Week 4...PBL

As a teacher who has been in the classroom for quite a while, sometimes it's hard to change your habits, or create new ones.  I have struggled with stating my objective for a while now.  It's not natural for me.  I can do it consistently for a short period of time but then I drop off again.  That's not to say that I don't believe in it, or don't see it as important, I just forget.  I jump right in to the lesson and get going.  I have even tried a contest between the students and myself to see who can remember to say the objective first.  That's not to say students don't know the objective, there are other ways I get that point across, it's just not always first.  For the students, stating the objective is important.  It clues them in to important information and tells them the expectation at the end of the lesson.
I hadn't really looked at assessment in the same light, until now.
If students know the expectations of the assessments in PBL, they have a clear sense of what is needed to be successful.
Four key principles in assessment used by an organization called What Kids Can Do are:

• Assessment is for students.
• Assessment is faithful to the work students actually do.
• Assessment is public.
• Assessment promotes ongoing self-reflection and critical inquiry.

These principles of assessment describe many of the important factors in PBL as well.  Project based learning is for the students.  The assessments given to them should be for them.  Knowing the expectations and working towards them for success is important.  If students are graded on what they actually do, learn, accomplish, create then the assessment has meaning.  The assessments are not meaningful when they do not apply to what and how the students have learned.  Public assessment brings the real to the assignment.  Real world projects need real world assessment.  Assessment by peers inside the classroom and people outside the classroom give projects purpose.   Self reflection and critical thinking can allow for change and growth whether it be for the project or the students themselves. 

See Key Principles of Assessment at work in PBL lessons on the What Kids Can Do (WKCD) website.