How to Choose an Engaging End Product For Your Project Based Learning Unit | E184
May 29, 2024Season 7Episode 184
Magnify Learning
Ever wondered how a learner's final project can become a true testament to their learning journey? That's the heart of our latest episode, where we unravel the secrets to designing end products for project-based learning units that don't just tick boxes but ignite passion. We delve into the significance of authenticity and the art of connecting with learning objectives, ensuring that students' showcases are not mere tasks but rather vibrant celebrations of their newfound knowledge. From podcasts to community events, we explore a plethora of creative ways to align these projects with curriculum standards and real-life applications, all while incorporating the valuable input of community partners and peers into the evaluation process.
Join us as we discuss the power of rubrics in marrying educational standards with learner creativity, ensuring that every voice finds its place in the classroom. With tangible examples ranging from elementary Project Based Learning units like earth fairs to high school Project Based Learning units like literature performances, we illuminate the path to crafting end products that are as diverse as they are educational. Moreover, we emphasize the iterative nature of Project Based Learning—how reflection and adaptation can transform good projects into exceptional learning experiences. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for educators eager to refine their approach so that learners can readily showcase their mastery in ways that resonate both inside and outside the classroom walls.
Some of the links above are affiliate links which means we get a small commission on anything you purchase using that link (at no more cost to you). As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Ever wondered how a learner's final project can become a true testament to their learning journey? That's the heart of our latest episode, where we unravel the secrets to designing end products for project-based learning units that don't just tick boxes but ignite passion. We delve into the significance of authenticity and the art of connecting with learning objectives, ensuring that students' showcases are not mere tasks but rather vibrant celebrations of their newfound knowledge. From podcasts to community events, we explore a plethora of creative ways to align these projects with curriculum standards and real-life applications, all while incorporating the valuable input of community partners and peers into the evaluation process.
Join us as we discuss the power of rubrics in marrying educational standards with learner creativity, ensuring that every voice finds its place in the classroom. With tangible examples ranging from elementary Project Based Learning units like earth fairs to high school Project Based Learning units like literature performances, we illuminate the path to crafting end products that are as diverse as they are educational. Moreover, we emphasize the iterative nature of Project Based Learning—how reflection and adaptation can transform good projects into exceptional learning experiences. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for educators eager to refine their approach so that learners can readily showcase their mastery in ways that resonate both inside and outside the classroom walls.
Some of the links above are affiliate links which means we get a small commission on anything you purchase using that link (at no more cost to you). As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Ryan Steuer:
How to choose an engaging end product for your project-based learning unit. You've got a driving question lined up. You've got a great community partner. We're just like. We've already done the expo. You know, we've already done the panel. What can we do? That would be different and that's a great question. I think you're asking the right question. You want your learners to stay engaged. There are a lot of different options. So I'm going to walk through this end products guide for you and we'll have a description of it in the link and in the show notes.
Ryan Steuer:
So here's your biggest issue, I think, with an end product is you're right, you don't want to be repetitive. If it works, then you don't want to move away from it. But you do want to kind of pepper in different end products. You say, well, I also don't want to create a trifold just to create a trifold, right? So what is an end product and why do we need them? So here are the goals of an end product. You want to be able to demonstrate, you know, learner mastery of your content. Now, ideally, by the time you've gotten to presentation day, you already have the majority of your grading done. You've looked at all the different standards that you're going to master these big beefy standards. You've gone deep into them, you've had community partners in, you have a larger umbrella for the work right. You have a driving question and now this end product is going to be a celebration of learning. You're not going to take all of your deep, big content grades right here on presentation day, but you want your end product to flow and you want it to be meaningful. I think, if you look at a Simon Sinek version, which we're a big fan of, simon Sinek here at Magnify Learning is why, like why, do you have this end product? What's the reason for it? And you want to have that at the very beginning, in the entry event, to kind of bring your learners along and to give context to your learning. That's one of the great benefits of project-based learning, at least that's what the research shows. So it could be something you create, but I would also say it doesn't have to be so.
Ryan Steuer:
We've got a. One of our national model PBL schools had a PBL unit where at the end the learners were going to go have a fancy dinner. They'd learned a lot of employability skills elementary school and they'd learned how to be professional, and now their end product and experience, if you will, is going to be going to a fancy restaurant and, using all of their etiquette skills that they've used, they're going to talk to adults using adult conversations. So they're going to ask really good questions. They're going to look people in the eye and then you write from the very beginning, in the entry event, that that was going to be their end product. So, as they're learning all these other standards-based pieces through workshops and presentations from their teachers, they know that's their end product and they're fired up about it.
Ryan Steuer:
That's really what you want to evoke that emotion with your end product. So you want to fit well Display student research and inquiry. You want your learners to be able to show off the great things that they've been learning to community partners, so that you can again show that the work happening in your classroom is bigger than just your classroom and bigger than just the school. So you want to serve as an authentic product with a clear purpose, which is why you're struggling with this, which is why you're even tuning into these videos. You're like I need more ideas, like I don't want to have just a trifold or a diorama, just to have something that we can touch and show and see. You know that you want it to be authentic, and that's where the struggle comes in and where the struggle comes in, and I'm gonna give you a bunch of examples right here.
Ryan Steuer:
So here are a whole bunch of end products that you can use. You can use the podcast, you can have a panel discussion, you could build a website, and when you build a website or have a blog or a podcast or one of these public displays, I think you kind of shy away from this idea of, hey, millions of people could see it, true, but unlikely, right? So you do want to maybe set up, maybe you have another school in another state that's going to say, hey, we're also doing this eighth grade standard, just like you are, and my learners can comment on your blogs, and your learners can comment on our blogs, and you can develop something like that. So you can definitely be an authentic end product that works well for you. You just want to make sure that it fits well. So a whole bunch of other options that you've got on the screen. You've got proposals movies, plays, children's books, artwork, a walkathon all these can really work. And when I say on the screen, if you're listening to the podcast, you might want to just take note of this episode. You can also find it on YouTube. When you tune in on YouTube, we're going to give you a few more graphics that you can see, obviously, but you'll get the same downloads via the podcast. I'll try to just describe these for you so you might have an auction to raise funds. You could do a walkathon. We have schools that have done 5K races.
Ryan Steuer:
There are a lot of different end products that you can do and I wouldn't say one's better than the other. Right, it's going to fit your PBL unit in a different way. How does it align to your standards? How does it align to the authentic work that you're trying to get your learners to do? This is kind of your capstone, your celebration of learning, and that's what you want to be. So you want to fit and flow. So, if this list isn't enough for you because by no means is this an exhaustive list of end products, there are so many out there get the teachers that are in your sphere to just brainstorm and this could be 15 minutes, right? Just put up some chart paper up on the different walls that you have. Say what are some end products you've done that, you've heard of that you've thought of and just make a list and just start building it and building it. It might be a question you bring to the PBL movement online community. Hey, here are my standards, here's my community partner. Can somebody help me with some really authentic end products that you've used in the past? And then, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. You get a whole bunch of responses.
Ryan Steuer:
So you definitely want to crowdsource this idea too, because others will know your local context. But you definitely want to go and I love an authentic audience, a panel, I love an expo I think they're great. But you don't want to have, you know, 23 expos throughout the year where your learners just get that. Ok, I'm going to talk for two minutes, I'll be fine, I can do that. Right, you want them to be able to take what they've learned and then show their expertise in different ways. So what makes a good, good end product? In short, as I've kind of noted towards, is it depends, right, depends on your PBL unit, depends on your community partners that you have available. So I would say that there are an endless supply of end products out there that you can continually think of. Again, crowdsource those.
Ryan Steuer:
One note that we have here is, while you do want to keep it authentic. Also, look at Bloom's taxonomy or those depths of knowledge, verbs Like. Look at those verbs, start to move towards transfer, where you're creating things. That's when it starts to get really exciting with your end product. You want to. You know, I do love the idea that your learners are presenting, because when you get all that knowledge out of your brain and it has to go down and out through your mouth, then, like, something happens right. You have to have a little more mastery of that and how you do that. It's a really important skill. So you want to have that as a part of your presentation. But again, it doesn't have to be right. So you say, well, what if I did it this way? Well, was it authentic? Did it fit the flow of your PBL unit? Then that's great, right. So endless possibilities. Look at Bloom's Taxonomy, depths of Knowledge, some of those verbs to help you think through and really brainstorm end products that could work for your PBL unit.
Ryan Steuer:
Authenticity is a big deal around here at Magnify Learning. So the six A's of project design are a great place to start. In fact, now you can go grab Life's a Project, a book by Andrew Larson that is gonna walk through the six A's with you and really go deep with them. And as you get deeper with the six A's and you have a better handling of them, now you are gonna have a little more, a few more tools in your toolbox, right, that you can look at to create an authentic environment for your learners. Right, that you can look at to create an authentic environment for your learners. And, as Andrew would say, you're probably not going to use all six of those A's in one PBL unit, but you can. As you're looking at those six A's, if you use two or three or four, it starts to give you an idea of your end product as well. And you might even go to a community partner. Right, that's totally off script, but what if you grabbed a community partner and help you with a problem? We could solve something, we could create or bring an advocacy lens around, and those can be partners. We'll give you ideas too. So the main message of this entire talk is going to be it depends.
Ryan Steuer:
And then you want to brainstorm and talk with as many people as you can. When you go to a school visit which you should definitely go to a school visit go see other schools using project-based learning. Ask them, like what are some of your favorite end products? I think that's a great question to ask, because you're going to see that that facilitator look like up into the left and think through some of their favorite PBL units and go, ah, this one was great. We wrote to you know this community partner and they actually wrote back. Or we were on a Google doc with you know a Marine biologist in San Diego and they were replying back and it was super authentically loved it, and you get all kinds of really neat ideas that way.
Ryan Steuer:
So, again, continue to crowdsource. Use the six A's for inspiration as well. Do you want an end product that demonstrates student mastery of content and skills? So we do want to recognize that you are a teacher of a specific content and grade level and you have content standards that you are teaching right. So, as you're uncovering those standards throughout your PBL unit, this is a great time for your learners to use those skills right away. Right? You want to give them handles to use them in a different context, and that's how we really develop mastery, right? It's probably not on that quiz or test which you should do right. Like, assessment is super important. Now, how do you use those new tools that you have? And that's when you start to.
Ryan Steuer:
We'll get back to the episode in just a minute, but I wanted you to know about Magnify Learning Design Days. Design Days is a two-day workshop held at one of our PBL model schools, so a school or a district that's operating a really high level with project-based learning. Then we're going to take you and your leadership team a group of 10 or less made up of you assistant principals, coaches, teachers that are all starting to plan out the next three years of PBL implementation. If you just start and hope it's going to work, it's probably going to fizzle. So what about a three year plan where you think about all the different stakeholders, we think about the values, we think about the rollout, think about which teachers on your leadership team could start to implement and start to have your own local success stories around PBL that you can share with your staff. That goes a really long way. You're gonna do it at one of our model schools, so you and your team get to ask questions of that local principal, the teachers, the learners that are in the classroom, you get to go see it and then we pull you back out and one of our facilitators helps you and your team plan. As the leader, you get to be a part of the planning process, not just driving at home or pulling people along. You're going to leave those two days with a grassroots movement. You're going to leave with momentum for your pbl vision. This is the way to start. We've done it a lot of different ways. We We've seen other groups do it. We've been doing this for a decade. The schools that start with design days and keep those going implement strong and a lot of times faster than you might otherwise, because you have more people moving in the right direction and they know what the goal is. So look in the description, get an overview of our magnified learning Design Days schedule a call. Let's jump in and partner.
Ryan Steuer:
Now back to the episode. So of course, you want it to align with standards and assessment criteria on your rubric. So, whatever your rubric looks like and you might have a project rubric and you might have standards rubric separately However, wherever you're at on that journey, again, life's a project. Six days of project based learning you can go find it on Amazon is a great guide to assessment and walk you through some of the finer points of assessment. But essentially you've got a rubric of some kind for your end product. Maybe it's in your entry event, maybe it's an entry letter.
Ryan Steuer:
At some point you've described what you want your end product to look like in some form and you don't want to be carbon copy, right? So you have levers in there to make sure that learners can customize and they've got voice and choice to show you and demonstrate their mastery of your content standards, so that you don't get those cookie cutter projects you don't want to watch even you don't want to watch, right Like 43 of the exact same presentation. So you want to make sure that you're varying those things, but you do want to make sure that they're steeped in your standards in your assessment. So, as you're looking at rubrics and we've got some examples that are on the screen and they'll be linked in the presentation that will be in the show notes or on YouTube in the description. So, however it is that you're consuming this, we'll have a link for you to go through this same presentation. So if you're in the car driving right now, have no fear, you're going to get to see the slides. And we've actually linked some examples of some rubrics because in your rubric. You're probably describing your end product in some way and you're going to get that rubric out early in your PBL unit, maybe during your entry event or the next day, so your learners know where you're guiding them right. They know what the context is for their learning. Otherwise that Punnett square might not make a lot of sense to them. They want to know how it fits into the end product that they're going to be creating and experiencing. So we've got some blogs and some examples.
Ryan Steuer:
You know an elementary rubric. You know you might have an earth fair. Here's one, an example that we have for you. The driving question is how can we, as environmentalists, create an outdoor space for the students of SES to experience diverse learning opportunities about our earth? So they assess standards in science, reading and writing the rubrics linked. And the whole idea is that you're going to they're going to have this earth fair and you're going to have all your learners kind of spread out this earth fair. What are they supposed to say, what? What problem are they trying to solve? And you want them to know right off the bat kind of what some of that's going to look like, cause, yes, we want them to dream. It's one of my favorite parts of a driving question is get a dream Like how am I going to do that? Right, and now we need to bring them down to where they're applying the standards to their solution.
Ryan Steuer:
Here's a middle school rubric as well Lit for Life. So our English teachers, like you, can use PBL in literature. It's a thing, it happens. Go visit some great classrooms. I can give you some examples. So this one happened to be a fundraiser to buy books for elementary students.
Ryan Steuer:
The driving question is how can we promote early childhood literacy in our community? Standards assessed. Are you ready? This is a great combo Pre-algebra and English, right? So pre-algebra and English. And we're going to get these learners excited about early childhood literacy. So the entry event is going to tee that up, and then you're going to see the rubric that guides them towards that solution, right? And if you don't want kids selling suckers during lunch, then great like, put that in a checklist or put that in the entry event. Like we've done that, we're not doing that again, right? And so, as the teacher, you're the expert in the classroom so you can guide those. And there's still voice and choice in how your learners are going to present that end product.
Ryan Steuer:
And a high school example the dystopian masterpiece theater. This is actually in Life's a Project, the book. So when you grab a copy of that and if you go to PBL Press, go to pblpresscom, we'll actually give you a bunch of extras. We'll give you a book study that goes along with that and some other extras to guide you through the book. But this book, this project, is in there, right? So it says how can the themes of dystopian literature inform our awareness of modern society's strengths and weaknesses and how can we best represent those themes in a performance setting? So this is deep literature stuff, right? So here's the standards that are assessed English content standards, elements of a plot, theme, elements of dystopian literature, the skills that are addressed writing, dialogue, memorization, delivery of lines.
Ryan Steuer:
So what happens in this one? The end product is actually they're going to perform a play that they've created at an actual playhouse, like at a theater. So they're actually working with a director to create this. It ends up being super, super authentic and their end product is not like a thing that's in your hand, right? It's not this thing that you can put on a table. Their end product is a performance and it fits really, really well in this PBL unit.
Ryan Steuer:
So, again, the message, the thesis of this presentation is the idea that your end product is going to fit your PBL unit, your local context, your community partners. There's really no right or wrong. You're going to try to figure out, like, maybe you do have an end product that flops, like okay, like why, like what would be a better option? As my friend Andrew Larson says, pbl units only get better with time. So you're going to continue to growth, mindset that and improve it and you'll get a better end product.
Ryan Steuer:
So don't be afraid to ask your learners for feedback on that, right, like, what did you guys think of this end product? Like, did it work for you or no? I felt like I was kind of boxed in. I felt like I had to do what everybody else did. Okay, how do you think we can make it better? Right? So don't think that your end product is this. It's important, it's not the end all be all. Your learners have learned a lot of your content standards before this point of the presentation and they're applying it here, which again is important. Transfer knowledge is happening, but you get to improve this every year. Right, we're in it for the long game, so you're going to continue to learn and you're going to show your learners that you're learning and they're going to get that. It's going to be part of your culture. So it's a big deal. So what are your next steps?
Ryan Steuer:
Think about a driving question you have for your content area. What kind of end products could students create to provide a solution to that question? So if you look at your driving questions which can be a great way to align your different PBL units throughout the year is by driving question Don't get locked into an end product unless you love it and it totally works. There's nothing wrong with that. But you might look at your driving question and say, yep, I like the driving question. Great umbrella for my standards.
Ryan Steuer:
Now, what are the different end products I could possibly put in here and go back to that slide where I had a bunch on there and just list them, and when I list those, I like to put ones that I think are bad ideas. Right, I put a couple of bad ones on that you can cross off right away, but write them down and it gives you context for the really good ones, right? So just put a bunch right next to your driving questions, a whole bunch of different end products and see if one stands out. We've also got linked into this presentation, which will be linked into again, the show notes or the description on YouTube that will have end product brainstorming sheets. So we're gonna help you do some of that brainstorming. I think it's probably gonna be one of your best friends when it comes to end products. So brainstorming and crowdfunding, right Like, get more minds around the table around different end products that you could have. And if you want more guidance, we have some books for you. So if you go to PBL Press, you can see the different books that we've got for you to jump into. You've got PBL Simplified, which is gonna give you the six steps to project-based learning, and you've also six A's of project-based learning. And if you want the next video that's going to pop up on the screen, you can get the three steps to creating the perfect community partner breakfast, which can actually be a great way to find more end products. So click there and I'll see you there.
Ryan Steuer:
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the PBL Simplified Podcast. I appreciate you and honor that you tune in each week. Would you please take two minutes to leave a rating and a review. When you leave a review, it lets the next person know that this is a podcast worth listening to. When they go into their player and search project-based learning and PBL Simplified popped up, when they see those reviews, they know that high quality, visionary leaders are listening, so they tune in too and they can find their way into the PBL journey. Thank you so much for leaving a review. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate you.