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Project-based Learning in the Digital Age�

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Everyone Must Ask…

Why

What

When

Who

How

The big picture – why are we doing this project?

What are our learning outcomes?

What products will we create?

When will we start and finish – timeline needed!

Who will do the work? Who will take on each role?

How will we be successful in this project?

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Driving Questions

Engaging for students.

It is understandable and interesting to students, and it provokes further questions and focuses their inquiry process.

Open-ended.

There are several possible answers, and it cannot simply be Googled.

Aligned with learning goals.

To answer it, students will need to learn the targeted content and skills.

A good driving question is:

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Driving Questions

There are two general types of driving questions:

Driving Questions that explore a philosophical or debatable issue.

Driving Questions that specify a product to be created or a problem to be solved.

Is there liberty and justice for all in our society?

Could there be life on other planets?

What should be our policy on immigration?

What does it mean to be a man?

Does it matter what we eat?

How can we help protect an endangered species in our area?

How can we reduce bullying?

How can we create a guide to our community for new immigrants?

How can we, as historians, create podcasts that tell the story of our city?

Give them a few moment to try to come up with one or two driving questions for each category.

Feedback then Click x2 to reveal ideas.

Then elicit – what are the pros and cons of the two categories?

Driving Questions that explore a philosophical or debatable issue.

Pros: Highly engaging to students; the kind of question they’ll keep talking about when they leave the classroom.

Cons: Harder to write; more difficult for students to conceptualize because the task and product are not spelled out.

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2. Driving Questions that specify a product to be created or a problem to be solved—to which the students’ role may be added, such as:

Pros: Easier to write. Helps focus students on their task in a project. Giving students roles defines the kind of thinking we want students to do (as historians, scientists, etc.), and adds a real-world element

Cons: Can feel less engaging for students; sometimes simply states what the teacher wants students to do. Roles may feel fake to some students; older students in PBL especially may prefer being themselves.

Point out that crucially, students should always be involved in crafting the driving question. High-quality projects always start by valuing the student's voice, when we engage students with an entry event (experience of the topic) and let them ask questions they want to pursue the answers to.

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Driving Questions & Need-to-knows

Driving Question:

“How can we share our stories with the school community, through the mediums of poetry and art?”.

Need-to-know Questions:

How can we communicate our stories with other grades?
How can poetry help to share our stories?
What type of art are we going to use?
What makes a good story?
What impact can our stories have on the world?
How can we mix poetry and art?

Need to know questions come out of the driving question.

The example in this image is from a project carried out with learners (12-13 years of age) and involved a film festival around the ’big idea’ of “Stories have the power to influence change.”.

The students identified a real problem - a lack of connection between parts of the student body in their school.

They framed their driving question as “How can we share our stories with the school community, through the mediums of poetry and art?”.

Elicit what NTKs might come out of this driving question. What would students need to know, in order to answer this question?

Click IN - These are some of the NTK Qs that came out of the original driving question.

INPUT: It is important that these NTKs are meaningful and productive questions—ones you can frame your project around. Students should be encourage dot ask as many questions as they can – all contributions should be gathered in and then some questions are prioritized over other by asking, “Which questions get us to the heart of our project? Which questions are fixed? Open-ended?” This ensures the lines of inquiry students pursue are serving the authentic problem at the center of our project. It also ensures they have a framework to come back to as you move through the phases of our project.

Importantly, “Need to Knows” are not simply posted on the wall and never referred back to. These questions authentically guide the path of the project and should be referred back to throughout.. These questions will lead to further questions which require further exploration and inquiry.

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How / when can we use need to know questions (NTK Qs)?

Before a lesson:

During a lesson:

After a lesson:

At the end of the project:

When planning, refer to the NTK Qs to decide the most appropriate sequence of lessons and activities that will support the students’ inquiry process. For a particular lesson or activity, identify the need to knows that will be addressed.

Revisit the list of NTK Qs at the beginning of the lesson or activity.

Explain how the activity will help students learn the knowledge or skills they will need to answer the question.

End the lesson or activity by referring to the list of NTK Qs in order to gauge which questions have been answered and to identify new questions that have emerged.

Use NTK Qs to guide students’ reflection on their learning in the project.

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Project Walls

Learning outcomes
Driving question
Lists of “What We Know” & “What We Need to Know”
Project calendar/key dates, milestones, and deliverables
Assessment criteria/rubrics
Key language
Students’ work in progress
Product exemplars.

The project wall is a critical part of building a class environment and culture in which students own their learning and work. Having a central place to look for information about what and how they are learning and how they are completing the project supports self-management and accountability, and reduces students’ dependence on the teacher. A project wall can also be a helpful reference when visitors enter your classroom (physically or virtually) —it immediately provides a clear overview of what students are working on, and why (notice board or digital project wall).

While teachers might organize their project walls differently, most project walls display the following components:

Click to reveal each, providing input below:

Learning outcomes

Use the project wall to keep the project’s learning goals (written in student-friendly language) front and center throughout the project.

Driving question

The driving question serves as the anchor for the project. Keeping it in a visible location makes it possible for the class to continually revisit the question and keep track of how what they are learning helps them to answer it.

Lists of “What We Know” and “Questions We Need to Answer”

What students say they already know and the self-generated questions they need to answer in order to complete the project can be tracked visually on the project wall, and updated as students learn. Note that student questions may be about products, process, or content, skills and language. Physical or digital sticky notes can be used to document each question, so that the questions can be moved and updated as they are answered or as they lead to new questions.

Project calendar/Key dates, milestones, and deliverables

Be sure to identify and post important dates, activities, and deadlines relevant to the project. If these dates shift, update the project wall accordingly.

Assessment criteria/rubrics

The quality criteria for project work and final products should be transparent and available to all students throughout the project to support self- and peer-critique and shared ownership of quality work. We will look at creating rubrics later on the course.

Key Language

Post key language as it is met along the way, or as gaps in students language are identified.

Students’ work in progress

Use the project wall to document the project process by showcasing draft students’ work

You might also use the wall to share how students’ work changes and improves over the course of several revision cycles, or to display photographs of students working on field work or engaging in hands-on learning.

Product exemplars.

If you can, showcase/link key exemplars or models to help students understand what quality work looks like. For example, if students are writing editorials, post examples of professional editorials. If students are creating TED talks, post links to good TED talks, etc.

Helpful Hints

Keep in Mind

The project wall will only be meaningful to students if you make it a central part of your project work. Take time to introduce students to the project wall and its purpose early in the school year and again at the beginning of each project. Revisit the driving question and need to know questions frequently, and reference the other resources on the wall as appropriate. When students come to you with questions about deadlines, deliverables, assessment criteria, or vocabulary, redirect them to the project wall. The wall will grow and change over time as students’ work and learning evolve.