The document provides guidance on implementing project-based learning in 6 steps: 1) Start with an essential question that engages students in an open-ended real-world problem. 2) Design the project to address content standards and involve students in planning activities. 3) Create a schedule that is flexible but includes benchmarks and time for completion. 4) Monitor student and project progress through team and project rubrics. 5) Assess outcomes through self-assessment, feedback, and student-teacher conferences. 6) Evaluate the experience through individual and group reflection on what worked and needs improvement.

1. Planning for PBL
Implementation
Nabaegha Najam

2. Project-based learning can be messy,
but planning to have student inquiry
lead your instruction can make it an
orderly mess.

3. Real PBL, by contrast, is deep, complex, rigorous, and
integrated where each stakeholder in the school plays
an
important role. In implementing PBL, its fundamentals
are fourfold:
How to Implement Project-Based Learning?

4. ●Create teams of three or more students to work on an in-depth
project for three to eight weeks.
●Introduce a complex entry question that establishes a student’s
need to know, and scaffold the project with activities and new
information that deepens the work.
●Calendar the project through plans, drafts, timely benchmarks,
and finally the team’s presentation to an outside panel of
experts drawn from parents and the community.
●Provide timely assessments and/or feedback on the

5. Embedded in all projects, assessments, and grade reports should be
considered in the PBL teacher’s instruction. They include
(1) Content standards,
(2) Collaboration
(3) Critical thinking
(4) Oral communication
(5) Written communication
(6) Career preparation,
(7) Citizenship and ethics, and
(8) Technology literacy
Eight (8) learning outcomes

6. • To learn collaboration, work in teams.
• To learn critical thinking, take on complex problems.
• To learn oral communication, present.
• To learn written communication, write.
• To learn technology, use technology.
• To develop citizenship, take on civic and global issues.
• To learn about careers, do internships.
• To learn content, research and do all of the above.
The school’s strategy:

7. There are six (6) steps to Project-based Learning
Steps in Project-based Learning

8. The question that will launch a Project-based Learning lesson must be one that
will engage students. It is greater than the task at hand. It is open-ended. It will
pose a problem or a situation that the students can tackle knowing that there is no
ONE answer or solution.
To start off,
• Take a real-world topic and begin an in-depth investigation.
• Question is based on situations or topics that are authentic.
• Make students feel that they are making an impact by answering the question or
solving the problem.
• Make the question relevant for students. The question should have meaning in
their lives at that moment of time.
Start with the Essential Question

9. When designing the project, it is essential to select content standards to
be addressed. Involve students in the planning process. Students feel
ownership of the project when they have an active role in deciding
activities. Base on the curriculum, select activities that support the
question. Know what materials and resources to be made accessible to
students. Be prepared to delve deeper into new topics and issues as
students become more involved in pursuit of answers.
Design a Plan for the Project

10. Design a timeline for project components. Realise that changes to the
schedule will happen. Be flexible, but help students realise that a time
will come when they need to finalise their thoughts, findings, and
evaluations. Allow students to go in new directions. Guide them when
they appear to be going in a direction that has no connection to the
project. Help students to stay on course but don’t accidentally set
limitations.
Create a Schedule

11. Facilitate the process and inculcate love for learning. Teach students
how to work collaboratively. Designate fluid roles for group members. Let
students choose their primary roles but assume responsibility and
interactivity
for other group roles. Remind students that every part of the process
belongs to them and needs their total involvement. Provide resources,
guidance and assess the process through creating team rubrics and
project rubrics. Team rubrics state the expectations of each team
member while project rubrics refer to evaluation requirements of the
projects. As such, these requirements must be made clear to students to
ensure success in their projects.
Monitor Students and Project Progress

12. Assessment provides diagnostic feedback and helps educators set
standards. It allows one to evaluate progress and to relate that progress
to others. It gives students feedback on how well they understand the
information and what they need to improve on. Assessment also helps
teachers design instruction to teach more effectively. Whenever possible,
allow self-assessment among students. If student’s and teacher’s
assessment contradicts, a student-teacher conference to justify learning
outcomes should be held.
Assess the Outcome

13. In the busy schedule of a school day, there is often little time for
reflection. Yet, reflection is a very important part of the learning process.
Set a time for reflection of daily activities. Allow individual reflection, such
as journaling,
as well as group reflection and discussion. Share feelings and
experiences, and discuss what worked well and what needs change.
Share ideas that will lead to new questions, thus new projects.
Evaluate the Experience

14. 5 STRATEGIES TO MAKE PBL MORE
AUTHENTIC

15. Students derive the driving question from multiple
contexts or multiple issues within a context.
In a 3rd Grade class, students read the book We Are Water Protectors and
discuss the challenges Natives face with the introduction of the Keystone
pipeline. Next, the teacher presents two problems:
•The extraction of cobalt to build electric cars and the negative impact on rural
African communities
•The development of wind farms and the decline of the golden eagle
Students then work together in this strategy to determine the key challenges
facing Indigenous people and native species. Next, they develop core questions
they want to answer and determine what they need to learn to answer those
questions.

16. Students face changes in the problem(s)
they are contemplating.
● Problem environments are fluid, not static. In an AP economics class, students are
analyzing supply and demand of a new video game system and preparing to advise
the company on what it should do to improve profits.
● Every day at the beginning of class, their teacher asks them to scan reliable news
sources to report any changes to supply chains, governmental restrictions such as
embargoes, or any other factor that would influence their solutions to the client.
● The students found out that there were major supply chain issues with essential
parts needed to create the video game console. Moreover, some of the ships
carrying current consoles are sitting in Asia awaiting passage to the United States
because of a political dispute.
● The students worked together in small groups and discussed the key factors that
were impacting the company they were advising, along with what the students
needed to learn and understand before meeting with the client, and finally developed
multiple recommendations based on multiple contingencies.

17. The general strategy looks like this
•Students learn about changes to the problem content (this could be via reading
multiple news reports, listening to daily podcasts, or engaging with actual people
in the field).
•In small groups, students share their key understanding of the changes and how
that impacts their current understanding and strategy.
•Students determine key “need-to-knows” they have and work with the teacher
and peers to gain competencies.
•Students plan for multiple crisis and tentative solutions.

18. Presentations are short bursts of what students think
and propose during the project with dollops of
feedback to make adjustments.
Seventh-grade students are sending in their persuasive essay on one of a number
of topics (e.g., addressing the homelessness crisis, engaging with politicians on
critical race theory).
As they are drafting their papers, students are randomly assigned to present their
ideas and current drafts to other students and receive feedback on their writing as
well as their persuasiveness to opposing views.

19. The general strategy looks like this
•Students have a mid-lesson stop in which they have 5 minutes to prepare to
present their current work.
•Students conduct a feedback protocol (tuning or critical friends) in which one or
two students receive feedback.
•Students who received feedback share what they have changed in a reflective
journal or exit ticket.
•This process is repeated daily.

20. Authentic audiences engage with students
throughout the project rather than just at the
beginning and/or end.
● In a fifth-grade art class, students have been commissioned by the local
town council to paint murals that represent voices that are largely
marginalized in their community. During their work, students meet with a
number of artists and community members who share their stories, offer
feedback, and address questions.
● In this strategy, students engage with people outside the classroom at the
beginning, middle, and end of a project to hear stories that relate to the
problem context, receive guidance on the technical aspects of the content
they are learning, and ask questions.

21. Groups work together in small bursts of time to
solve problems.
● Students in Algebra II are working with logarithms to solve a number of
problems related to stomach acid, algae-filled hot tubs, soil composition, and
buffalo teeth.
● While each student may be solving a different problem, students form small
groups to share their learning, evaluate the connections between each
context, and give each other feedback. After approximately two weeks of
solving complex math tasks, the teacher presents three new problems and
forms new groups for students to solve the problem in one or two days.
● In this strategy, students form temporary groups of two to three to solve a new
challenge and work together for one to two days without forming task-specific
roles.

22. Thank you