PBL into Week 5

Scaffolding in PBL
As an elementary teacher, I am very familiar with the concept of scaffolding.  It is a very important aspect of delivering instruction and a popular topic at many staff development workshops I've attended.  For those of you not familiar with scaffolding, it's breaking up learning into little lessons, creating little steps of acquired skills and understanding, each one building upon the next to ensure the success of the learner.  But how does this apply to project based learning?
Scaffolding is a necessity in PBL.  It's key in creating a successful project.  As I began with my driving question and performances in my project, planning how students would accomplish the performance without wasted time along the way required scaffolding, or supporting the students from one step to the next.  As I began to add in support for my students I realized these steps not only helped my students, but the process became easier for myself as well.
Scaffolding in my unit was applied in several areas.  By using rubrics to define the clear expectations of students, the guesswork is taken out of the task.  Students know what is expected and can see a clear path for getting there.  Research is streamlined by previewing articles and offering a collection that will lead students to quality, on topic information.  The area in which I have had the most revision is the area which the students will need the most guidance.  Scaffolding the activities and challenges that students will create for the teams really brought my project together, allowing students to make choices but with limits that make them successful.  With every lesson building on the next, students are more focused and more productive.