Information about Project-based Learning


Project-based learning consists of a group of students working on a long-term project that is both real world and interdisciplinary to some extent.  While teachers use a PBL approach in teaching many subjects, I find it to be especially effective for language teaching.

On this page, I've assembled some links that give good background about PBL as well as provide clear principles and examples for using PBL in the classroom.  

For further help, I've attached a couple of student handouts I use in some of my PBL writing classes.  These classes are generally content-based with the goal of creating a class web site at the end of the class.  These handouts guide the students in their creation of their web sites.

Project-based Learning with Multimedia -- A thorough description of many PBL projects in a K-12 context.  The section on Why do PBL is a good overview for any context, and the rest of the site has important ideas and concepts for using PBL in a variety of situations.

 Project-based Learning Handbook -- This site is actually a handbook on using the PBL approach to teaching. The handbook is procuded by the Buck Institute, an educational nonprofit whose mission is to promote education based on PBL and problem solving.  The site is very thorough, practical, and easy to use.  Before you go into the myriad of useful details in the handbook, I suggest you start with the Introduction to Project-based Learning.
Project-based Learning Checklists -- This site offers to help teachers develop rubrics for PBL activities and checklists to guide students through the project.  While much of this K-12 site isn't particularly use for my IEP situation, the sections on motivation and multiple intelligences are worth a glance.
Project-based Learning: A Primer -- This article from Technology & Learning Magazine is the perfect starting point for people new to the PBL concept.  The link goes to an excellent overview, and the yellow box to the right of the article has links to informative, useful details.  
The Project Approach in Early Childhood & Elementary Education -- Although this site has an elementary education  focus, the overview information about PBL is useful.  It also has a very useful bibliography and links section.