Leading Project-Based Schools
Essential Question:
How can we inspire and support teachers in designing and implementing successful projects?
How can we inspire and support teachers in designing and implementing successful projects?
In Search of Exhibition
I try typing in “exhibition." No, too many definitions and information about museums. How about “exhibition of student work”... That's better, but mostly citing college or university students displaying their senior projects or artwork.
Maybe “pbl exhibition"? No, pbl apparently also stands for "professional basketball league" and "performance based logistics" although a few relevant video links pop up.
"Project based learning exhibition” gets closer but still focuses mostly on the "project based learning" part of the equation. I know: “planning project based learning exhibition”...
I teach at a “traditional” school and when I decided to embrace project-based learning I was surprised at how difficult it was to find information about exhibiting student work. There were tons of resources, examples, charts, planning tools etc. for project-based learning...but a dearth of sources for planning and maximizing the exhibition of student work. So much of project based learning depends on students creating valuable, sharable work; I was surprised to find the topic of exhibition tossed around so lightly--as if everyone could just sort of "get" how to plan for and manage a good exhibition.
One of the most useful suggestions I received while learning about project-based curriculum was to use the principles of "backwards design." That it, decide what you want students to be able to do at the end of the project and work backwards from there. Once you know what you want students to do you can design a project that will incorporate these skills or abilities. When deciding your project, it is equally important to know how your students are going to exhibit their learning. It is easy to plan "fun" projects that have no substantial or measurable learning involved or to plan projects without considering how the learning will be shared with an authentic audience. By beginning with the end goal in mind, your project will have purpose and academic rigor.
In my case, I wanted my students to master the four writing genres we study this year by revising and publishing meaningful work as part of a narrative-based role-playing game. Our exhibition? A family game night where families would actually play the games and characters created by my students. But how to plan for this exhibition? How to manage the students? Prepare them to present? Evaluate the success of the exhibition?
Fortunately, I was surrounded by many experienced practitioners in the School Leadership and Teacher Leadership program. They helped answer my questions and point me in the right direction. Below, I have listed several resources that were tremendously helpful to me while working on my project plan. Unfortunately, I didn't find one solid resource that would really help craft a solid exhibition. Many sites offered to share teachers' ideas for projects...but I didn't find many sharing the nitty-gritty of exhibiting the work. For example, I each 110 students. How can I creatively engage ALL students in exhibiting their work? How can I engage the audience with that much work on display? I don't want a science-fair-style stale display of end results, but an interactive, take-away-something experience for our guests. I want students to feel that their work impacted the guests and for the guests to appreciate not just how pretty the final products are, but also the complexity of thought that went into creating such fine products. Lastly, I want to make sure that lessons are learned from exhibiting the work--exhibition shouldn't be the last piece of the unit, but a point to reflect upon, a learning experience in and of itself.
I still have many questions and uncertainties about project-based learning and exhibiting student work. Realistically, it is something I will carry out next year: I need time to learn and prepare; my students will need time to learn to think and act in a project-based environment and neither of these conditions are unfolding this late into the school year. Although this project is tabled for now due to lack of time and support at my school, ultimately, ironically, logically, the process of planning an exhibition has been and will be a truly project-based learning experience for me!
Looking at this process through the lens of a school leader, I realize how important support is for teachers when they are inspired or asked to try something new. I want to work with peers who are innovative and willing to stretch and grow as practitioners; therefore, I need to create supports and goals that give staff a safe (and sane) place to do their work. Doing pbl in isolation is miserable. Project-based learning is not lock-step and yet still needs an amazing amount of planning and preparation. Were I to lead a pbl school, I would encourage my staff to start with modifying existing pbl ideas (from fellow staff or from sites like pbl-online.org) before trying to construct their first project. Also, the class periods would need to be arranged with time enough for students to “get messy” with their learning and for staff to have time to plan and prepare resources, materials, and guest speakers. As a leader, I would want a culture of collaboration so that ideas could be shared, bounced around, refined, and supported. Like all curriculum approaches, pbl is only successful if implemented well--otherwise it just becomes a gimmick or, worse, a fruitless use of student learning time, something no leader wants to see happen.Below, are the resources I have found most helpful as I learn about and experiment with pbl. To show some of the results of my efforts thus far, I have also attached the archetype for my project idea -- which centers around role-playing games.
I try typing in “exhibition." No, too many definitions and information about museums. How about “exhibition of student work”... That's better, but mostly citing college or university students displaying their senior projects or artwork.
Maybe “pbl exhibition"? No, pbl apparently also stands for "professional basketball league" and "performance based logistics" although a few relevant video links pop up.
"Project based learning exhibition” gets closer but still focuses mostly on the "project based learning" part of the equation. I know: “planning project based learning exhibition”...
I teach at a “traditional” school and when I decided to embrace project-based learning I was surprised at how difficult it was to find information about exhibiting student work. There were tons of resources, examples, charts, planning tools etc. for project-based learning...but a dearth of sources for planning and maximizing the exhibition of student work. So much of project based learning depends on students creating valuable, sharable work; I was surprised to find the topic of exhibition tossed around so lightly--as if everyone could just sort of "get" how to plan for and manage a good exhibition.
One of the most useful suggestions I received while learning about project-based curriculum was to use the principles of "backwards design." That it, decide what you want students to be able to do at the end of the project and work backwards from there. Once you know what you want students to do you can design a project that will incorporate these skills or abilities. When deciding your project, it is equally important to know how your students are going to exhibit their learning. It is easy to plan "fun" projects that have no substantial or measurable learning involved or to plan projects without considering how the learning will be shared with an authentic audience. By beginning with the end goal in mind, your project will have purpose and academic rigor.
In my case, I wanted my students to master the four writing genres we study this year by revising and publishing meaningful work as part of a narrative-based role-playing game. Our exhibition? A family game night where families would actually play the games and characters created by my students. But how to plan for this exhibition? How to manage the students? Prepare them to present? Evaluate the success of the exhibition?
Fortunately, I was surrounded by many experienced practitioners in the School Leadership and Teacher Leadership program. They helped answer my questions and point me in the right direction. Below, I have listed several resources that were tremendously helpful to me while working on my project plan. Unfortunately, I didn't find one solid resource that would really help craft a solid exhibition. Many sites offered to share teachers' ideas for projects...but I didn't find many sharing the nitty-gritty of exhibiting the work. For example, I each 110 students. How can I creatively engage ALL students in exhibiting their work? How can I engage the audience with that much work on display? I don't want a science-fair-style stale display of end results, but an interactive, take-away-something experience for our guests. I want students to feel that their work impacted the guests and for the guests to appreciate not just how pretty the final products are, but also the complexity of thought that went into creating such fine products. Lastly, I want to make sure that lessons are learned from exhibiting the work--exhibition shouldn't be the last piece of the unit, but a point to reflect upon, a learning experience in and of itself.
I still have many questions and uncertainties about project-based learning and exhibiting student work. Realistically, it is something I will carry out next year: I need time to learn and prepare; my students will need time to learn to think and act in a project-based environment and neither of these conditions are unfolding this late into the school year. Although this project is tabled for now due to lack of time and support at my school, ultimately, ironically, logically, the process of planning an exhibition has been and will be a truly project-based learning experience for me!
Looking at this process through the lens of a school leader, I realize how important support is for teachers when they are inspired or asked to try something new. I want to work with peers who are innovative and willing to stretch and grow as practitioners; therefore, I need to create supports and goals that give staff a safe (and sane) place to do their work. Doing pbl in isolation is miserable. Project-based learning is not lock-step and yet still needs an amazing amount of planning and preparation. Were I to lead a pbl school, I would encourage my staff to start with modifying existing pbl ideas (from fellow staff or from sites like pbl-online.org) before trying to construct their first project. Also, the class periods would need to be arranged with time enough for students to “get messy” with their learning and for staff to have time to plan and prepare resources, materials, and guest speakers. As a leader, I would want a culture of collaboration so that ideas could be shared, bounced around, refined, and supported. Like all curriculum approaches, pbl is only successful if implemented well--otherwise it just becomes a gimmick or, worse, a fruitless use of student learning time, something no leader wants to see happen.Below, are the resources I have found most helpful as I learn about and experiment with pbl. To show some of the results of my efforts thus far, I have also attached the archetype for my project idea -- which centers around role-playing games.
medieval_game_inquiry--overview_directions_1.pdf | |
File Size: | 84 kb |
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My favorite useful resources:
Coalition of Essential Schools
The CES website is a treasure trove of articles, recommendations, and templates for project-based learning and a multitude of other innovative teaching practices. They host a National Exhibition Month in May specifically to encourage other schools to exhibit student work and share the experience of exhibition.
This link is to their RESOURCES page--at the bottom you can search by keyword "exhibition" or click on the word "exhibition" in the tag cloud.
Here, you can explore more about NATIONAL EXHIBITION MONTH including this great PLANNING GUIDE.
I found these SPECIFIC EXAMPLES useful because they describe and analyze actual exhibitions:
Anatomy of an Exhibition
Representing: Elementary to the Exhibition of Learning
Presenting Themselves with Power and Passion
Youtube videos
These videos show a range of interpretations on "exhibition" and I found this good food for thought. Was I aiming for a more academic or social event? Would there be individual, small group, or larger group displays? What would the guests be doing and how would they be organized? Would there be a clear start time or a free and open schedule? Seeing actual exhibition footage was a great insight.
High Tech High, High Tech Middle, and High Tech High Media Arts Exhibition Night 2008: students are set up convention style with displays and examples of their work, ready to explain and show off to anyone who comes by to inquire.
Tohoku International School Science Exhibition Night #2 : a traditional posterboard display with students and parents looking and asking some questions from students--I was very interested in the teacher's directions to students at the end: either fold up your poster to take home later OR fold up your poster and take it to the rubbish.
YES Prep West Exhibition Night: although the work seems to be limited to a large poster paper, the detail and thought behind the work are impressive as one student explains her project.
Exhibition Night at Odyssey School - First Grade: two first grade students answer questions that an adult (parent? teacher?) asks from a sheet of paper. The students are engaged with explaining their learning and the work that is around the classroom.
Festival del Sol at High Tech High Chula Vista: this highlights the atmosphere created when the exhibition is school-wide and incorporates members of the community as both guests and exhibitors.
Project-Based Learning and Backwards Design
Here are three very detailed and useful resources if you want additional support for project design.
The Understanding by Design website: all about backwards design
A Backwards Design tool for identifying academic standards/focus
Project-Based Learning online resources: an entire site with step-by-step planning guides and many video resources of actual teachers and students planning and doing project work.