New to PBL

I'm a pretty new teacher, and a complete novice to PBL. What resources and websites can you send me to where I can start learning ways to structure projects in my classroom? (high school social studies... Title school) Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Jane Krauss on July 13, 2010 at 5:40pm

Here I go with shameless self-promotion. The book I coauthored with Suzie Boss is a good starting point for PBL. It's called Reinventing Project Based Learning. It's published by ISTE and available there and through Amazon. Edutopia is another marketplace of ideas for PBL. Enjoy your journey!

Permalink Reply by Rachel Pickett on July 13, 2010 at 9:06pm

Thank you!

Permalink Reply by Rachel Pickett on July 13, 2010 at 9:16pm

p.s. I got your book :)

Permalink Reply by Jim Cottrell on July 13, 2010 at 6:10pm

I have a few books and I hope to use Jane and Suzie's book to get started.
Useful links:
http://usefulwiki.com/page/Reinventing_Project-based_Learning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project-based_learning (Jane and Suzie made the references)
http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2010/02/11/great-project-based-lea...
http://pbl-online.org/

Permalink Reply by Rachel Pickett on July 13, 2010 at 9:18pm

Thank you very much!

Permalink Reply by Syd on July 13, 2010 at 7:28pm

Rachel, I just stumbled upon this awesome PbL wiki yesterday and bookmarked it. I'm directing you to the PbL modules designed for newbies like us, but if you look around you'll see there are some great examples of PbL projects and awesome resources throughout, including planning templates and rubrics.

http://www.leadingpbl.org/Modules-Table-of-Contents

Best of luck to the both of us. ;o)

Permalink Reply by Rachel Pickett on July 13, 2010 at 9:21pm

Thanks! I really like how you've all referenced links. It's like a PBL reference jackpot :)

Good luck!

Permalink Reply by Angela Quiram on July 13, 2010 at 7:54pm

Rachel-

Start with Edutopia's website on PBL. Valuable resource. Also, for social studies especially, the Buck Institute. The key is--start small. The Buck Institute offers free curriculum that is clearly explained with all steps and resources available. Taking one of these units and integrating them into your studies will give you a taste of what to expect.

Permalink Reply by Rachel Pickett on July 13, 2010 at 9:22pm

Thank you so much! These links are very useful.

Permalink Reply by Dr. Rita Oates on July 14, 2010 at 8:01am

Several projects posted on the ePals site are structured for success while modeling PBL best practices. It's a chance to apply what you read in Jane and Suzie's book!
The most popular project is "The Way We Are," which is an exchange of information about life in your school and community with another class or classes about life in their community. Teachers tell me that their students often know (and care) little about their own community until they have to tell someone else about it, so it has a dual purpose! You can see the way it's structured with five emails to exchange at: http://www.epals.com/projects/info.aspx?DivID=TheWayWeAre_overview
You can discuss topics in the Teacher Forum for The Way We Are and students can also discuss their interests in the Student Forum (TWWA). We moderate all postings, so it's civil discourse, not nasty comments.

Another popular project is "Digital Storytelling." You can submit final student work to the ePals Video Vault to share with a worldwide audience (27 million unique viewers each month). http://www.epals.com/media/81/default.aspx Our moderators view each submission to check for wardrobe malfunctions or stray fingers with inappropriate messages before posting them, and the student's identity is protected. Your students can see what other students have done, which provides a safe and global experience at no cost.

Finally, check out the ePals Teacher Ambassadors. Eleven groups of teachers were named ambassadors and about a dozen more got honorable mentions for projects they created using some part of ePals, such as the global community (to find a match) or the safe communication tools (SchoolMail and Forums). http://www.epals.com/projects/info.aspx?divid=TeacherContest2010-Re... These are great examples of real world teachers. Each entry has a three-minute video explaining what they did, details about the project, and some examples that demonstrate student learning. You might be able to join a project of one of these teachers, or get ideas of how to add a PBL component, with a global flair, to your classroom.

Your high school students will find that many students from non-English speaking countries would be eager to communicate with them, to learn about US life and culture. They may also learn that they are much "richer" than children in many other parts of the world. Good luck and start with the end in mind!

Permalink Reply by Rachel Pickett on July 15, 2010 at 6:43pm

Thank you! I'm amazed with the outpouring of resources :)

Permalink Reply by Kerry Rice on July 15, 2010 at 6:16pm

Check out http://pbl-online.org. It's a site created by the Buck Institute for Education in conjunction with Boise State University. It contains self-direct modules for learning about PBL containing much of material in the BIE PBL handbook. There is also a collaboratory which is a repository for projects developed by teachers as well as a collaborative space for project development.