Welcome to PBL For Everyone

From Planning to Presentations

Todays Objectives:
Participants will gain background
knowledge about Problem Based Learning
and how to integrate PBL into a standards-
based curriculum and make it successful for
all learners.
Introductions
PBL Overview
Sharing PBL Examples


*Essential Question
*Building Background
knowledge to prepare for
research
*Students generate questions
to answer

*Teacher Produced
*Collect information
to report out
Pre-Standards
Standards Based
Curriculum
RESEARCH
PRODUCTS
TOPIC-CONCEPT
*Teacher directed
research
*Books
*Teacher is the facilitator
*Web-based
*Interviews
*Collaborative
*21
st
Century Skills
*May be student choice
*May present to classroom
*Teacher creates groups
*One group the whole
project
*Student driven *Student Choice
*Includes authentic and meaningful
presentation
*Myriad of products not always
using tech
*Groups form by interest, student
choice w/ guidance, may change
throughout process
RESEARCH
PRODUCTS/GROUPS
ASSESSMENT
*Student input on rubrics
*Standards based
*Listening & speaking crucial
*Many small assessments
along the way to check
standards are being met
*Teacher decision
*One grade at the
end
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
*Set up at the
beginning of the year
for the class to run
smoothly.
*Set up specifically for
student collaboration
and independence

Based on language skills demonstrated on
ACCESS January 2013 or W-Apt Screener
Summer 2013
Divided into language domains (listening,
speaking, reading, writing)
The CAN DO Descriptors provide a starting
point for working with ELLs
Used as a collaborative tool for planning.

What are the CAN DO Descriptors?
To differentiate instruction for our ELL students

To be sure we are making our curriculum
accessible to our ELL students AND our exited ELL
students (They are exited at 4.8are they
functioning as a native speaker?)

To group ELL students with native English
speakers who use English at the same level on
the continuum


Why do we use the CAN DO
Descriptors?

Turn and Talk: How do you share the CAN DO
descriptors with your staff? How do you use the CAN
DO descriptors with your students?

Concept
Develop concept based on recurring themes and patterns in the standards.
Essential
Open ended
Thought provoking
Higher order thinking
skills
Transferrable
Inquiry generating
Requires support
Repeatable over time
Driving
Make the abstract
concrete
Engage students
Open ended
Higher order
thinking skills
Directly connected
to:
Content
Problem
Project



Guiding
Student or teacher
created
Focused research
Numerous
Somewhat open
ended
May be inferential
Basic content
knowledge
Feed the driving
question

These questions FOCUS the work and
frame the important problems or
challenges.
Turn and Talk:

Think about the standards you are currently using,
what overarching concepts and essential questions
can you envision?


Second Grade: Structure and Properties of
Matter
Concept: Change

Essential Question: How does matter change?




Based on these big ideas what
would you use as driving and guiding questions in this
unit?



TOPIC
Building Background Knowledge-For example Life Cycles
SIOP Strategy for Background Knowledge

A problem in the community was identified.
An essential question was formed: How can we as 4
th
graders
help our community?
Making the question more directly linked to our content and the
problem at hand, the driving question was: How can we help
our community raise awareness about the EAB?
Students generated guiding questions to see what direction the
research will take.





Now that the students are aware of the problem they
are trying to solve, they can also begin thinking about
the end product. If we are going to research this,
what will be the result of our work?
Turn and Talk: How do you make sure enough
background information is given to students?

Begin to think about standards you can pull from to
create Essential Questions or Topics for inquiry?



RESEARCH
Web-based research. Use text and web resources responsibly

Collaborative- teams of students with similar questions can work
together to gather information and data

Use community members and other experts-have a bank of experts on
hand for the school or classroom that can be used throughout the year
for different projects

Surveys and interviews-students gain knowledge about the topic by
creating surveys and interview questions


Students are constantly using 21
st
Century Skills throughout
the PBL experience. The research alone calls for
collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and
resilience.
Community Fair Clip

First Graders learned about the life cycle of a plant by
exploring and observing seeds, growing their own plants,
and studying the plant environment in Ben Franklins Courtyard.
Once students learned
what plants need to grow,
they brainstormed ways to
test the variables.
Inquiry wheel
I changed one variable but kept
the other 3 variables the same.




Scientific Inquiry Wheel
Students changed one variable and controlled the other 3.
No Water or Liquid
No Soil / Pasta
No Air / See through box
No Sunlight / Cabinet
PRODUCTS AND GROUPING
Student Grouping:
Interest Based
Product Based
Reflection on collaboration is ongoing
using daily updates and a final
collaboration rubric



Student choice at this point in the experience
allows them to take control of their learning and
become more engaged with the process.
PRODUCTS AND GROUPING

EAB Final Presentation- iMovie

Student Driven Products-Not always
tech based

Authentic Presentations to more
than just peers



Emerald Ash Borer
Glogster Online Posters
Brochures
Power Point Presentations
Turn and Talk: What type of final presentations or
products would be most beneficial for your students
to be a part of?

What do you use to make sure your students are an
active participant in a group?


ASSESSMENT
Standards Based
Short Quizzes along the way
Assess while teaching background
knowledge
Rubrics created with students using
standards

Listening and Speaking Standards can be
assessed with final presentations

Deconstruction Example
Making it Rain


What aspects of Problem Based
Learning do you still have questions
about?