As we approach the end of the year, I wonder how you might finish strong with a deep and meaningful learning experience?
Drew Matthew David, an ESL teacher in Vietnam closed out of his past years with a student produced drama around a script they wrote called ‘Shards of Destiny.’ In small teams, learners created props, designed the set, developed characters, and even created animated videos to supplement the live performance!
Needless to say, they blew their audience away AND passed the mandated English exams with flying colours.
Here are five more project ideas that can be run across ANY subject or age level:
- Living 🖼️ Museums: Bring historical periods to life with a living museum like Beth Lloyd did from GPA Charter School. Students can resurrect past historical figures, themes, inventions, artefacts or discoveries. You can set up a small exhibit space for each student in the classroom, or unused common space in the school. If you teach science, this can easily be adapted to scientific discoveries, or eras of time.
- Live 🎭Performance: Have students write and act out narratives or important moral lessons in a live performance. John Slack, Jennie T, and Maria Pannakan of Verso are having their upper primary students dramatise major historical paradigm shifts; and Elena Facchinei of GPA is pairing her Literature students with the ballet department to bring Shakespeare scenes to life in the school courtyard.
- Class Book 📖 Writing: Several teachers are having students develop collective class novels, or digital textbooks around curricular concepts. Thomas Bivens of KPIS is having students develop a book of short stories using book creator, and two lower secondary teachers in China are having students develop digital picturebooks/textbooks of local flora and fauna for their lower primary library. Jed and Alana of YCIS Hong Kong even had their students create a book of ‘hidden gems’ of Shanghai to enliven their Social Studies Class, and support new international teachers in navigating the city.
- Citizen Science 🔍 Tours: Transform students into citizen science tour guides of their nearby ecosystem. When teaching earth science at IMS Hong Kong, Natalie Couch had students collect rock and plant samples from the nearby eco park. Students later used these samples in their interactive tours with visitors of the region around the history of the park, and how to better protect biodiversity.
- Class 🎥 Documentary: Have the class create a documentary around important curricular concepts/global issues, and how they are manifesting themselves in the community. Several teachers from Innovations Academy in San Diego engaged in this project and invited the community in for a special film festival screening at their school.
Get help Designing Your Project Based Experience…
Want support in turning your idea for a project into action? From planning activities and scaffolding the experience, to assessing learning and exhibiting student work, you can get support with each step of project design.
You can join our 4 session PBL Design Cohort from May- June and develop with a small cohort. Learn more here – -> PBL DESIGN CERTIFICATE PROGRAM
You can enroll in my 3 module, 24 lesson PBL course (discounted 30% for the month of April) and develop on your own. Learn more here – -> SELF-PACED PBL CERTIFICATE PROGRAM
Or, if you are ALREADY an experienced project designer, you can join our PBL practitioner group for monthly discussions. Learn more here – – -> PBL COLLAB AND GRAB
Finally, if you a coordinator wanting to set up a personalised training for your teachers in the 2023-2024 school year, email me at kylewagner@transformschool.com and we can set something up!
To a successful final term with deep and meaningful learning!
Your [co] learning experience designer,
