It's no secret that in today's complex world, students face unparalleled demands as they prepare for college, careers, and active citizenship. However, those demands won't be met without a fundamental shift from traditional, teacher-centered instruction toward innovative, student-centered teaching and learning. For schools ready to make such a shift, project-based learning (PBL) offers a proven framework to help students be better equipped to tackle future challenges. Project Based Teachers encourage active questioning, curiosity, and peer learning; create learning environments in which every student has a voice; and have a mastery of content but are also comfortable responding to students' questions by saying, "I don’t know. Let's find out together." In this book, Suzie Boss and John Larmer build on the framework for Gold Standard PBL originally presented in Setting the Standard for Project Based Learning and explore the seven practices integral to Project Based Teaching: Build the Culture Design and Plan Align to Standards Manage Activities Assess Student Learning Scaffold Student Learning Engage and Coach For each practice, the authors present a wide range of practical strategies and include teachers' reflections about and suggestions from their classroom experiences. This book and a related series of free videos provide a detailed look at what's happening in PBL classrooms from the perspective of the Project Based Teacher. Let's find out together. A copublication of ASCD and Buck Institute for Education (BIE).

Plan enriching Project-Based Learning experiences with ease! The book′s companion website features an updated guide to help teachers integrate technology into PBL experiences for online and blended learning instruction. Is project-planning a project in and of itself? Does project-based learning (PBL) feel more like a pipe dream than a reality in your classroom? Dr. Jennifer Pieratt, a consultant and former teacher herself, knows just where you′re coming from. Developed from the author′s experience in the trenches of project-based learning over the past decade, this book will lead you through the planning process for an authentic PBL experience in a clear and efficient way. Project-based learning has been found to develop workforce readiness, innovation, and student achievement. In this book, the keys to implementing PBL effectively are explored in a simple, easy-to-use format. In addition to thought-provoking questions for journaling, readers will find a visually accessible style featuring • #realtalk soundbites that honor the challenges to implementing PBL • Tips and resources to support the project-planning process • Planning forms to guide you through planning your projects • Key terminology and acronyms in PBL • Exercises to help you reflect and process throughout your project plans If mastering a PBL framework is on your list, prepare to cross it off with the help of this book! Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards Winner

Designed for those developing open or distance learning materials, this guide describes various kinds of projects along with the appropriate tuition methods, assessment procedures and the expected learning outcome. The tutor's role as supervisor is examined, as are grading and assessment methods.

Everything you need to know to lead effective and engaging project-based learning! Are you eager to try out project-based learning, but don't know where to start? How do you ensure that classroom projects help students develop critical thinking skills and meet rigorous standards? Find the answers in this step-by-step guide, written by authors who are both experienced teachers and project-based learning experts. Thinking Through Projects shows you how to create a more interactive classroom environment where students engage, learn, and achieve. Teachers will find: A reader-friendly overview of project-based learning that includes current findings on brain development and connections with Common Core standards, Numerous how-to's and sample projects for every K-12 grade level, Strategies for integrating project learning into all main subject areas, across disciplines, and with current technology and social media and Ways to involve the community through student field research, special guests, and ideas for showcasing student work. Whether you are new to project-based learning or ready to strengthen your existing classroom projects, you'll find a full suite of strategies and tools in this essential book.

The untold story of the root cause of America's education crisis--and the seemingly endless cycle of multigenerational poverty. It was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a hidden explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress when it comes to providing every child with a quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats: lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension "skills" at the expense of actual knowledge. In the tradition of Dale Russakoff's The Prize and Dana Goldstein's The Teacher Wars, Wexler brings together history, research, and compelling characters to pull back the curtain on this fundamental flaw in our education system--one that fellow reformers, journalists, and policymakers have long overlooked, and of which the general public, including many parents, remains unaware. But The Knowledge Gap isn't just a story of what schools have gotten so wrong--it also follows innovative educators who are in the process of shedding their deeply ingrained habits, and describes the rewards that have come along: students who are not only excited to learn but are also acquiring the knowledge and vocabulary that will enable them to succeed. If we truly want to fix our education system and unlock the potential of our neediest children, we have no choice but to pay attention.

This book take readers through the step-by-step process of how to create, implement, and assess project based learning (PBL) using a classroom-tested framework. Also included are chapters for school leaders on implementing PBL system wide and the use of PBL in informal settings.

Like most good educational interventions, problem-based learning (PBL) did not grow out of theory, but out of a practical problem. Medical students were bored, dropping out, and unable to apply what they had learned in lectures to their practical experiences a couple of years later. Neurologist Howard S. Barrows reversed the sequence, presenting students with patient problems to solve in small groups and requiring them to seek relevant knowledge in an effort to solve those problems. Out of his work, PBL was born. The application of PBL approaches has now spread far beyond medical education. Today, PBL is used at levels from elementary school to adult education, in disciplines ranging across the humanities and sciences, and in both academic and corporate settings. This book aims to take stock of developments in the field and to bridge the gap between practice and the theoretical tradition, originated by Barrows, that underlies PBL techniques.

Are you interested in using project based learning to revamp your lessons, but aren't sure how to get started? Award-winning teacher and Edutopia blogger Heather Wolpert-Gawron makes it fun and easy! She encourages students and teachers alike to abandon their dusty textbooks, and instead embrace a form of curriculum design focused on student engagement, innovation, and creative problem-solving.

This brand-new elementary science methods text uses an innovative applied approach and is authored by three leaders in the field. The text takes a constructivist approach and practices this approach by engaging students in reflective thought and investigations.Project-based science engages young learners in exploring authentic, important, and meaningful questions of real concern to students. Through a dynamic process of investigation and collaboration and using the same processes and technologies that real scientists use, students work in teams to formulate questions, make predictions, design investigations, collect and analyze data, make products and share ideas. Students learn fundamental science concepts and principles that they apply to their daily lives. Project-based science helps all students regardless of culture, race, or gender engage in science learning.The book is packed with numerous examples so that the reader can easily understand points that are made throughout the book. Each chapter has activity boxes with experiments that exemplify the project-based approach. The book provides useful tips, charts, diagrams, and tables that illustrate how to get children doing investigations. The text's dynamic teaching methods match all of today's major science education reports including The National Science Education Standards, Project 2061: Science for All Americans, and Benchmarks for Science Literacy.

Teaching Science in Elementary and Middle School offers in-depth information about the fundamental features of project-based science and strategies for implementing the approach. In project-based science classrooms students investigate, use technology, develop artifacts, collaborate, and make products to show what they have learned. Paralleling what scientists do, project-based science represents the essence of inquiry and the nature of science. Because project-based science is a method aligned with what is known about how to help all children learn science, it not only helps students learn science more thoroughly and deeply, it also helps them experience the joy of doing science. Project-based science embodies the principles in A Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards. Blending principles of learning and motivation with practical teaching ideas, this text shows how project-based learning is related to ideas in the Framework and provides concrete strategies for meeting its goals. Features include long-term, interdisciplinary, student-centered lessons; scenarios; learning activities, and "Connecting to Framework for K–12 Science Education" textboxes. More concise than previous editions, the Fourth Edition offers a wealth of supplementary material on a new Companion Website, including many videos showing a teacher and class in a project environment.