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By: Dr. Diane Clancy, Former PBL Administrator (CSA Fodrea)
Columbus, IN
I don’t know how many times I’ve left a conference or workshop session so excited I couldn’t wait to get back to my class or building to implement the strategy that had me all fired up. I had all my notes and resources from the session, and I was confident this strategy was going to have a substantial impact on student learning. However, just like many of you, my great intentions would often fall apart. Either I didn’t start implementing this amazing strategy at all because something in my personal life or at work took my attention away from this goal, or I would start implementing and it would not go as well as I had anticipated. When the latter happened, I became frustrated and went back to doing what I’d always done. This also happens with teachers and administrators who have attended a Project Based Learning (PBL) Workshop.
PBL Culminating Event from CSA Fodrea students
As an administrator for CSA Fodrea, a wall to wall PBL school, in Columbus, IN, I considered PBL coaching an extremely important part of providing support for my staff by ensuring they did not fall back onto their former methods of instruction. I gathered information on common and individual needs for additional training on PBL concepts through one on one conversations, grade level meetings, observations, and walkthroughs. I would then provide professional development for the common identified areas during staff meetings. I would address a grade level need by providing coaching for a specific PBL component during a grade level meeting, and I would assign a mentor to an individual. My facilitators were continuously working to improve their implementation of PBL. It was my job as an administrator and coach to provide opportunities for communication and collaboration, so teachers could hear that others were struggling with some of the same issues and support each other in their efforts to overcome their challenges. My experiences at CSA Fodrea have guided my work in developing PBL coaching for Magnify Learning.
Magnify Learning offers PBL coaching because it provides the support teachers need to keep moving toward implementing PBL with fidelity. A PBL coach will hold you accountable for actually implementing the plan you created in training. A coach does so much more than check in to see if you are implementing your plan. The coach encourages you when you are struggling and gives guidance and suggestions when a component of your PBL plan isn’t happening. For example, when getting those Community Partners to show up and provide the support they promised when you first spoke to them about your PBL idea isn’t happening. A coach helps you with one of the most important components of implementing a PBL plan, reflection. The coach will join you in celebrating all of the parts of your PBL plan that went well, and work with you to address those areas of the PBL that didn’t work out quite the way you envisioned, so those missteps won’t happen again. Some of the best learning takes place when the plan doesn’t turn out quite the way it was designed to. This is a life skill we need to model for our students so they can apply it in their lives as they work toward their future career path.
Magnify Learning began providing coaching for teachers in two schools in the fall of 2016. We are now coaching over 300 teachers in twenty different schools in fifteen different school districts. This incredible growth has occurred because administrators see the significant impact the successful implementation of PBL has on academic growth, behavioral issues, and attendance. PBL coaching has helped teachers transition through the frustration of learning how to implement a new instructional strategy to celebrating the independence and ownership of the learning process their students have gained through PBL I have had teachers tell me they were ready to leave education, but through coaching and their successful implementation of PBL, they are once again excited about teaching. It is this excitement for teaching and learning that drives me to continue to encourage all administrators to provide coaching for their teachers for sustained implementation and successful PBLs.
My why for coaching leads to the process Magnify Learning has developed for PBL coaching. My role as a PBL coach is more than celebrating the successes and identifying those opportunities for improvement. As stated earlier, a key component of coaching is ensuring the implementation of the PBL strategy with fidelity. Many will observe a PBL classroom and comment that it looks like the students are having a lot of fun, but wonder if the students are really mastering the curriculum standards. To ensure the PBL plan is not fluff and that PBL is being implemented with fidelity, I regularly address the 6 A’s of PBL Project Design during coaching sessions by consistently asking the following questions:
Authenticity - Who is the audience? Who will be the benefactors of the work or event the students will be designing?
Academic Rigor - How are you teaching or reteaching the standards? How are you using your teaching resources such as textbooks or other district initiatives to connect the standards to the PBL?
Applied Learning - How are you connecting your students to their “why” - the need created by the PBL for learning the standards. What employability skills such as collaboration, communication, technology, and self-management are the students utilizing throughout the design and implementation of their PBL?
Active Exploration - How are your students gathering information to determine the solution to the problem or the plan for the event? Are they interviewing experts, collecting data, or are they going on a field trip to observe and collect information?
Adult Connections (Community Partners) - How are students connecting with adults outside of their school with expertise relevant to their PBL?
Assessment Practices - What are your benchmarks? What are your deadlines for products or plans that will lead to the final product or event? How and when are you assessing the mastery of the standards connected to the PBL? How and when are you assessing standards that are not connected to your PBLs? Are you using a variety of assessments?
Coaching activity during a staff meeting.
Coaching isn’t a series of questions and responses. Coaching is interactive and based on the specific needs of each teacher. Coaching is not a one size fits all; it is customized. I must determine those needs, through surveys, observation, or input from administrators. Great coaching is like great teaching; it should be active, engaging, and meaningful.
My goal as a PBL coach/facilitator is to prepare the participants in my sessions to be able to successfully implement their PBL plan when they return to their classrooms. I have seen the impact PBL has on student learning, and I want that for all students. Through coaching, I’m able to ensure that teachers are teaching and assessing the standards through their PBLs, and the number one goal of student learning and mastery of content is successfully being achieved.
However, all teachers need support or coaching put in place for any new strategy they are asked to implement. If coaching is not in place, a teacher when they are unsure or become frustrated with the new strategy is extremely likely to give up and go back to whatever he or she has always done. The percentage of teachers sticking with and successfully implementing PBL is significantly higher for schools whose teachers have received coaching. Coaching provides the opportunity to continuously revisit any aspects of the strategy the teacher is still struggling with. We do this for our students all of the time. I believe it is just as important for our teachers.
Dr. Diane Clancy was the administrator of CSA Fodrea, a wall to wall PBL elementary school in Columbus, IN, from 2010 until her retirement in 2016. She then joined the Magnify Learning staff as the Director of Professional Development. She began coaching a small group of teachers and administrators during the 2016-2017 school year. Due to the tremendously positive response to coaching, Magnify Learning added additional coaches and has since provided coaching for hundreds of teachers and administrators.
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