Quote from here.
Greetings everyone! You have wandered to this post to learn about Project Based Learning
- also known as PBL. I am so happy you are here!
- also known as PBL. I am so happy you are here!
A quick little blurb about me: I’ve been teaching since 2005. I taught 2nd and 3rd grade
before moving down to 1st in 2009. I am certified in Early Childhood and Elementary Edu.
My Master’s degree is in Educational Technology.
before moving down to 1st in 2009. I am certified in Early Childhood and Elementary Edu.
My Master’s degree is in Educational Technology.
My school is a Project Based Learning Focus School. I am deeply passionate about PBL and
feel the need to help others learn about and implement PBL in their classrooms.
This is a long post - I apologize for the length, but it's full of wonderful information! I'm working
on adding pictures to it.
feel the need to help others learn about and implement PBL in their classrooms.
This is a long post - I apologize for the length, but it's full of wonderful information! I'm working
on adding pictures to it.
First of all, to understand project based learning, let’s start off with what PBL is NOT!
Project-Based Learning is not just a project. A project is something that can be done alone.
Projects are about the product and are teacher directed.
Projects all have the same end goal for each student and occur after the learning.
Projects are about the product and are teacher directed.
Projects all have the same end goal for each student and occur after the learning.
For example, imagine you are in my class. “Ok class, per our curriculum, you just learned
about the rainforest. You will each create a diorama of the rainforest. You must include all of
the different layers of the rainforest. You must make the diorama in a shoebox. You must have
3 animals per layer. The animals must be drawn to scale. You must have 3 different rainforest
plants in your diorama.” That is NOT PBL.
So then what is PBL?
PBL requires collaboration and teacher guidance. We act more as facilitators during PBL.
PBL is about the process. The real learning occurs THROUGHOUT the project.
PBL is student directed – where the students have voice and choice. This is a KEY
COMPONENT to PBL. If the students have voice and choice, they have more buy-in.
Buy-in leads to higher levels of student engagement. If they are more engaged – they are
learning more and that is the result we want!
COMPONENT to PBL. If the students have voice and choice, they have more buy-in.
Buy-in leads to higher levels of student engagement. If they are more engaged – they are
learning more and that is the result we want!
Students will also need to present their project to an authentic audience – other classes in the
school, their family, staff…
school, their family, staff…
My principal is in the middle of writing a book about PBL. When I asked her for two things that
I should tell others about PBL, here is what she said.
“PBL is authentic projects that are used as the vehicle for delivering the curriculum.”
Re-read that quote and let it sink in.
“Students don’t just acquire knowledge, they apply it. It is integrated throughout the entire
curriculum.” (As opposed to projects, what usually is limited to one subject area.)
So how did I get started with PBL?
Back when I was in college, I worked part time at a preschool with my mom. Her preschool
adopted the project approach method – very similar to PBL. Her students built a mini
restaurant in their classroom. Why? They were interested in it. They asked so many
questions about restaurants. Due to their curiosity, they took a field trip to a nearby restaurant,
learned how to cook the food there, learned about menus, prices, etc…After their field trip,
those kids got to work! They created their own menus – complete with prices, curtains for the
restaurants, etc….They eventually brought in parents and sat them down in the restaurant for
some food. It was adorable!
adopted the project approach method – very similar to PBL. Her students built a mini
restaurant in their classroom. Why? They were interested in it. They asked so many
questions about restaurants. Due to their curiosity, they took a field trip to a nearby restaurant,
learned how to cook the food there, learned about menus, prices, etc…After their field trip,
those kids got to work! They created their own menus – complete with prices, curtains for the
restaurants, etc….They eventually brought in parents and sat them down in the restaurant for
some food. It was adorable!
Around 8 years ago, the county I work in introduced a new curriculum, based on the Common
Core Standards. The curriculum was meant to be an integrated curriculum, meaning what
we’re doing in Social Studies is being intertwined with Science, Reading, Math, and Writing.
The curriculum was meant to be full of lesson seeds, - also known as “suggested lessons.” If
we didn’t like something about the lesson – the book they used, the way they told us to teach it,
etc…we have the freedom to change the lesson and teach it the way we see fit, the way that
we will best be able to reach our students! My principal took advantage of this opportunity and
encouraged us to start using PBL in our classroom.
Before I continue, I must add that I am that CRAZY teacher who likes to take risks and GO BIG.
You do not need to be a crazy teacher or go big in order for PBL to work. It is perfectly okay to
do something small scale! (Especially if you are still getting your feet wet in the PBL pool.)
I was excited to do PBL with my 1st graders. It was a bit challenging though to get started.
One of the things I loved to teach was the rainforest. We do a young geographers project,
and focus on Brazil. One of the books we read is The Great Kapok Tree.
learned about the rainforest. You all are going to create a mural now of the rainforest.” There
wasn’t a lot of voice and choice to this mural. There wasn’t a presentation to anyone – it just
hung in the hallway.
Over the course of several years, my rainforest project not only became bigger, but I
wasn’t a lot of voice and choice to this mural. There wasn’t a presentation to anyone – it just
hung in the hallway.
Over the course of several years, my rainforest project not only became bigger, but I
implemented more and more PBL. I started incorporating more student voice and choice –
Which animals do you want to have in our rainforest? How do you want to make your animal?
Where should you place your animal? We started giving tours to the other classes, to staff,
and to parents. The students had to decide the most important pieces of information about
each animal and they carefully wrote out their scripts – which they practiced over and over!
Which animals do you want to have in our rainforest? How do you want to make your animal?
Where should you place your animal? We started giving tours to the other classes, to staff,
and to parents. The students had to decide the most important pieces of information about
each animal and they carefully wrote out their scripts – which they practiced over and over!
All of the rich informational texts they were reading, in conjunction with practicing their lines
over and over, led to every student jumping at least three reading levels over the course of
one month! This includes my lowest student who had been on a reading behavior all year!
It was an amazing transformation to see!
over and over, led to every student jumping at least three reading levels over the course of
one month! This includes my lowest student who had been on a reading behavior all year!
It was an amazing transformation to see!
This is a picture of the rainforest project in its 3rd of 4th year:
Our rainforest was just in the hallway.
Eventually, my room was turned into a rainforest – complete with trees, animals, waterfall,
mist, animal noises – EVERYTHING! My students gave tours to most of the classes in the
school, many staff, and parents.
mist, animal noises – EVERYTHING! My students gave tours to most of the classes in the
school, many staff, and parents.
Click here for a video tour of the rainforest.
If you are interested in seeing the different areas of the curriculum where I fit the rainforest
project, click here.
After that year, I was rainforested out. (Yes, I turned that into a verb.)
I didn’t even want to think about doing another rainforest again. So I turned to my students. I project, click here.
After that year, I was rainforested out. (Yes, I turned that into a verb.)
gave them a list of things I had done in the past with my students, as well as a list of other
things I thought we could do. The most important thing I said to them though was, “What
other ideas do you have that you think we could do for a big project?” One of my boys raised
his hand and said, “Let’s make a movie theater,” to which I responded, “Well, I like your idea,
but we can’t just make a movie theater. We need something else to go with it. We need
something more.” So he replied back with, “Let’s make a movie to show in our movie theater.”
After getting several other suggestions from students, we put it to a vote, and the class
overwhelmingly chose to make a movie.
They were ecstatic! They wanted to get started right away! I asked them for ideas on what
things I thought we could do. The most important thing I said to them though was, “What
other ideas do you have that you think we could do for a big project?” One of my boys raised
his hand and said, “Let’s make a movie theater,” to which I responded, “Well, I like your idea,
but we can’t just make a movie theater. We need something else to go with it. We need
something more.” So he replied back with, “Let’s make a movie to show in our movie theater.”
After getting several other suggestions from students, we put it to a vote, and the class
overwhelmingly chose to make a movie.
They were ecstatic! They wanted to get started right away! I asked them for ideas on what
our movie should be about – and you can tell what time of year it was because they all wanted
the movie to be about Halloween. I looked at my students and said, “I love your enthusiasm
for this, but our movie can’t be a Halloween movie. By the time this is all said and done, it will
be May / June – definitely not time for Halloween! But lucky for you, we have some time to
figure this out. We will keep thinking and talking.”
A few weeks later, the students were learning about force and motion. I was showing them a
the movie to be about Halloween. I looked at my students and said, “I love your enthusiasm
for this, but our movie can’t be a Halloween movie. By the time this is all said and done, it will
be May / June – definitely not time for Halloween! But lucky for you, we have some time to
figure this out. We will keep thinking and talking.”
A few weeks later, the students were learning about force and motion. I was showing them a
clip from Discovery Education. I paused the clip to compare something they said to hitting a
hockey puck. The students looked at me like I had three heads. They mainly know football
and soccer. So I showed them some clips of my favorite player, TJ Oshie of the Washington
Capitals. They were hooked on hockey after that! Every day they asked me, “Can we learn
about hockey today? Will you teach us about hockey? Please?” I started teaching them
about the player positions, how to interpret game stats, all about the Washington Capitals
players, etc….and one day, a student piped up with, “Hey, our movie should be a hockey
movie!” Before I could say anything, all of the kids screamed, “YES!!!!!!” Thus began the
journey of our hockey movie.
One of the changes my principal wanted to see in terms of our PBL was more authentic math.
hockey puck. The students looked at me like I had three heads. They mainly know football
and soccer. So I showed them some clips of my favorite player, TJ Oshie of the Washington
Capitals. They were hooked on hockey after that! Every day they asked me, “Can we learn
about hockey today? Will you teach us about hockey? Please?” I started teaching them
about the player positions, how to interpret game stats, all about the Washington Capitals
players, etc….and one day, a student piped up with, “Hey, our movie should be a hockey
movie!” Before I could say anything, all of the kids screamed, “YES!!!!!!” Thus began the
journey of our hockey movie.
One of the changes my principal wanted to see in terms of our PBL was more authentic math.
With the rainforest project, there was only so much authentic math I could do. This was mainly
height, length, and weight of rainforest animals, how far animals could jump, and height of
rainforest plants and trees. With the hockey project, we were OOZING authentic math out of
our ears! I could go on and on about this so I’m just going to highlight three of the things:
1) Interpreting game stats was ALL authentic math! I even had the opportunity to teach my
1st graders basic multiplication during this time. Let me tell you, they could interpret
game stats like nobody’s business! You can read about that here.
2) Since the students were going to transform a room in the school into a movie theater, we
needed to figure out how many seats we could fit into a room. You can read all about that
here, here, and here.
3) The students hit a hockey puck down the hall and measured how far it went using
nonstandard units of measurement. You can read about that here.
height, length, and weight of rainforest animals, how far animals could jump, and height of
rainforest plants and trees. With the hockey project, we were OOZING authentic math out of
our ears! I could go on and on about this so I’m just going to highlight three of the things:
1) Interpreting game stats was ALL authentic math! I even had the opportunity to teach my
1st graders basic multiplication during this time. Let me tell you, they could interpret
game stats like nobody’s business! You can read about that here.
2) Since the students were going to transform a room in the school into a movie theater, we
needed to figure out how many seats we could fit into a room. You can read all about that
here, here, and here.
3) The students hit a hockey puck down the hall and measured how far it went using
nonstandard units of measurement. You can read about that here.
We realized we were going to need more people in our hockey movie so we teamed up with a
fourth grade class. This was the most amazing thing ever! Those fourth graders took my first
graders under their wings. They developed quite the relationship.
Note: We did a hockey movie again this year. Once again, the fourth and first graders bonded
so nicely. The older students will ALWAYS have protect and look out for my kids.
fourth grade class. This was the most amazing thing ever! Those fourth graders took my first
graders under their wings. They developed quite the relationship.
Note: We did a hockey movie again this year. Once again, the fourth and first graders bonded
so nicely. The older students will ALWAYS have protect and look out for my kids.
I have many links on my blog about both projects so please browse through it.
I could go on an on about our hockey movies, but this is already so long and I still have a lot to
I could go on an on about our hockey movies, but this is already so long and I still have a lot to
discuss. In addition to checking out the links I’ve already posted, here are a few more:
This link will take you to the indicators which my hockey project fell under.
We filmed a large majority of the movies in our gym. Here is a video tour of the gym.
We also had a locker room scene. Locker room tour
Here is our movie theater. Movie theater tour
While I’m thinking about, let me tell you about our theater. The classes signed up for a time
to come to the movie. We accommodated 2-3 classes for each time slot. Every class that
signed up received tickets tailored to their specific time slot. As the classes approached, my
students and the 4th grade students went into job mode.
First stop, the ticket counter:
We had ticket stampers who stamped the tickets of everyone. If someone didn’t have a ticket,
we had extras on hand.
Then, everyone followed the red velvet ropes to the snack bar.
Everyone went inside and my “ushers” sat everyone down.
After a brief introduction from me, one student worked the computer, and one student turned
off the lights.
At the end of the movie, I had students sweeping up the mess on the floor.
With all of that being said, here are the movies they’ve made:
At the end of the movie, I had students sweeping up the mess on the floor.
With all of that being said, here are the movies they’ve made:
2018 Movie
Bless you if you are still reading this. I appreciate it!
I know you are wondering what projects you can do with your students so here are some
Bless you if you are still reading this. I appreciate it!
I know you are wondering what projects you can do with your students so here are some
projects other teachers in my school have done. (I try to add in additional information when I
can!)
Kindergarten:
can!)
Kindergarten:
- Animal research projects
- Artist research project - which resulted in the K students creating art projects and giving
tours - Seasons of an apple tree PBL - made applesauce with parents near the end
- Shark research project
- Rainforest
- Hockey Movie
- Zoo Art Gallery
- Community project - the students created a community out of recycled materials. They
gave tours of their community - why they chose those locations, how they made them,
what happens at each place, etc… - Animal research projects
2nd Grade:
- Escape room
- Solar system
- Coral reef
- Habitats / landforms
- Animal research
3rd Grade:
- Designing a car
- Great Pumpkin Race
- Extreme weather
- Heritage projects
- Opera - this is an AMAZING project done by Mary Ruth McGinn! Here are some links
of hers you should really check out:- Opera Blog
- Authentic Learning Website
- Authentic Learning class she is offering this summer
- Webinar on the opera project
- This year’s class also performed their opera at Millennium Stage at the Kennedy
Center. Here’s the video for that
4th Grade:
- Heroes
- Motown Review
- Arcade
- Hockey movie (with my class)
- Science Fair
- African American Inventors
- Native Americans
- Mars
- Harlem Renaissance
- Pompeii
- Time Travel
- Historical Revolutionary War Dolls
- Colonial Feast
I’m sure I have just given you all a lot to think about, but the question you might have now is,
“How do I get started?” Here are a few tips:
1. Start small! As I said in the beginning, you don’t have a to do a huge year long project.
Your PBL can be something that’s done in a day, several days, a week, etc….Even if all
you are doing is giving them voice and choice over how they make / present their project,
that is a step in the right direction!
2. Be flexible and let go of control! This is the hardest thing for teachers! I promise you it’s
worth it. Here’s an example.
During the first year of our hockey movie, my students BEGGED ME to let them make
penalty boxes for our classroom. I sat the class down, split them into two groups, and
said, “With your group, you will collaborate with each other and create a plan on how to
build your penalty box. You can use any of the materials I have out. Come up with a
plan and then get to work.”
In the middle of them working, a non-classroom teacher came into the room and started
observing the students in action. She wanted to help my students and started to say,
“You should really do it this way.” I pulled her to side and explained why I wasn’t helping
them and why I was letting them do it on their own. Their creativity will shine. She
understood and even exclaimed, “I can’t imagine how hard that is to let go of control!”
#Truth
3. HAVE FUN! If you aren’t having fun, your students aren’t having fun. Do it with a smile
During the first year of our hockey movie, my students BEGGED ME to let them make
penalty boxes for our classroom. I sat the class down, split them into two groups, and
said, “With your group, you will collaborate with each other and create a plan on how to
build your penalty box. You can use any of the materials I have out. Come up with a
plan and then get to work.”
In the middle of them working, a non-classroom teacher came into the room and started
observing the students in action. She wanted to help my students and started to say,
“You should really do it this way.” I pulled her to side and explained why I wasn’t helping
them and why I was letting them do it on their own. Their creativity will shine. She
understood and even exclaimed, “I can’t imagine how hard that is to let go of control!”
#Truth
3. HAVE FUN! If you aren’t having fun, your students aren’t having fun. Do it with a smile
on your face! Fake it if you have to! If you and your students are having fun, the
possibilities are endless! A few examples of how the fun spread:
possibilities are endless! A few examples of how the fun spread:
- During one of our rainforest tours, a parent told me that for Mother's Day, her daughter told
her she wanted to buy her a Macaw. :-) - Over the course of 2 hockey movies, I’ve created at least 34 hockey fans. This
does not include their parents - all of whom are hockey fans now, their extended
family members, or the fourth graders. - One student from last year, took to hockey so much, he is now learning how to
play hockey. He has also researched hockey all on his own. - During the recent Stanley Cup Championship, which my team won, (YAY,) parents
were emailing me pictures of their kids watching the game, wearing their Caps
shirts I gave them, and more. It was AMAZING!
I have just a couple more links to post:
- My interview with School Outfitters about PBL
- More PBL links from School Outfitters
- Our school’s PBL video
- Once again, my blog
I think I have posted everything I want to say. As I stated earlier, I will be adding pictures to this.
I need to do research to find those pictures so it might be awhile. Please continue to visit this
entry and see if it's been updated.
If you have ANY questions, please email me: Stacey_H_Lynch@mcpsmd.org.
I need to do research to find those pictures so it might be awhile. Please continue to visit this
entry and see if it's been updated.
If you have ANY questions, please email me: Stacey_H_Lynch@mcpsmd.org.
I would love to see PBL take off so if I can be of any help, I will gladly do it!
Love,
Love,
Stacey
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