How Much Choice?
Offering students options when it comes to digital tools is one way to amplify student voice and choice in PBL. (Hint: Don’t be surprised if students suggest tools that are new to you! In fact, encourage them to be creative—learning from your tech-savvy students is a good strategy for expanding your PBL tool kit.)
Inviting students to make decisions about their final product is another way to amplify their voice and choice in Project-Based Learning. For example, if the learning goals for a project are about making an effective argument supported by evidence, some students might want to produce videos while others decide on a letter-writing campaign to elected officials. The challenge for teachers is to make sure that those final products align with learning goals. Will products provide evidence of what students know and can do as a result of the PBL experience?
Take a look at the project you have selected. Consider if it offers choices for final products. Can you imagine different options for your students?
The following are three questions to help you strike a balance between choice and constraints when it comes to final products (adapted from Setting the Standard for Project Based Learning).
Which products will be created individually and which by teams?
To make sure you can assess each student’s learning, you’ll want some products—or parts of them—to be created by individuals. For example, a math project challenged student teams to develop financial plans for real clients and present them in nontechnical language. The teacher wanted to make sure each student understood the pre-calculus concepts that were involved. So, each individual also prepared a technical report (for the teacher’s eyes only) showing the calculations.
Will student teams all create the same product or different products?
This will depend on the nature of the project, practical considerations like time and available resources, and previous PBL experience by both students and teacher. Even if all students are producing the same product, however, you still want to allow for voice and choice. For example, in the Plastics Project (shared in Module 1), all students contributed to a final documentary about recycling plastics. However, students chose which role they wanted to take on as videographers. Throughout the project, their questions drove the learning experience.
Is the product as authentic as possible?
Consider how students’ final product replicates what experts produce in the world outside school. For an entrepreneurship project, students might pitch their business plans to a shark tank. For a literature project, students might publish an anthology or digital magazine. For a science project, students might conduct an investigation and use their data to recommend a solution.