EDTECH 554 Elisabeth Silver December 7, 2010 Workshop for Project Based Lessons Submitted by: Teresa Froehlke

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Project Based Lesson Workshop for Educators

For the final project for EDTECH 554 I have developed a professional training workshop that would

educate the teachers at my school in project based lessons. There are ten elementary teachers that are

at a tier 2 in technology integration and this workshop will assist them in moving into the tier 3 level of

technology integration.

The Workshop would be conducted over a teacher in-service period for 1.5 days. The technology

group at our district will conduct the workshop. The topics that will be covered in the 1.5 day workshop

are: Project Based Learning; What it is and Why I Need It, Pedagogical application of Project Based

Learning; Application of PBL Across A Wide Variety of Disciplines, Integrating Curriculum Standards with

Projects, Differentiated Instruction for All Learners, Networking Projects across the grades, Types of

projects, the School as a Three Dimensional Textbook, the Critical Role of Technology in PBL, Real World

Problem Solving, Critical Thinking Skills, and Inclusion.

Project Based Lessons improve Student’s learning and differentiate the learning by:

Project Based Learning has the potential to increase a student's feeling of responsibility for, and control

over, his/her own learning. Project Based Learning may be used with all learners it gives structure to

those who desire it, flexibility to others, and also allows time for building skills that are personally

challenging. Project Based Learning can be used for students with special needs, it can help learners

target certain skills, and also help improve metacognition, self-regulation, and motivation.

Project Based Lessons with improve teacher effectiveness by:

We are expecting the teachers to adopt a project-learning approach in their classroom. We are

supplying a workshop in project based learning to give the teachers the tools to integrate technology

into their learning environment. The goal of infusing project based lessons into the curriculum is to

assist students in exploring, investigating, and understanding their world while developing 21st century

critical thinking skills. We believe that project learning is an effective way to integrate technology into

the curriculum. A typical project can easily accommodate computers and the Internet, as well as

interactive whiteboards, global-positioning-system (GPS) devices, digital still cameras, video cameras,

and associated editing equipment.

The project based lesson workshop will also enable teachers to acquire the level of technological

integration to move them into a three tier level of technology use.

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Activities that are planned include:

The workshop is designed to give educators the pedagogical knowledge, understanding, and

foundational basis of the Project Based Learning methodology. They will receive practical teaching and

learning strategies with “hands-on” project based experience in the sessions, and view real students

conducting real projects in and out of real classrooms (video). Participants will then create and refine

their own projects.

Outcomes:

• Philosophy, principles and practices of Project Based Learning

• Application of PBL across a wide variety of disciplines

• Essential role of Projects in fostering inclusion

• How to integrate curriculum and standards with projects

• How PBL supports differentiated instruction and multiple learning styles

How will learning be measured?

Learning will be measured both quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative data will be collected

from a pre assessment of the teachers’ skill at project based lessons. The data will be collected from a

survey developed based on prior knowledge of the pedagogical framework of project based lessons.

The pre and post assessments can be compared for improved knowledge. The qualitative assessment

can be through observation. Each teacher will be required to complete a project based lesson during

the school year. The principle will observe and offer a formative assessment of the lesson.

During the workshop formative and summative evaluations will be given. The formative evaluation will

include feedback to the participants during the workshop. The summative evaluation will be a survey at

the end of the workshop in which the teachers can respond to their learning during the workshop.

How will you measure the outcome on student learning?

An effective assessment program will involve:

• Multiple strategies to demonstrate growth and performance,

• The assessment will be in alignment to the stated goals.

• Projects in which students create multimedia presentations, Web pages, artwork or songs will

be evaluated differently than traditional written or word-processed papers.

• Assessment strategies will include performance tasks, teacher observations, personal

communications, some standardized testing, and student and teacher developed evaluation

rubrics.

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How will you know if learning returns to the classroom?

The principle will work with the teacher and the technology staff to develop and implement a project

based lesson in alignment with the curriculum. The teacher will be assessed based on the criteria

addressed in the workshop. The principle will observe the teacher conducting a project based lesson.

The teacher will be able to use the assessment as a formative assessment and continue and use the

information to develop their skills in project based lessons. The teachers will also be giving updates and

sharing their projects specifications during the collaboration meetings during the year.

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References

Critical issue: Providing professional development. Retrieved from

http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te1000.htm

Guerilla educators. Retrieved from http://guerillaeducators.typepad.com/ge/2009/08/project-based-

service-learning-workshop.html

Project based learning. Retrieved from http://pblchecklist.4teachers.org/students.shtml