Nine years ago, the word rigorous was pounded into my head. I needed to make sure that my lessons were rigorous (challenging), but they also needed to be world based. In other words, the students needed to be able to apply this to the world around them. The principal who told me this started me down a road where I would constantly think about how to incorporate that into my lessons.

Socratic circles were incorporated into my lessons. Debates were incorporated. Research based on problems were incorporated.

Hands on activities were my students’ favorite. When giving them a project, it involved writing, research, and an output that allowed them to be creative. To keep things achievable, I let them know that being an artist was not the goal. If I saw them working diligently, using their time wisely, and producing a quality product, then they did what I asked them to do.

Prior to that time period, I was unsure how PBL would fit into an ELA classroom. There were plenty of ways for it to fit into a Science, Math, or even Social Studies class, but ELA? It took me realizing that utilizing a problem (an argument about pollution, overpopulation, and food choices in the cafeteria) fit into the curriculum. Reading a novel could provide students with an opportunity to create a project based on the reading. With Restart, they did a project around bullying. When I taught The Giver, they gave each other jobs based on their personality traits and researched those jobs.

In the past, we’ve created board games to teach grammar, movies to create book trailers of favorite books, and held character trials. These are all project based. The challenge isn’t in the what. It’s in the how.

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