Project Based Learning Challenge Chart

Challenge Points Possible solutions

Teacher Role

• Shifting from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side”

• Seeking out support for a new way of teaching

Put enough structure in place to ensure that student investigation is guided.

Create a compilation of resources, including articles, books, resources guides, online courses, and exemplar PBLS to reference.

Create a network of job-alike professionals also engaged in PBL.

Resources

• Lacking technology

• Providing students with what they need for independent

research and discovery

Design a PBL around the resources you do have.

Be prepared with materials at varying levels for students.

Think outside of the box in terms of what might serve as a “resource” (field trip, classroom visit from expert, interviews, etc.).

Instruction and Assessment

• Monitoring student progress and achievement.

• Providing lessons on content.

Remember you don’t have to “PBL” everything!

Embed learning activities and assessment throughout the process.

Develop a portfolio of assessments and rubrics that you can easily refer back to for quick assessment of students.

Ensuring Authenticity

• Maintaining responsibility to teaching the standards.

• Creating an authentic experience that reflects real-world contexts.

Align each aspect of your project back to your standards.

Ensure that your standards align meaningfully with one another.

Reflect on whether students will benefit from a project-based approach to this particular set of standards.

Look for authentic, real-world, interdisciplinary contexts.

Others?