Sorry for the small font. The most difficult aspect of PBL is simply making it work with everything else regarding the demands of evaluation, available technology, state standards, communication between students, etc. I find that what I start with is not what I end with, in other words, it changes as it goes and upon reflection I see where I could have done something different. Rubrics are the hardest part, not because of planning but because of student creativity. Teachers have to come up with the highest order of Blooms questions that are difficult to answer but also connect personally to a student's life. Meaning is everything, period. If you can connect something to people's natural curiosity you will engage them. I have three PBL projects going on right now. I read an article just before school started that depression rates in students 14-17 have risen 60% over an 8 year period. I have taught Psychology for years, but instead of marching into the curriculum I posed this question to students and we spent about two weeks researching it, pondering reasons, hypotheses, etc. Students made Google slides presentations and they presented as final products. So: a real world authentic question that pertains to their lives, research that went in twenty different directions, collaboration because they sit in groups and shared emails, project management (sort of, I let them keep digging because they kept finding stuff), a product that was Google slides that each group had access to, and I had them reflect at the end about what this meant to them personally (I need them to reflect on making it better the next time). Then we distilled it down to a handful of what they considered to be primary reasons for depression rates increasing and each class made a "public service announcement" banner that we posted in the halls. Next question? How do the Brain and Gut Microbiome interact to optimize mental health? In US History, we did a Colonial era project in the same vein, and they are now researching the 1619 Project on the impact of Slavery over 400 years. Anyway, in the background is all the typical curriculum and bureaucratic stuff but just practicing the format and improving with each attempt is helpful. Now, if only more teachers would do PBL we could collaborate and reflect and improve on the process so it will take awhile to be the norm. As it is, "digital portfolios" are this year's hot ticket...so PBL has to fit there, too, etc.
