provides a list of ideas for project-based learning for kindergarten through precalculus.
Lesson Planet (http://www.lessonplanet.com/) offers project-based learning lessons from 200,000 reviewed lesson plans.
Edutopia (http://www.edutopia.org) offers free materials and downloads for building rigorous projects for all grade levels.
Personalized Scaffolding
To maximize learning in a project-based learning environment, teachers must provide coaching and just-in-time tutorials during the projects. It is difficult to know how to personalize the quantity and quality of each, but we provide some guidance here.
How can a teacher personalize the quantity of coaching and tutoring?
Some students need more support for learning than others—more coaching, more demonstrations, more practice with feedback. A teacher has three options. First, if your school has an LMS with tutorials on all the new content, the teacher can cue students as to when to use them, and the tutorials provide the quantity of demonstrations and practice needed by each student to reach mastery. Alternatively, teachers can try to provide all the coaching and tutoring themselves, which is obviously a large burden. Finally, the students can provide each other with the amount of support they need. If a teacher uses team-based projects and develops a collaborative culture (which is enhanced by multi-year mentoring—see principle R, page 91), the students will provide each other with more coaching and tutoring within their teams as needed and can go to the teacher if they need more help. If the students have individual projects, the teacher can have students work on them in a common area, and encourage the students to go to each other first when they need to learn something new and ask the teacher as a last resort. Research shows that such peer assistance benefits the student giving help as well as the one receiving it (Goodlad & Hirst, 1989; Gordon, 2005; Topping & Ehly, 1998).
How can a teacher personalize the quality of coaching and tutoring?
Students differ in many ways: their interests, how loud or quiet they prefer the learning environment, how much motivational support they need, whether they are more comfortable with abstract or concrete thinking, whether they prefer working with someone else or alone, and much more. To the extent that coaching and tutoring take such individual differences into account, their quality will improve. Doing so requires the teacher to know each student well. But with self-directed learning, it is also important for the teacher to help individual students know their own preferences well. This teaches students to understand how they learn best and to advocate for the support they need. It is difficult but helpful to relate the demonstrations and practice to the student’s interests and tailor them to the student’s preferences. Eventually, intelligent tutoring systems will be developed to learn such things about each student and personalize the coaching and tutoring effectively.
Personalized Assessment
Personalizing assessment empowers and motivates students. Here are a few questions your team should consider.
Who should assess the student?
In most cases, the teacher will assess each student. But there are considerable benefits to having students assess themselves as well. It develops an important life skill, empowers the student, and often provides a deeper understanding of the content. Similarly, there are benefits to peer assessment. It typically enhances the learning of both students, and the feedback provided is usually more thorough (and personalized) than the teacher can afford to give to every student. If your school has an LMS with good tutorials, it can be designed to provide assessment with highly personalized feedback. Finally, teachers might consider using outside experts to assess final products or presentations for projects. This provides a level of authenticity that can be motivating for students.
What format should the assessment take?
Different students can benefit from different formats for assessment. Options include live performances, written reports, video reports, material products, software, and much more. Helping students to choose their formats empowers students and enhances their motivation.
Personalized Reflection
Having students reflect on their project experiences is one of the most powerful and underused instructional strategies. Here are a few questions for your team to consider.
How can teachers personalize reflection on the way the project was conducted?
Teachers can personalize the timing of the reflection by doing it during the project, at the end of the project, or both. They can personalize the format of the reflection by having it done in writing or through discussion, or a combination of the two. And they can personalize the participants by having it done individually, as a team, or in a large group with several teams. Of course, the points of reflection—often guided by a rubric—can also be personalized.
How can teachers personalize reflection on the learning that occurred?
Teachers can similarly personalize the timing, format, participants, and points of reflection on learning. The points of reflection could address the questions, What were the most important things you learned? How good was the learning process? How could it have been better?
Personal Learning Plans
When conceptualizing your approach to personalized learning plans, there are several questions your team should consider.
What should a PLP be like?
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