# data[].attributes.body
How can we welcome this year's storyteller to our school library?

Every year we organise a Cultural Week in our school. The school library invites a writer or an illustrator to present his work. The students of different grades plan all kinds of activities to surprise the guest.

I teach Portuguese to 12 year old students and I want them to develop readind/writing skills and also creativity.

# data[].attributes.body
As a teacher I organize peer assessment activities in very specific moments: oral presentations and team or pair work.
With older students, I think I can extend this practice as a way to enrich their work.

# data[].attributes.body
I have to assess my students progress in 5 competences. Every 3 months, by law, a grade has to be produced.
I have the freedom to create the number and type of evaluation instruments that I judge appropriate.
Colleagues collaborate planning learning activities, projects and tests.
In my country, at the end of grades 9 and 12 the students have to pass a national exam with a strong emphasis on information and teachers have to promote intensive training activities.

# data[].attributes.body
PBL is not used more widely in our education systems because we focus on results (exams) rather than processes. It's not easy to achieve what is outlined in the video because, as teachers, we can feel insecure and lost. It's a major change in our role as educators.

# data[].attributes.body
I commonly use role playing, group/pair work and, when I have access to the tech lab, I use research.

Most of the time, to begin a lesson, I ask lots of questions to explore what the students already know. I also spend time giving instructions and working with special needs students.

Most of the time students interact with me, answering and asking questions and they do group/pair work.

I already use some of the PBL approaches mentioned in the video, particularly collaboration and communication (oral presentations).

It's not always easy to get all the group members working with the same commitement therefore I sometimes have a hard time evaluating each contribuition fairly.

One of my portuguese language classes is quite small (22 students), so I could probably teach the subject "advertisement" experimenting with PBL.

# data[].attributes.body
Recently my students organized a sports tournament. They had to organize an advertisement  campaign: one group did a video, another one did a poster. One group was in charge of logistics and another one recruited, among the older students, the referees. They were motivated and, at the end, they felt empowered.

# data[].attributes.body
Building a student-driven environment requires a great deal of planning. The teacher needs to be creative and provide challenging questions. At the same time he needs to provide the right level of support and give quality feedback to each student. I think this is a very hard task to achieve because we can easily fall out of balance and give too much or too little scaffolding.

# data[].attributes.body
Unfortunately I'm not a persistent person and I tend to give up in many situations.
In my personal life I was first unsuccessful with my drivers license. I hated the long minutes stuck in traffic and I got easily distracted.
I did not give up because, for family reasons, I strongly needed to drive a car.

# data[].attributes.body
Check out Classkick, a useful app to get students collaborating and helping each other. The teacher can also assess student's work and give instant feedback.

# data[].attributes.body
To collaborate effectively each individual has to know he matters to get the job done.

# data[].attributes.body
The most challenging component of PBL is multifaceted assessment as it requires numerous tools adapted to different tasks/different skills.
In a class of 30, how can the teacher keep track of individual participation in group work?