the time to return to linear mode: What standards will students learn, and how?

Get a lot better at Driving Questions. In general, PBL experts do not show teachers how to write great Driving Questions, nor is it well understood that the question or the problem is the high leverage key to deeper learning. For example, a typical question such as 'How can we prevent climate change?' encourages in-the-box thinking and a laundry list of suggestions drawn from the internet. That's more coverage. Instead, 'How can we, as 7 th graders facing severe climate issues in adulthood, use data to effectively lobby our community about the dangers of climate change?' forces students to grapple with core, authentic issues around the topic of climate change: Who do we believe? Why? How do we educate ourselves? How do we change attitudes?

Turn skills and content into one conversation. PBL advocates assure doubters that PBL teaches academic content. And it does-but in depth, not quantity. It's time to own that little sidestep. Also, 21 st century skills still feel the tailwind from the past. Generally, skills are taught as an add-on to content. The goal is to define a third way that paints a fully realized, blended picture of knowing and doing. PBL offers a learning experience that seamlessly blends core concepts, key facts, reflective thinking, careful judgment, and skillful application of knowledge-all of which coalesce into a solution to a meaningful problem. In life and learning, skills and strengths now assume a role equal to or paramount to content acquisition. Identifying and verbalizing that new definition of rigor is central to overcoming the argument about lack of 'wisdom.'

Coach for openness. A skillful PBL teacher does much more than teach, and PBL offers amazing opportunities to go for the real gold in education: Helping young people become open, curious adults. A meaningful project taps into a student's-and a teacher's-desire to engage in purposeful work. From shared purpose flows a natural, engaged, caring, relationship where feeling, emotion, and respectful conversation become a central tool for opening the mind to intellectual work and a desire for further inquiry. The brain never works in isolation from the body and the heart, and when the whole child enrolls in the process of learning, the sense of satisfaction translates into a permanent attitude. There's a shift, most likely in the neuronal pathways, but also in the less understood realms of brightness, a forward-facing personality, and the desire for wisdom. Simply put, good coaching can push the permanent learning button.

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How to Make Sure That Project-based Learning is Applied Well in Schools | KQED

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To get at the depth of purpose and engagement necessary for learners today, there's work to do in PBL. The way out of the box is to encourage teachers to let go, take risks, live with uncertain outcomes-and design projects that matter.

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The Pedagogical and educational approach in conscious entrepreneurship (PEACE) is an integrated approach: These objectives foster personal development as well as societal development.

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C'est avec bonheur et beaucoup d'humilité que nous acceptons d'agir en tant qu'Ambassadrices-monde pour l'éducation entrepreneuriale consciente chez les jeunes. Nous voyons par ce rôle une occasion de contribuer à la mission que porte Idée éducation entrepreneuriale, celle de favoriser la réussite à tous les âges du parcours scolaire grâce à une école transformée et inclusive.

Nous sommes persuadées que la diversité des cultures humaines et des différences individuelles est une richesse avantageuse pour les communautés. Apprendre à s'entreprendre, à entreprendre et à innover à l'école, c'est donner à chaque enfant des opportunités de vivre des expériences significatives et authentiques. C'est leur apprendre à être fiers d'eux, à s'affirmer et à prendre conscience de leur potentiel. Nous sommes d'avis que chacune d'elles et chacun d'eux peut devenir un acteur de changement positif dans son environnement de vie.

Faire émerger une culture de l'entrepreneuriat conscient pour toutes et tous nous apparait une solution porteuse pour de nombreux enjeux auxquelles font face les organisations, les entreprises et les sociétés d'ici et d'ailleurs. Nos jeunes ont besoin de développer leur confiance en soi, leur sens de l'initiative et leur esprit d'équipe afin de prospérer dans un monde en constante évolution. Ils ont également besoin d'aiguiser leur créativité, leur sens de l'innovation et leur conscience sociale dans la perspective d'œuvrer pour une société plus équitable et plus juste. Nous avons la responsabilité de faire naître une culture de femmes et d'hommes engagés pour le développement durable de leur communauté. Les jeunes, à tous les stades de leur développement, ont besoin d'espaces éducatifs pour éveiller et faire grandir leur rêve, et pour imaginer comment ils peuvent les concrétiser. L'École communautaire entrepreneuriale est en ce sens une réponse formidable.

En tant qu'Ambassadrices-monde, nous souhaitons encourager les jeunes de tous les âges à se faire confiance, à choisir des projets qui les passionnent et à oser prendre leur place. Sachez que rien n'est impossible lorsqu'on s'investit avec cœur dans quelque chose que l'on aime.

Nous sommes convaincues de l'importance d'une Éducation moderne et adaptée au 21 e siècle, une École empreinte d'humanisme dans laquelle chacune et chacun se sent bien et où il lui est permis d'exploiter et de mettre en valeur ses talents et ses forces.

Ève et Marie Denux
Présidentes au Groupe Denux

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C'est avec bonheur et beaucoup d'humilité que nous acceptons d'agir en tant qu'Ambassadrices-monde pour l'éducation entrepreneuriale consciente chez les jeunes. Nous voyons par ce rôle une occasion de contribuer à la mission que porte Idée éducation entrepreneuriale, celle de favoriser la réussite à tous les âges du parcours scolaire grâce à une école transformée et inclusive.