Building+Up+To+Project-Based+Learning

Teacher's Toolkit: Building Up to Project Based Learning [[image:school5.jpg align="right"]]
- **Information Management** - **Blueprint for planning** a long term project - **Scaffolding strategies** for teaching the skills students need to tackle Project Based Learning. - **Phase assessments** to help the kids stay on task and on target.
 * Aims for Project Based Learning:**

When my daughters were little girls I decided I would put together a Victorian dollhouse for them. I bought a kit from the craft store, but when I got it home, all I found were window frames and baggies full of what looked like matchsticks to me. Apparently, I was actually going to have to BUILD the dollhouse, with directions that were translated from Chinese. I had NEVER done anything like this. I couldn't even get the cap off of the glue. Needless to say, the dollhouse, in various stages of completion, became a fixture on my kitchen table for months. We even ate in the dining room for over a year. That dollhouse eventually found its way to the garage, unfinished, where it lived until my oldest daughter got married. I’m not sure to this day what happened to it. I hope it found a loving home.

This session, Building Up to Project Based Learning, is a toolkit to help you plan your own long term student projects so that you don’t feel like I did with the dollhouse – committed to a project that just does not seem to be working. - **Blueprint for planning** a long term project From Buck Institute for Education

- **Scaffolding strategies** for teaching the skills students need to tackle Project Based Learning.

- **Phase assessments** to help the kids stay on task and on target. Assessments in Project Based Learning are aimed at measuring content knowledge and skills such as collaboration, communication, problem solving, and teamwork. Learn how to match project outcomes with assessment strategies and rubrics. In addition, schedule several intermittent assessments of the various work phases involved in the project. Create a rubric for **each** of these assessments. [|Plan the Assessment] This site takes you directly to the "Key Steps in Designing an Assessment" page on the PBL online website.

[|Vermont Alliance for the Social Studies: Project Based Learning in Social Studies] The state of Vermont has created a step by step outline for planning Social Studies specific PBL projects. There are links here to additional web based resources.


 * Examples of Social Studies Projects**

[|WWII Home Front Scrapbook.doc] Just as today, scrapbooks were very popular with Americans during World War II. In their scrapbooks, they saved photographs, letters, newspaper articles and telegrams. The project task is to create a Word Document, Wiki, or Glog of several pages which mimics those WWII scrapbooks. Students will work with a partner or in groups of three and will turn in one scrapbook together. This project is designed for use in a high school US history class and is an abbreviated example of a PBL activity.

[|Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the Civil War]
 * Valley of the Shadow** is the best example of the use of technology to stimulate history inquiry by examining two communities during the Civil War, each from the North and South. A data base of thousands of primary resources allows students to ask questions as well as follow a story. Complete with teaching guides. Excellent for middle school.

[|With Miles to Go Before I Sleep: Our Journey on the Underground Railroad] The year is 1850. The [|Fugitive Slave Law] has just passed -- bad news for you and your small group of fellow runaways who have just managed a narrow escape from slavery in the South landing in Ripley, Ohio. Alas, you thought you would be free. Now, you're going to have to carefully navigate your way to freedom through Ohio to Canada with the help of the Underground Railroad.

[|Hiking the Appalachian Trail] Houghton Miflin's offering for a geography based lesson on the eastern US seaboard. In addition to exploring several excellent websites, students must also complete the following below. This site also includes a solid overview of Project Based Learning. **The Project** Your project is to present a detailed plan of your hike. You need to also have it reviewed by an expert in the field, preferably, a person who has hiked either all, or a substantial part of the trail. Your plan should include:
 * a budget
 * a list of supplies and equipment
 * plans for lodging
 * a list of drop-off points
 * safety precautions
 * anticipated weather conditions
 * a weekly estimate of mileage covered
 * where your team should be on Monday morning of each week during your adventure.