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Mangel - Pirkei Avot 5:15 Four Learners (PBL)

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"Differentiation: A Moral and Fundamental Imperative for Jewish Educators"

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Differentiation is the opposite of standardization. It relies on the teacher to plan lessons and learning experiences with the diverse needs of the learners in mind. Whether it's about modes of delivery, flexible use of time or space, student groupings or materials used, the goal of differentiation is to meet the
ever-more varied needs of the students in our care.

Teaching is no longer about imparting knowledge or skills; it's about learning. Through the methodologies of differentiation, all students should have access to learning content and skills regardless of "ability." The aphorism in Proverbs 22:6, "Teach a child according to his own way," implies that learning is personal and requires differentiation. While it can seem overwhelming to conceptualize doing something different for each student, that is not really what differentiation is about. According to Carol Ann Tomlinson, a thought leader on differentiation, it is a way of thinking about teaching and learning. Differentiation is a form of responsive practice that involves seeing, reaching and teaching every student.

Differentiation is not just an idea in education, but a belief that everyone can learn given the right conditions and connections. In Solomon Schechter's famous essay "The Dogmas of Judaism," he wrote, "We usually urge that in Judaism religion means life; but we forget that a life without guiding principles and thoughts is a life not worth living." Isn't learning for all a guiding principle of a Jewish education? If we hold that idea to be true, then differentiation is a moral and fundamental imperative for Jewish educators.

Because learners bring more to the classroom than their brains, differentiation must go beyond sechel, intellect. Children are whole people with interests and experiences, fears and hopes, skills and abilities. To teach the whole child, we must see the whole child. The Talmud says that the highest form of wisdom is kindness. If we are Jewish educators in name and value, then differentiation is an act of kindness because it involves understanding and caring about who our students are so that we can help them learn. Kindness involves the ingredients of rachmanut, ahavah and kavod.

Differentiation requires a partnership between the teacher and student as the gateway to learning. This exchange, then, requires connection. Differentiation in about knowing who is in the room and feeling rachmanut for those individuals. Rabbi David Wolpe wrote, "The Hebrew rachmanut (meaning mercy and compassion) comes from rechem, womb. Compassion is feeling, almost physically, the reality of the other." In the classroom, that is hard to do. We don't know how children feel about themselves, what is going on at home, or what lies behind the external presentation. All people are icebergs; we have to care enough to get to know more than we see on the surface. In order to have rachmanut, we have to find ways to see more than the "abilities" of the learner. We must tap into our students by providing different entry points to assignments and creating invitations for students to bring their whole selves to their learning.

We can't reach and teach every child until we really know our learners. Besides being personable and developing relationships with each student, implementing an approach that uses personalizing projects to help students learn and develop skills is a powerful way to differentiate. Tasks that reflect children's lives and interests engage them and help them learn. This information can be useful when planning differentiated lessons or assignments, because the teacher has become apprised of more than a laundry list of descriptive adjectives provided by the learners. By seeing our students as whole people, we can better prepare for and respond to their learning needs.

The classroom can also become a supportive learning community where students have a platform and a safety net for risk taking. When students are involved in personalized work that they share with the class, the teacher is not the only one privy to the insights of the individual. Instead, each member of the class gets to know other students in a meaningful way, and the class becomes a supportive learning community. Compassion is easier when students are allowed to see and be themselves in their learning. This goes beyond choice and voice. You can't personalize until you see the world through a person's eyes. Rachmanut requires empathy, and empathy requires knowing who your students really are, including their lives and interests outside of school. Rachmanut is a key ingredient in promoting differentiation.

While teaching is both art and science, it also involves ahavah. One of the root meanings of ahavah is "to give," so the word doesn't just mean the act of love, but to give love. In order for ahavah to be given, there must be a receiver. That goes back to the essential exchange between teacher and student in the learning equation. Teaching is as much a process as learning, and it involves great efforts from both the students and the educators. In order to do this well, with all of its challenges, there has to be some level of ahavah for this sacred work and for the learners themselves.

Most people who choose teaching as a profession do so out of ahavah. Some teachers love the content that they teach. Some teachers love creating learning opportunities. Other teachers love working with students and seeing them move forward on their learning continuum. The power of synthesizing all of those loves is a contagious experience that leads to deep connections and learning for all. Differentiated learning can be cultivated through a relationship built on ahavah because it has the power to reveal the hidden spark inside each student. That makes differentiation an essential individual experience because everyone is made to feel visible and valuable.

Love and respect go hand-in-hand. The word for respect is kavod, which comes from the word kaved, meaning heavy. Differentiation is not an easy task. Respecting our learners and their work can require a lot of effort, but it's worth it when you see struggling students' light bulbs flash or celebrate student achievement in areas they never imagined.

Rabbi Hillel said, "That which is hateful to you, do not do to others" (Shabbat 31a). This is about respect, one of the key elements to the Jewish worldview, and should be noticeable in all aspects of a Jewish day school. It is an integral component of almost everything that Judaism teaches, from how one is to approach our relationship with God to how we interact with our parents. The value of respect must extend beyond the individual or family to the community, which includes the school. To live a life respecting others means to realize that everyone is significant and should be valued for who they are as individuals. Differentiation is an act of kavod.

Differentiation is not just an idea in education, but a fundamental guiding principle that everyone can learn. We have a tradition of equating learning and honey. Kindness is also compared to honey, as healthy for the body and sweet to the soul (Proverbs). If we show compassion, love and respect to all of our students, it will help them persevere through difficult challenges because the kindness is encouraging.

If being at Jewish day school is only "Jewish" when the students are learning Torah or holidays or how to speak Hebrew, then we are denying our students their inherent rights and we are doing an injustice to our faith. Differentiation is one of the most Jewish things we can do. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote, "One of the most stunning gestures of Judaism was to overturn the whole idea of a hierarchy of knowledge, for if there are inequalities of learning, they will be replicated through all other social structures, giving some people unwarranted power over others. This is the great insight of the Jewish vision, from which all else followed: A free society must be an educated society, and a society of equal dignity must be one in which education is universal" (Radical Then, Radical Now).

This universal education is dignified only if learning is a universal right and inequalities are minimized. When we treat others with compassion, love and respect, we are embodying Torah. It is through the values of rachmanut, ahavah and kavod that we can understand why differentiation, the key in making education universal, is a guiding principle in Judaism and a moral imperative for all Jewish educators.

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Differentiation: A Moral and Fundamental Imperative for Jewish Educators

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Differentiation is the opposite of standardization. It relies on the teacher to plan lessons and learning experiences with the diverse needs of the learners in mind. Whether it's about modes of delivery, flexible use of time or space, student groupings or materials used, the goal of differentiation is to meet the ever-more varied needs of the students in our care.

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"What is Differentiated Instruction?"

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In the last few decades, differentiation has become one of the biggest buzzwords in education. But what exactly is differentiated instruction, and how can teachers effectively use it in their classrooms? Read on to find out.

Source: ASCD

Differentiated instruction means tailoring your teaching so all students, regardless of their ability, can learn the classroom material. Early one-room schoolteachers were masters of differentiation. They taught students of all ages and abilities, changing up their methods as needed.

As schools moved to dividing students by age into grade levels, differentiated instruction more or less fell by the wayside. Teachers taught all students in their classroom in the same way and expected the same results. Not surprisingly, some students struggled to keep up, while others were bored when they mastered the material more quickly than others. Inclusion made these contrasts even greater, and some began to realize education needed new approaches.

During the 1990s, Carol Ann Tomlinson introduced the concept of differentiation, and it quickly gained traction. She identified four elements (content, process, product, and learning environment) that teachers could customize in their classrooms. Her work opened the door to a wide array of differentiation approaches and techniques.

Why is differentiated instruction important?

Source: ASCD

Think back to the last time you bought a pair of jeans. You probably had a multitude of choices, like slim, relaxed, or classic fit; petite, regular, or tall; stretch fabric or plain denim-the options were likely endless. Somewhere in all those options for jeans, you found the ones that were right for you. Maybe not perfect, but something that suited you better than any of the other options.

Buying jeans wasn't always like that. A few decades ago, there were just a few styles, in different sizes. For those with a particular body type, that was just fine. But it meant many others were left with ill-fitting, uncomfortable choices, and they just had to make do. Manufacturers and stores eventually realized they needed to differentiate their styles to meet all their customers' needs.

Just like people have different body types, they also have different learning styles and abilities. If teachers only offer one way to learn the material, some students will always struggle. Their "jeans" will never fit, and they'll never truly master the material they need to succeed.

Differentiated Instruction and Learning Styles

In the mid-1980s, teacher Neil Fleming introduced the VARK model of learning styles. He theorized that students learned in these four general ways, known as styles, or modalities:

Visual: Seeing images, diagrams, videos, etc.

Auditory: Hearing lectures and having discussions

Read/Write: Reading the written word and writing things down

Kinesthetic: Movement and hands-on activities

In other words, some kids learn better by reading and writing, while others prefer to listen to a lecture or watch a video. Fleming noted that each student uses a mix of these different styles, and it's important not to pigeonhole a student into any one type. The key is to ensure your teaching methods include a variety of activities that appeal to all learning types.

This concept gets right to the heart of differentiation. Recognizing that your classroom contains students with an assortment of learning styles, along with varying abilities and diverse backgrounds, is the first step toward accommodating them.

What does differentiation look like in the classroom?

So, what does this mean for teachers? Are you expected to create an individualized lesson plan for every student in your classroom? Fortunately, that's not necessary. What you do need to do is ensure your lesson plans include a variety of activities, and provide options when students need them.

Tomlinson recommends teachers consider how they can personalize these four elements:

Content

Teachers don't usually get to decide exactly what they're going to teach in terms of content. Most schools use standards like Common Core to lay out what students at each level must master. What teachers often can decide is how they'll present that content. Here are some ways to differentiate content ( see more here).

Have students read an article, watch a video, and/or listen to a lecture on a topic.

Used leveled reading materials to help students explore the same content.

Tailor assignments as needed, i.e., have slower workers do fewer practice problems as long as they can show mastery, while advanced students can do extra or more challenging exercises.

Process

There are so many ways to mix up the teaching and learning process. Accommodate different learning styles with various activities, and scaffold learning by breaking it into more manageable chunks. These are examples of differentiated processes (see more here).

Create learning centers that give kids self-paced practice time in hands-on ways.

Incorporate active learning with manipulatives, movement, and games.

Form learning groups and use a tiered approach, with each group mastering content or skills at various speeds.

Product

It's no secret that some kids are terrible test-takers, or that speaking in front of the class is torture for others. You can work to improve those skills, of course, but in the meantime, it's important not to punish students because they need different ways to show their mastery of a topic. For example, unless you're specifically teaching public speaking skills, don't force every student to do an oral book report. Here are more ways to differentiate the product ( see more examples here).

Doing a research project? Allow students to choose how they'll present their findings: write a paper, give a presentation, create a video, etc.

Use a variety of question types in written tests, and help students learn good test-taking skills.

Provide "must do" and "may do" options for assignments.

Learning Environment

Stroll the halls of a typical school, and you'll notice that every classroom looks and sounds different. Some have desks in rows, while in others desks are pushed together or students group around tables. One is completely silent, while another bustles with discussion. Some students adapt well to these changes, but others do better in specific environments. Try to accommodate as many as you can in your space.

Try out flexible seating-let students sit where and how they feel comfortable and ready to learn.

Let some students wear headphones and listen to music while they work, while keeping the classroom quiet for others.

Create calm-down corners, collaborative spaces, sensory spaces, learning centers, and more.

For more information on Tomlinson's theories, complete the online learning module found here.

How do I get started with differentiation in my classroom?

The best teachers are those who are observant and know their students well. They watch closely as kids work (and play), and check in regularly to find out what's working and what's not. Try these resources to start your journey to better differentiated instruction.

Differentiated Instruction Books

Have questions about differentiated instruction and how to use it in your classroom? Join the WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook to exchange ideas and ask for advice!

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What Does Differentiated Instruction Look Like in the Classroom?

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Teachers hear a lot about differentiated instruction, but what does it really mean? Find out what it is and how to use it here.

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Various articles

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George Lucas Educational Foundation

Build lessons, develop teaching materials, and vary your approach so that all students, regardless of where they are starting from, can learn content effectively, according to their needs.

Sort by:

How math choice boards can enable new elementary teachers to meet the needs of their individual learners while employing mathematical rigor.

Though remote learning during the pandemic has brought many challenges, some students seem to be thriving in the new circumstances. What can we learn from them?

Support every student by breaking learning up into chunks and providing a concrete structure for each.

Five ways teachers can celebrate and extend the linguistic expertise of young students who speak two or more languages.

Every teacher already has the tools to differentiate in powerful ways for all learners.

Teachers can use artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT to generate rich math tasks and differentiate instruction.

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Build lessons, develop teaching materials, and vary your approach so that all students, regardless of where they are starting from, can learn content effectively, according to their needs.

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What is your WHY for bringing PBL to your program?

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What is your WHY for bringing PBL to your program?

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Poll Everywhere [enter one word at a time]: What are words you could use to describe Project Based Learning?

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1. Text Study

2. PBL in Jewish Settings

3. Revisit Driving Questions

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Participants will:

1. engage in a discussion about Jewish learning environments and how they can benefit from the PBL models (attention to authenticity; sustained inquiry; student voice and choice; and public product).

2. refine and strengthen the driving questions we want to pose to our student groups;

3. examine a piece of Talmud that illustrates PBL as a tool for differentiated instruction.

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In groups of 2-3, allow each person to:

1.  Share a bit about the group of learners with whom you work.

2. Share the driving question you wrote on your PBL Planning Template.

3. Accept feedback from your group partners about how to strengthen or deepen your driving question.

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1. Respond to questions 5-7 and 10a in the PBL Planning Template
2. Block out 30 minutes to look at examples of project based learning work.

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Main Padlet, column five:

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Authenticity

Sustained Inquiry

Student Voice & Choice

Public Product

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"Gold Standard PBL: Essential Project Design Elements"

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An overview of the 7 Essential Project Design Elements in the PBLWorks model for Gold Standard PBL. Adapted from "Gold Standard PBL: The Essential Project Design Elements" white paper by John Larmer and John Mergendoller (2015).
Gold Standard Project Based Learning

Project Based Learning is a powerful and transformative pedagogy that-when done well-can help all of our students learn and thrive. But what are the features that differentiate Project Based Learning (PBL) from other instructional approaches, and how can teachers ensure that they are implementing PBL in ways that will be most impactful for their students? In order to help teachers do PBL effectively, PBLWorks has developed a comprehensive, research-informed model for PBL - a "gold standard" to help teachers, schools, and organizations to reflect on and grow their practice. Our framework for Gold Standard PBL is designed to meet the needs of all learners, and includes several key components:

Essential Project Design Elements: These seven elements (the focus of this article) are the characteristics that differentiate a Gold Standard project from other forms of instruction- the key features that are evident in the design of an effective project.

Project Based Teaching Practices: These practices are the instructional moves teachers make to bring a project to life in the classroom. Many of them are familiar practices to teachers, but they look different in the context of a project. In addition to focus areas such as scaffolding and assessment, these teaching practices include the intentional practices teachers use to build a culture of interdependence in the classroom. (Learn more.)

An Equity-Centered Vision for PBL: In addition to knowing the nuts and bolts of PBL pedagogy, effective PBL teachers hold a clear vision for how their project design and implementation will meet the needs of all of their learners. This includes attending to four "levers" for equitable PBL- knowledge of students, cognitive demand, literacy, and shared power- and regularly using these levers to reflect on and refine practice. (Learn more.)

Each component of the Gold Standard frameworks is intended to support all students in deep learning of meaningful and relevant learning goals, so let's begin our discussion there.

Student Learning Goals

Student learning of academic content and skill development are at the center of any well-designed project. Like the lens of a camera, our framework puts the focus of PBL on helping students gain the knowledge, understanding, and success skills they need to thrive:

Key Knowledge and Understanding: Gold Standard PBL teaches students the important content standards, concepts, and in-depth understandings that are fundamental to school subject areas and academic disciplines. In good projects, students learn how to apply knowledge to the real world, and use it to solve problems, answer complex questions, and create high-quality products.

Key Success Skills: Content knowledge and conceptual understanding, by themselves, are not enough. In school and college, in the workplace, as community members, and in their lives generally, people need to be able to think critically and solve problems, work well with others, and communicate effectively. They also need to manage projects and approach novel tasks with creativity and innovation. We call these kinds of competencies "success skills." They are also known as "College and Career Readiness Skills" and are often seen in "Graduate Profiles" created by schools and districts.

It's important to note that success skills can only be taught through the acquisition of content knowledge and understanding. For example, students don't learn critical thinking skills in the abstract, isolated from subject matter; they gain them by thinking critically about math, science, history, English, career/tech subjects, the arts, and so on.

We recommend that each project explicitly teach and assess one or two specific success skills, even though students may learn other skills as well. Projects can also help students to develop and strengthen other personal qualities (such as perseverance and compassion), rooted in the needs and values of students and their local community.

Essential Project Design Elements

So what characterizes an effective project? Based on an extensive literature review and the distilled experience of the many educators we have worked with over the past several decades, we believe the following Essential Project Design Elements outline what is necessary for an effective project that maximizes student learning and engagement.

Challenging Problem or Question

The What: The heart of a project - what it is "about" - is a problem to investigate and solve, or a question to explore and answer. This question should be aligned to learning goals and, as much as possible, should connect to students' interests, identities, and communities. The challenge could be concrete (the school needs to do a better job of recycling waste) or abstract (deciding if and when war is justified). When teachers design and conduct a project, we suggest they (sometimes with students) write the central problem or question in the form of an open-ended, student-friendly "driving question" that focuses their task, like a thesis focuses an essay (e.g., "How can we improve our school's recycling system, so we can reduce waste?" or "Should the U.S. have fought the Vietnam War?"). Note that this problem or question should not be simple to answer, but should be cognitively demanding for students and require them to engage in deep and original thought.
The Why: A well-designed problem or question makes learning meaningful for students. They are not just gaining knowledge to remember it; they are learning because they have a real need to know something, so they can use this knowledge to solve a problem or answer a question that matters to them. This also helps students develop a problem-solving disposition, and creates the context for building skills and confidence that students can apply to other challenges in their lives, communities, and work.

Sustained Inquiry

The What: To inquire is to seek information or to investigate - it's a more active, in-depth process than just "looking something up" in a book or online. The inquiry process takes time, which means a Gold Standard project lasts more than a few days. In PBL, inquiry is iterative; when confronted with a challenging problem or question, students ask questions, find and use resources and other learning experiences to help develop answers to those questions, then ask deeper questions - and the process repeats. Projects can incorporate different modes of seeking answers, mixing the traditional idea of "research" - reading a book or searching a website - with other learning experiences such as labs, field trips, or interviews with experts and end-users.

The Why: Learning through sustained inquiry helps students engage with the world from a place of curiosity. Students who do inquiry-based projects develop the capacity to ask meaningful questions and the agency to effectively seek answers to those questions. Sustained inquiry also helps content and skills "stick:" students are not just passively receiving knowledge, they are actively seeking and co-constructing it.

Authenticity

The What: When people say something is authentic, they generally mean it is real or genuine, not fake or contrived. In education, the concept has to do with how "real-world" the learning or the task is. A project can be authentic in several ways, often in combination. It can have an authentic context, such as when students solve problems like those faced by people in the world outside of school (e.g., entrepreneurs developing a business plan, engineers designing a bridge, or advisors to the City Council recommending policy). It can involve the use of real-world processes, tasks and tools, and performance standards, such as when students plan an experimental investigation or use digital editing software to produce professional quality videos. It can have a real impact on others, such as when students address a need in their school or community (e.g., designing and building a school garden, improving a community park, providing support to local immigrant families) or create a product or service that will be used or experienced by others. Finally, a project can have personal authenticity when it speaks to students' own concerns, interests, cultures, identities, and issues in their lives.

The Why: When a project is designed with authenticity in mind, students are engaged in learning for a purpose. Their motivation increases because they see why what they are learning matters. Students also understand how to transfer their learning, as they apply the concepts and skills from the standards to life beyond the classroom. Finally, designing projects with authenticity in mind helps to bridge the gap between school and home, and provides an opportunity for students to use and share the knowledge and skills they bring into the classroom (including cultural competency, community wisdom, place-based knowledge, and language skills).

Student Voice & Choice

The What: Gold Standard projects include opportunities for students to make their voices and perspectives heard, within and beyond the classroom. Students are invited to speak in their own ways and to express their own opinions, rather than speak in ways they think the teacher wants.

Effective projects are also shaped by student choice: students can have input and (some) control over many aspects of a project, from the questions they generate, to the resources they will use to find answers to their questions, to the tasks and roles they will take on as team members, to the products they will create. More advanced students may go even further and select the topic and nature of the project itself; they can write their own driving question and decide how they want to investigate it, demonstrate what they have learned, and how they will share their work.

The Why: Having a say in a project creates a sense of ownership in students; they care more about- and bring more of themselves to- the project. When student voices are centered in projects, they are able to learn from one another, and they learn that their voices and ideas matter.

Creating opportunities for student choice in a project also increases student engagement and ownership. Additionally, students learn how to evaluate options and strategically approach challenges- critical skills that will support their leadership and agency within and well beyond the classroom walls.
Finally, both voice and choice within a project contribute to a culture of shared power- students learn to recognize their own power and that of their peers, and learn to use that power responsibly to benefit each other and the larger community.

Reflection

The What: John Dewey, whose ideas continue to inform our thinking about PBL, pointed out that we do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience. Throughout a project, students - and the teacher - should reflect on what they're learning, how they're learning, and why they're learning, as well as how they are changing as learners. Reflection can occur informally, as part of classroom culture and dialogue, but should also be an explicit part of project journals, scheduled formative assessment, discussions at project checkpoints, and public presentations of student work.

The Why: Reflection on the content knowledge and understanding gained helps students solidify what they have learned and think about how it might apply elsewhere, beyond the project. Reflection on the project itself - how it was designed and implemented - helps students decide how they might approach their next project, and helps teachers improve the quality of their PBL practice. And reflection on their own growth as learners- including in the area of success skill development- helps students to take ownership of their learning, celebrate success, and identify new goals for continued growth.

Critique & Revision

The What: High quality student work is a hallmark of Gold Standard PBL, and such quality is attained through thoughtful critique and revision. Students should be taught how to give and receive constructive peer feedback that will improve project processes and products, guided by rubrics, models, and formal feedback/critique protocols. In addition to peers and teachers, outside adults and experts can also contribute to the critique process, bringing an authentic, real-world point of view.

The Why: Giving and receiving purposeful feedback helps students build a shared understanding of what quality work looks like with regard to the targeted content and skills. It also expands responsibility for formative assessment and collective learning from the teacher alone to the whole class, helping to create a culture of interdependence and investment in collective learning. Finally, regularly engaging in critique and revision processes helps students to develop a growth mindset- moving from a paradigm in which work is "right or wrong" to a paradigm in which work is always improving.

Public Product

The What: In Gold Standard PBL, students share the work they create with an audience beyond the classroom. This can take many forms: a tangible product that students design or build, or the presentation of a solution to a problem or an answer to a driving question. A public product can be complex- the launch of a large-scale event, website, or change effort in the community- or simple- a video conference with classroom family members or a presentation to another class in the school. What's important is that someone beyond the teacher will see students' work and hear about their learning.

Many PBL schools and districts reinforce this message by repurposing the traditional "open house" into an exhibition of project work, which helps build understanding and support for PBL among stakeholders. When the public sees what high-quality products students can create, they're often surprised - and eager to see more.

The Why: There are three major reasons for creating a public product in Gold Standard PBL. First, like authenticity, a public product adds greatly to PBL's motivating power and encourages high-quality work. When students have to present or display their work to an audience beyond the classroom, the stakes- and the bar for student performance- are raised.

Second, by creating a product, students make what they have learned tangible and thus, when shared publicly, discussible. Instead of only being a private exchange between an individual student and teacher, the social dimension of learning becomes more important. This has an impact on classroom and school culture, helping create a "learning community," where students and teachers discuss what is being learned, how it is learned, what are acceptable standards of performance, and how student performance can be made better.

Finally, making student work public is an effective way to communicate with families, community members, and the wider world about what PBL is and what it does for students. When a classroom, school, or district opens itself up to public scrutiny, the message is, "Here's what our students can do - we're about more than test scores."

The Essential Project Design Elements are designed to serve as guideposts for teachers when planning Gold Standard projects for their classrooms. They are also intended to be developed over time- not all Elements will be strong in a teacher's first project, but they will become more evident as teachers and their students gain experience and confidence with the project process. What's most important as teachers begin to work with the Essential Project Design Elements is that they do so with a focus on the transformative impact that PBL can have for all students.

Yes, we provide PBL training for educators!

PBLWorks offers a variety of PBL workshops, courses and services for teachers, school and district leaders, and instructional coaches - whether you're just getting started or advancing your practice.

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Gold Standard PBL: Essential Project Design Elements

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An overview of the 7 Essential Project Design Elements in the PBLWorks model for Gold Standard PBL. Adapted from "Gold Standard PBL: The Essential Project Design Elements" white paper by John Larmer and John Mergendoller (2015).