Project Design

Project Design

When designing a project, try following the problem-based learning (PBL) approach. When creating an engaging problem, follow these steps:

1) Make a Problem Map. These are questions about the problem you want to see students answered. You may discover other questions that students want answered, but are not navigable in your community. Write those questions down, but mark them as distractions. The focus isn’t on getting lost with precious cargo. Keep the questions that will move the talk forward, not drop you into the Bermuda Triangle.

2) Revise Your Map into a Learning Map. What curriculum standards/objectives do you want to connect to specific questions? Questions that don’t lead to learning can be cut. Explore the map with you.

3) Plan the path you will take with your students. You will explore what they believe they know, then their guesses and hunches. Use thinking organizers (e.g. KWHL) to scaffold learning potential.

With your learning map and path planned, ask yourself, “How can I connect my classroom to real world problems?”

4) Pitch Your Problem. Craft an elevator pitch you can share with others. Listeners will feel the emotional, learning potential. This is where you can use technology to connect to real world problems or rely on an existing video that captures the essence of the problem.

5) Set group roles. Group roles in a project flow from set expectations. Roles are different from the stakeholder perspective students adopt to try and solve a problem from.

Creating Sustained Engagement and Learning

Once you have worked your way through these steps, you are ready to introduce students to the project or problem. Remember that you can fuel their engagement through the use of current news sources, such as the ones shown below:

Non-fiction reading has gone online, providing access to video and audio sources that deepen engagement. You can combine the news sources below with tools like BeeLine Reader , Read & Write, and/or SummarizeThis to help students better identify and process information.

1. Dogo News – Dogo (which means young or small in Swahili) News provides serves as a leading source of news and information for current events, news and non-fictional content for Common Core ELA, Science and Social Studies. You may also want to visit companion Dogo sites focusing on books, movies, as well as one for teachers.
2. Newsela – Current event articles covering many subjects, each written at five different Lexile levels so all students can read the same material at an appropriate level.
3. Newseum – The goal of this source is to promote, explain and defend free expression. Special attention is given to the five freedoms of the First Amendment, including religion, speech, press, assembly and petition.
4. Science News for Students – This site publishes stories about recent research and current events across the full breadth of STEM fields. We offer several types of articles, blog posts and weekly features. Each article is associated with additional content that can aid the classroom. Stories are grouped into topics, such as “space,” “life & evolution” or “math & technology.”
5. Tween Tribune – Over 200,000 registered teachers are using free Smithsonian teacher tools in their classrooms. The site provides access to Daily AP news articles and self-scoring quizzes (both Lexile leveled for K-12), critical thinking questions, student commenting, Spanish AP articles, weekly lesson plans, weekly videos, and weekend “Monday Morning Ready” newsletter as prep for the week ahead.