EduTopia contributor Stacy Sniegowski has published an interesting article highlighting three steps to getting started with project-based learning.
She says, “Ultimately, implementing any scale of PBL shifts an educator’s assessment skills. You may already know that it’s best practice to use grading as a feedback loop; the loop makes more sense and is easier to apply when students are working on projects that require iteration and multiple edits.
HOW TO GET ROLLING WITH PBL
1. Start small: Behavior is more powerful than belief, so change your behavior first with something concrete, like transforming one unit of instruction. Shift from teaching about triangles to a unit about building bridges. You’ll still introduce essential vocabulary and formulas, but students will be more excited. Change your end-of-unit assessment from multiple choice to one that gives learners more opportunities to show what they know, like an elevator pitch followed by a Q&A.
Offer students experiences that require them to share their knowledge beyond written form. Instead of having them solve equations by hand, allow them to create a coding program or a how-to video. Quickly convert a traditional writing assignment to one where students write a script for a 3-minute video on the same topic.”