Acquit, adamant, adept, admonish, adroit, aesthetic ...these are all great words, but they are not what we mean we talk about the 6 A’s of PBL Project Design. We’re adding a bonus round to our series on the 6 A’s of PBL Project Design. This video will address Applying Standards. Technically, we are going beyond 6 at this point, but we are on a roll! :)
One of my mentor teachers loved to teach on the middle ages. He would tell stories that were incredibly engaging and learners would jump in with him. The only problem was that the middle ages were not a part of the 8th grade standards we were supposed to be addressing. He was exceptionally good for kids as an ‘old school’ teacher, but we can’t really do that anymore. There is no longer room for a pet project that doesn’t dive into the standards.
We may hit much of this one in the other As, but it is so important it seems worth repeating. Project Based Learning cannot be fluff.
In every Project Based Learning professional development workshop we hold at Magnify Learning, we start with the standards and begin building our PBL units. It’s not as dry or monotonous as it may sound. We look at our standards, especially power standards, with a new outlook. We are searching for the building blocks of an engaging journey to solve problems in our community...in the world.
We bring standards alive with a PBL Unit on geometry in order to make a rainwater collection system for the school garden, or we take non-fiction technical writing and apply it to help out seniors at a local senior center.
When you begin to match up your standards to a community partner or community problem, the dryness of that standard starts to wear off. The lesson plans that have always engaged learners still fit. The labs you have done in the past now have a new context with additional meaning. The five paragraph essay you have to assign has meaning beyond test preparation.
Take your standards and apply them to the outside world and answer that question of “When are we ever going to use this?” When you do, your learners will see learning in a new light, and you’ll discover PBL is the way you have always wanted to teach!
Video Related Resources
PBL Stories & Structures Book Study (FREE when you purchase the book!) | Purchase the Book
The 6 A’s of PBL Project Design (Website Resource Page)
Keeping Content in the Forefront-Standards-Based Grading (Blog)
Rubrics and Assessments (Website Resource Page)
Standards (Website Resource Page)
Additional PBL Resources
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