- Provide meaningful, real-world connections. Students should be able to answer the following questions: How does this help me where I live? How can I use this information when I get home?
- Revisit the main question often. It is easy to forget the reason and purpose of a project-based activity or lose sight in tangential learning so keeping the main question posted on the board or individual desks keeps children focused and engagement higher.
- Focus on student-driven learning. Design your project-based activity to reflect student learning and not the teacher’s learning. This means creating a scenario where students may make mistakes. Mistakes are OK. Often more learning occurs from mistakes than the right answers. Creating a classroom culture focused on Growth Mindset is a valuable SEL (emotional intelligence) skill that will promote life-long success in your students.
- Include a self-assessment. Self-assessments allow students to “own” their leaning because they require metacognitive thinking and the development of self-awareness, which are critical learning skills. Also, who doesn’t learn better when they personally recognize how to do better versus someone telling you what you did wrong? Win-win.
