How can we create a project-based learning unit plan?
Improving PBL Series
EP1: What are the steps to becoming an impactful PBL educator?
EP2: How can we use portfolios to enhance our teaching practice?
EP3: How can we elevate our PBL unit with community partners?
EP4: How can we create a memorable experience via project-based learning?
EP5: How can we teach standards and implement project-based learning?
EP6: What role does reflection play in the PBL process?
EP7: How can we create a dynamic group culture during project-based learning?
EP8: How can students support a cause via project-based learning?
EP9: How can we promote STEM education via project-based learning?
EP10: How can we get students excited about the project-based learning topic?
EP11: What type of creative artifacts/public products can students create via project-based learning?
EP12: How can we write a project-based learning unit?
EP13: How can we write a compelling scenario for a PBL unit?
As I support teachers to design project-based learning experiences, I notice confusion often arises during phase 5 of the Impactful PBL™ Roadmap planning process. Phase 5 is about creating students' daily learning experiences or lessons. Teachers are usually excited about exploring project-based learning as an instructional method. They believe that project-based learning is a valuable instructional method and agree that students have an opportunity to learn content at a deeper level through PBL due to its real-world context.
However, when asked why they haven't implemented project-based learning in their classroom as of yet or why they don't facilitate a PBL unit often, teachers typically state that time is a factor. I generally hear, "I don't have time for projects because I have to teach the standards or follow the district-provided curriculum." When I hear these sentiments, I immediately know that the teacher is unclear about how to draft a PBL unit plan. This article is for you if you have uttered these statements before. Perhaps, there is some confusion about how to effectively plan for a PBL unit or why it's necessary.
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Planning is an essential component of the PBL process. If you are planning averse, meaning you oppose planning your instructional process, you will be overwhelmed by PBL. Even with a well-planned PBL unit plan, unexpected challenges will arise. However, it’s worth spending time writing a project-based learning unit plan. Let's connect some common planning language to the project-based learning planning process.
The Impactful PBL™ Roadmap planning document guides educators to craft high-performance project-based learning experiences and provides an overview or outline of what standards, content, and activities students will explore during the unit. By the end of the planning process, teachers are prepared to facilitate project-based learning experiences in their classrooms.
When planning a PBL unit, examine the power of backward planning by starting with the learning objectives. After selecting the learning goals, it’s time to create a driving question to guide the project. Remember, a driving question is an overarching question that will guide students' learning during the project-based learning unit. It answers students' common thought: Why are we learning this? The driving question should connect to the learning goals. At this point, you may have a slight idea of the type of public products or solutions that students might want to create but are wondering how to guide students to success.
Draft the project-based learning unit plan
Unit planning provides teachers with a sense of direction and organization during the teaching and learning process. A unit plan takes a major academic topic or standard and breaks down the various skills and concepts into smaller units of information to determine what students need to learn and when they need to know it to master the academic content.
A traditional unit plan consists of concepts and learning goals taught over a few weeks, and it typically provides an overview of numerous daily lesson plans. Sometimes teachers may write "I can" or "Students will" statements to describe what students will learn during the lesson. Follow the same structure when creating a project-based learning unit plan. At this point in the planning process, you will understand how long the actual unit may last, which could be anywhere from a four to six-week PBL experience.
Let’s use the example project prompt.
In September 2018, Hurricane Florence volatile winds, flooding, and thunderstorms severely damaged homes in some North Carolina regions. In some instances, entire home communities were destroyed and needed to be rebuilt. A new home builder would like to create a community of smaller homes between 800 to 1000 square feet. Small houses are becoming popular for some families due to many factors such as lower cost and reduced ecological impact.
How can we use our math skills to help an architect design a floor plan and model for a new community?
Map out what students need to learn to master the learning standards and create a public product to answer the driving question. This strategy will also help estimate how long the PBL unit will last, allowing you to create a project timeline. Some questions to consider:
How long does it usually take to teach this content?
Is this the first time students will explore this content? Introducing new content takes more time since students won't have prior experience with it.
Are there days during your PBL unit when you will not have instructional time (ex: holidays, school events, district assessments)?
Do you plan to teach an interdisciplinary unit by integrating standards outside your content area? If so, do you need to add more instructional time?
Now it's possible to draft daily learning outcomes. Review the first two weeks of an example project calendar. Notice that the teacher recorded what students will learn each day and what they will do daily, such as assessing students' learning needs or facilitating small group instruction. Note that the teacher also included milestones to monitor students' progress.
When drafting the driving question, you may have imagined what type of products or solutions students might create. Estimate how much preparation, revision, and feedback students may need to prepare for the showcase or culminating event and block off days for execution. In the above example, the teacher recorded when students will design their model home, receive feedback, practice their presentation, etc. Once you draft a PBL unit plan, it's time to design the daily learning experiences.
Write the daily lesson plans
A lesson plan is a daily guide for what students need to learn, how it will be taught, and how to evaluate learning. Some teachers utilize the gradual release (I do, we do, you do) model while others use the 5E (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate) model to plan daily lessons. Like with traditional lesson planning, during PBL, it's essential to select appropriate activities, materials, and resources to lead students to achieve the lesson objective, ultimately guiding them to answer the driving question.
While PBL is a student-centered model, it's teacher-facilitated, so it's essential to scaffold student learning to ensure that they obtain the content and the skills necessary to master the learning objective and ultimately craft a solution to answer the driving question. There are a variety of ways to teach content such as through direct instruction, small group instruction, workshop model, stations, labs, etc.
Teachers spend most of the PBL planning process creating the unit plan and daily lesson plans. The length of time depends on how well the teacher knows the standards selected for the unit. For example, if you have experience teaching this content, you most likely have a baseline of lessons and learning activities to modify versus starting from scratch.
However, if this is the first time teaching this content, you will need to determine the logical sequence that students would need to master this content before designing daily lesson plans. One advantage of crafting PBL unit plans is that once completed, teachers have a multi-week blueprint for instruction which saves time during implementation.
Take action:
Utilizing your standards and learning objectives, create a project-based learning unit plan.