#7 Day 2 @ PBL World: Sam Seidel - Keeping it REAL and empowering teachers

A fascinating day #2 @ PBL World 2014 

Today's blog update will focus on the keynote speech by Sam Seidel about how we can KEEP IT REAL through PBL and empower teachers to make a difference. 

One day when I was chillin' in Kentucky Fried Chicken, 

Just mindin' my business, eatin' food and finger lickin',
This dude walked in lookin' strange and kind of funny,
Went up to the front with a menu and his money

He didn't walk straight, kind of side to side
He asked this old lady, "Yo, yo, um is this Kentucky Fried?"
The lady said, "Yes man", smiled and he smiled back
He gave a quarter and his order, small fries, Big Mac! 

You be illin'... 

I have to admit, I did wonder how Sam Seidel would follow yesterday's inspirational speech by Steven Ritz, but opening up with a rap from (the highly under-rated) Run DMC complete with crowd participation just about did the trick. So why Run DMC? What does KFC have to do with Project Based Learning? Or even education? Am I actually in 1970s Parkchester, NY and not Napa, CA? Well... Here is the method in the madness...

Students Need Real Projects

Sam Seidel's point is smart, simple and genuine. The reputation of the hip-hop artist is founded on authenticity: "what you have and what you do has to be real" says Sam and "... just as the rap artist relies on keeping it real, so too should we" as PBL educators. He then proceeds in 180 seconds to outline four clear reasons why. These are the soon to be widely circulated "Hip Hop Essentials of PBL" that will make sure you keep it REAL in your classroom:

1. Real World

Projects need to be real world and involve students "getting out of the building" to make a connection with people and places beyond school. This drives up student engagement as they see, hear and experience the connection between their learning and real life.

2. Real Work

Rather than pretending to be a scientist or placing themselves in the shoes of an architect, they need to go and meet with an expert in the field, interview a member of the profession or work alongside an established employee. This gives students a sense of what is possible and also drives up the standard of their work as they are held to account by real-work standards.

3. Relevant to Student Lives

Projects need to be relevant to the culture, interests, communities and lives of students. PBL can give students voice and choice, thus making learning relevant to who they are and what they are passionate about beyond the walls of the school. This can be powerful, particularly for those students sometimes marginalised in a regular 'factory-style' school environment.

4. Real Issues 

Finally, students should have the opportunity to tackle real issues that affect their lives, schools and communities. These problems could be global in scope, however, as Seidel points out the issues that often mean the most to students and serve to 'respectfully engage them' are the ones on their doorstep. 

PBL projects of this nature can often lead to projects where students have a tangible impact on their schools, communities and even governments. Sam himself has been heavily involved with community projects in including Get Your Green, a project at High School for Recording Arts in Minnesota. Students at HSRA are "... using their musical talent to promote a movement. Improve the health and well-being of all communities through environmental activism, eco-entrepreneurialism, and math, science, and engineering." Its a sophisticated piece of work, impacting positively on their community by raising awareness about real-world issues whilst also driving up student engagement.

The 'Flip': PBL to tackle real-world problems and challenges

So, to get back to Run DMC. What on earth does '...you be illin' mean anyway? 

Sam proceeds to inform a the room of 600 teachers, and, though I may be making a bold and general assumption here, a room with a low proportion of people educated in hip-hop culture, that: "'Illin' is an example of what in hip-hop has become known as a 'flip'". A 'flip' uses a phrase with usually negative connotations to denote something positive ('sick' actually meaning 'good' is another example). This, according to Sam, is another important lesson from hip-hop culture. Rather than sinking into the abyss of unemployment, poverty and neglect, the community of The Bronx during the 1970s (one of the birthplaces of hip-hop), gave birth to a genre of music that has been dominant in pop for the last 40 years. In the same way says Sam, "... what if we flip it, what if teachers could actually be using a PBL approach to tackle real issues in their classrooms, schools and communities?"

In Rhode Island students have already started to do just that, designing their own school, which the state department have agreed to open when the design is complete. Now that is a real-world project. They have not 'adjusted' to regular high school, but have instead taken the initiative through a creative PBL project to alter the status quo permanently.

Teachers too have taken on the challenge through the Business Innovation Factory, utilising their expertise as professionals in tune with the challenges and opportunities facing practitioners in the classroom to develop solutions to these problems. Adhering to many of the principles of effective PBL, the Business Innovation Factory uses design thinking and gives staff space to collaborate, explore, problem solve and effect change through sharing their solutions. See a video of all this in action here.

Sick Lessons

 
It turns out then that hip-hop has some 'sick' lessons for teachers and leaders interested in PBL. Effective PBL is not convoluted, teacher-driven, couched in the language of curriculum standards or motivated (only) by the need for students to pass tests. Whats more, PBL can be so real-world, that it could even permeate how teachers plan and undertake professional development and how they go about solving the problems that face practitioners every day in classrooms and schools. Effective PBL is real-world learning. So real world that students and staff could, in Sam Seidel's words, "work together to re-design the very system they are part of." So, keep it real people.  

Watch this interview clip for more of the thinking underpinning Sam's speech:

 More from #PBL World Day 3 tomorrow!

#6 PBL World Day 1: Inpsirational speech from Steven Ritz and key learning points from PBL101

As the sole representative (as far as I could tell!) of the United Kingdom at PBL world 2014, I thought it vital to communicate some of the key learning from day 1 to all the practitioners out there currently in the process of planning projects for 2014-15 or looking to experiment with PBL in their own classrooms.  

Day 1

Today kicked off with a hilarious little skit from the students of Katherine Smith Elementary School who outlined (with real comedic genius) some of the major advantages of Project Based Learning. The confidence and clarity of communication these students showed really confirmed why I had signed up to this conference. However, I was about to be further inspired.

“PBL is not just for the wealthy”

Nothing can prepare anyone for Steven Ritz live. Like most PBL advocates worldwide I had watched the TED talk and been blown away, live however Ritz’s enthusiasm is infectious. He really is ‘the oldest sixth grader you will meet’. 

The impact Ritz has had on his students through community oriented PBL in the South Bronx is really jaw dropping. A project that began with the planting of a single seed has turned into a social enterprise that has transformed the physical appearance of the South Bronx, reduced the dropout rate in his class to 0%, increased the graduation rate from 30 to 100%, ensured that 100% of his kids have progressed onto college courses and fed his school (and community) with healthy home-grown food. Many are also earning a living wage managing the projects started in his classroom. Now that ladies and gentlemen, is an authentic project. 

Ritzs' passionate belief that students “... should not have to leave the community they live in to live, learn and earn in a ‘better’ one” will strike a chord with all educators who work in challenging circumstances. However, it is his incredibly positive ‘glass 100% full’ attitude that has been instrumental in achieving what he has in a community that many have written off. Most people filed out to workshops a) smiling b) muttering one of his many catchphrases: YES WE CAN!

I would encourage everyone, PBL advocate or not to check out his remarkable achievements by going watching this clip & taking a look at Green Bronx Machine. 

Workshop time: PBL 101 Key Learning from Day 1

As you can see from the picture below, we started with plenty of questions ("need to knows"), but here are 3 things I took away from day 1 of PBL 101. 

 

1.    PBL must be the ‘main course and not the dessert’

This will be a familiar phrase to anyone who has been to a PBL Professional Development session but still an incredibly important one. A PBL project is not a board game at the end of a unit on the digestive system, a poster at the end of a scheme of traditional lessons on algebra or a model of a Catholic mission after a social studies unit on the history of California. Sure, these are “projects” but they are not PBL projects. 

A PBL project is the main course. That is, the learning takes place through the completion of the project. It is engaging, but also rigorous as the curriculum content and 21st Century competencies are learned through the completion of the project. 

  

2.    Effective projects have 8 essential elements 

8 essential elements

1.     Public Audience

2.     In-Depth Inquiry

3.     Driving Question

4.     Significant Content

5.     21^st Century Competencies

6.     Critique & Revision

7.     Voice & Choice

8.     Need to know

Used by many schools across the states, these 8 elements will be present in every effective PBL project to some degree.

One vital component of this checklist is the explicit teaching and assessment of 21st Century skills. If we are to expect our students to develop the competencies needed for success in the wider world, we need to teach them and check that they are making progress. This is often done by building in opportunities for students to pause and reflect on their learning (not just their academic progress). 

I had a fascinating discussion with two teachers, reaching the conclusion that building in time to teach and assess these competencies had a number of benefits:

a) Preparation for life beyond the classroom - i.e. Students will be better prepared for university and employment if these skills are taught and assessed. 

b) "Positive spillover" - students take the competencies learned and developed through the project and apply these in other subject areas and in more 'traditional' learning scenarios in the future. 

c) "Metacognitive awareness" - through the focus on process and not just outcome, we can develop students who are aware of how they learn and therefore become more effective learners.

 3.    Designing an effective Driving Question

The Driving Question (or "DQ") is a vital part of the planning process that can be the difference between a rigorous and engaging project and one that falls flat. An effective DQ will: 

a) Capture the projects main focus  

b) Be open ended to allow students to develop more than one (often complex) answer

c) Be inspiring, understood and often remembered by students

d) Ensure that through answering the DQ students will have to acquire the knowledge, skills and understanding that will be learned through the project. 

For more tips on effective DQ's check out these resources: 

Video from Edutopia

A fun "tubric" resources from BiE

So there you go! A full and inspirational day 1 at #PBLworld. 

More news tomorrow!