Managing Your Project-Based Learning: The Phases Approach

by Kate Wolfe Maxlow

One of the reasons that teachers often shy away from Project-Based Learning is the worry about time. When we do training sessions on PBL, that's the main question participants ask: How do we fit this in?

I like to think about it like this: when you workout, do you get the biggest bang for your buck when you work out for 20 minutes every other day, or 60 minutes once a week? It's pretty well accepted that it's the former. Spaced exercise tends to keep us in better shape than one long session.

It's the same way with PBLs. You don't need to shut down your entire classroom for a week or two in order to do a PBL. In fact, it's probably better if you don't, because then students can easily become overwhelmed and not have enough time to do the deep thinking and processing required to complete a bang-up project.

Instead, consider leading up to your PBL throughout an entire unit, or even throughout a quarter or the year, so that by the time you get to the actual implementation phase of the PBL, students are raring to go and can get it completed quickly.

Let me give you an example. One year, my fourth grade team decided to create a museum about the history and geography of our home state, Virginia, that would culminate in a giant museum fair the same day as our PTA event at the end of the first quarter.

Our study of Virginia geography and early history spanned the entire first quarter. At no point did we shut down the classroom. Instead, we peppered in smaller projects throughout lessons. When we learned about the geography,  students made salt dough maps. When we learned about the resources of the regions, they made raps and a few students took the initiative to ask our Instructional Resource Teacher to film them and help them turn their song into a music video. We wrote stories from the point of view of the American Indians before the arrival of the settlers, which students typed up, illustrated, and then made into books.

The actual preparation for the museum itself only took about 2 days. During social studies class, the students drew up a plan for who would bring which of their projects, how to display them, who would man the various stations, and what these docents would say. Everything else was already done by that point. It ended up being a huge success, because it had been implemented in chunks throughout the entire quarter.

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Another project that we did ended in a reverse career fair. Once again, the build-up to it took almost an entire quarter. I started by having students think about a future career they would like. Then, as part of their English class, I had them research the median income for that career AND how much post-high school work would be required in order to achieve that career. Some people who wanted to be police officers switched to brain surgeons once they saw the salaries, then switched back once they realized they would be in school for a really, really long time to accomplish that.

We didn't stop there, though. Once students had their median income, over the course of various mathematics lessons, they built budgets based on their desired careers and potential monthly salaries. They had to factor in the type of house and car that they wanted, groceries, gas, entertainment money, etc.. Some of the students once again refined their career choice.

We kept going. In another lesson (this time in writing) they actually created a resume as if applying for a job in their chosen career. They had to brainstorm and list their educational background (after researching what technical schools or colleges they would need to attend based on their career choice), internships they would have, their skills and strengths. Then they wrote a cover letter.

For the actual PBL itself, the reverse career fair, students dressed as they would for their career. They printed copies of their resumes. Parents came and mingled around, acting as potential interviewers with the students. For instance, "I see you want to be a veterinarian. Where did you go to college? Why do you think you're qualified for this job?" Students distributed their resumes and gave answers based on their research.

Again, we didn't shut down our classroom for two weeks to do this PBL. It was woven in through an entire quarter in small pieces where it made sense with what we were already doing. That allowed me to keep up with my curriculum and pacing. It allowed the students not to get overwhelmed and to think about their choices and refine them as they went. I was able to provide feedback as they went and no one was scrambling at the end because they'd put everything off until the last minute.

Consider how you can phase in your PBL like this. You don't have to do it all at once. In fact, the sooner that you introduce it, the more you can make connections to it throughout the learning. For instance, I once watched a geometry teacher start a unit on geometric probability by saying, "At the end of the this unit, you're going to create a carnival game that uses geometric probability to make the game fun enough to play while ensuring you don't lose money because it's too easy to win." As he went through the mathematics instruction, he would be able to occasionally stop and say, "And you'll use this same process later in the unit on your project..."

You can even use your PBL as your hook in the beginning of the year. For instance, if you're eventually going to have your students write and perform a one-act play, you can tell them at the very beginning of the year. Let them know that you'll work together during the first quarter just to explore various genres of plays. Maybe during the second quarter, they'll work on their outline. During the third quarter, they'll work intensely on the writing of the one act, and during the fourth quarter, they'll work on practicing and planning for the actual event. You can have them work on their one-act whenever they finish their other work early, as well as scheduling maybe 10 minutes a few times a week to get with their group and discuss. By the time you get to fourth quarter, they're going to have a mostly-finished product and you won't have to completely shut down your classroom.

Hopefully, those give you some ideas for how to implement in a way that will actually work for you, your students, and your curriculum.

Kate Wolfe Maxlow is the Professional Learning Coordinator for Hampton City Schools in Hampton, Virginia. She can be reached at kmaxlow@hampton.k12.va.us.