Mr. Owens Honors Integrated Mathematics 2 Course

PROJECT BASED LEARNING GUIDELINES

In Project Based Learning (PBL), students go through an extended process of inquiry in response to a complex question, problem, or challenge. While allowing for some degree of student "voice and choice," rigorous projects are carefully planned, managed, and assessed to help students learn key academic content, practice 21st Century Skills (such as collaboration, communication & critical thinking), and create high-quality, authentic products & presentations.

Refer to this l ink for more PBL detai ls: http:/ /www.bie.org/about/what_is_pbl

PBL OVERVIEW

This document provides the generic steps that are necessary for all projects in the TCEC Honors Integrated Mathematics 2 course. It is meant to supplement the specific documents for each PBL scenario and give the students a step-by-step method for effectively completing such projects.

Please be sure to contact Mr. Owens if you ever have any difficulty understanding what is needed for a project or activity!

Note: All items referenced from this document may be found on the Moodle website (either in the Main section or in the specific unit section) or within the respective Project’s Master Document: http://ccvs.cherokee.k12.nc.us/

THE PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT

MAJOR STEPS OF THE IM2 PBL PROCESS

Beginning with the End in Mind!

Answering the Driving Question

Final Product

Presentation

Assessing the Final Product

Form Team & Entry Event

Project Scope & Goals

Team Roles

Team Contract

Know Need to Know Process

Task Plan & Timeline

Scaffolding the Product

Daily Reflection

Presenting the Final Product

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Assessing the Project

1. The first step in any PBL process is to form a collaborative team. Typically, you will be assigned to a project team of 3 to 4 classmates. After your team is formed and meets, you will do the Entry Event, per the instructions listed in the project’s Master Document. This entry event is what sets the stage for the project, giving you and your team the context and motivation needed to jump-in to the project!

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1. (Continued): The Entry Event may be done independently

or as a group, depending on the requirements listed in the project’s Master Document.

Do the entry event with an open mind, taking notes of what you see, looking for concepts, vocabulary, ideas, etc. for which you are familiar with and can use to your team’s advantage or unfamiliar with that you need to study more as the project proceeds.

Discuss your initial impressions of the Entry Event with your team. Use your notes to share your reflections with your teammates

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2. You are now ready to dive deeper into the Master Document. Open it and spend time reviewing each of the following:

The PBL scenario, driving question, unit goals, final product, and project timeline. These will all help you understand the scope of the project and how best to approach the work you and your team will need to do.

The Project Storyboard is a strategic overview

of the entire PBL process and will help you and your team develop more specific plan of tasks needed to complete the project (you will also use this information later as you develop a Task Plan & Timeline for the project).

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3. After your group has a good idea of the project scope and major milestones, you should formally assign roles for each team member. As you do, remember that group roles are responsibilities on top of the project itself and are essential for the success of your team in meeting the goals of the project – they do not mean that someone can simply “opt out” of any aspect of the project work. Refer to the TCEC Collaborative Group Role Examples document for details.

Example: Paval will be a Video Engineer. Day 1 he wil l help brainstorm ideas for video. Day 2 he will be in a team meeting to decide what will be in the video and what resources the group needs to get started filming. Day 3 and 4 he will create the video; Tabatha will help him. Before Day 5 he will meet with Mika and edit the video before the Mock Presentation. Over the weekend he wil l meet with the group to finalize the video.

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4. After establishing team roles, your team will develop, in your own words, a contract that is signed and dated by everyone in your group.

If you prefer, you may use the TCEC PBL Contract

Template as a guide by answering each question in sentence form as a project expectation.

This critical component of any successful PBL project should clearly specifies the roles established in the previous step, including expected responsibilities and contributions each team member has to the successful completion of the project (i.e. what will be done to hold each team member accountable to their commitments).

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Note that few projects run as smoothly as they are originally intended, yet it is an expectation and a critical part of the “essential life skills” TCEC emphasizes that students, with appropriate help from their instructors, work through any difficulty with a project team, including a team member not pulling his/her weight or a student wanting to do everything his/herself (i.e. not trusting one’s teammates). However, as a last resort, students can be removed from a project team if they chronically do not fulfill their part of the contract. Step-by step criterion for this action must be clearly spelled-out in the contract and if removed, a student will be expected to complete an assignment of equivalent weight and rigor on their own.

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Milestone Check:

Now that you have completed and documented steps 1 to 4, you should have a good understanding of what your project is all about, and the roles each team member will play to ensure its completion. These items comprise the first part of your project portfolio and should be easily accessible by all your team members throughout the PBL process.

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5. You are now ready to begin assessing information that you will need to know in order to answer the project’s driving question and in doing so, complete the project in a way that ensures mastery of the project goals.

You will use the Know – Need to Know Log to help guide this important step. The KNTK log allows each team member to identify and assess the new concepts, skills, or knowledge he/she will need to learn as the project unfolds, as well as any connections to knowledge that has already been mastered from earlier coursework.

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5. (Continued):

Each team member should initially do this step on their own, by comparing the essential questions under each project goal against their current knowledge level for that topic or concept. After that has been done, all team members should share their individual “knows” that can be used to help others in their group and their “need-to-knows” so that everyone can begin planning how best to address them – i.e. what scaffolding activities will be done individually or as a team to address the “need to knows.”

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5. (Continued):Use the following questions to help

complete this KNTK process:

What do I already know? What skills, strengths and capabilities do you currently know about the topic that can be used to help complete the project? What essential questions can you already answer in a thorough and accurate manner? How can you leverage your knowledge across the entire team?

What do I need to know? What specific knowledge and skills do I need to master in order to satisfy the driving question of this project? What essential questions from the project goals would you not be able to currently answer? What essential questions require a refresher or review to truly master?

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5. (Continued):

As soon as you have identified the things you know and need to know to effectively complete the project, you may use the Scaffolding Activity vs. Goal Cross-Reference document found on the Moodle site for the unit you are working on to help you match specific “need to knows” with specific scaffolding activities you and your teammates can work on.

Note that the KNTK log must be kept current as you master new skills and knowledge and/or you identify other items you need to know to adequately complete the project.Hom

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6. Based on the notes from the above steps, you will now work with your team to develop a Task Plan & Timeline that includes an explanation of the tasks each team member will complete in order to complete the project within the given time constraints listed in the project package.

The Task Plan & Timeline should reflect the major items from the KNTK process, as well as the key milestones needed to satisfy the answer the driving question. The Task Plan & Timeline should be kept current and be attached to your team’s contract.

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Milestone Check:

After your team has completed the PBL steps to this point, you have the essential framework necessary to efficiently answer the project’s driving question and ultimately complete a high quality project. The documentation from these steps should be kept current and in an organized fashion as electronic or hard-copy project portfolio and will be checked at random times in the life of the project. Please review the initial portfolio from the “pre-project” steps (1-6) with Mr. Owens before your team proceeds with the actual project.

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7. Your team should now have a solid plan in-place to answer the driving question of the project in a way that produces a high-quality product and ensures mastery of all project goals. This is the heart of your project! From this point until the project is completed and

ready to be presented, you will use the driving question as a guide for everything you do – it is essentially the thing that guides all the work you do in the PBL process.

Use the driving question as you work individually, with your project team, and/or with other classmates to acquire the skills and knowledge you need to complete the project - per what you have specified in your pre-project documents - and then to help others do the same.

PBL STEPS:ANSWERING THE DRIVING QUESTION

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7. (Continued): The following is a listing of the major components of this core part of the PBL process:

A. Your initial focus will be on Scaffolding Activities to address the items you need per your individual and/or team KNTK log (use the Scaffolding Activity vs. Goal Cross-Reference to guide you in their process).

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7. A. (Continued):

Scaffolding activities are found in the Type I and Type II folders on the Moodle website for the unit you are studying (Type I are Inquiry/Concept Development items and Type II are Problem Mastery items).

You are expected to work individually or as a group on as many activities of each type to thoroughly and correctly answer the essential questions for each project goal and acquire the skills needed to product your final product. Submit these activities for assessment and as artifacts that show you are addressing KNTK requirements.

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7. (Continued):

B. In addition to scaffolding activities, Mr. Owens will provide customized mini-lectures and workshops in class to go over any key concepts students may need, based on student requests and feedback (formal or informal).

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7. B. (Continued):

You may also be asked to help develop and provide assistance to your classmates on an as-needed basis. In doing so, you not only reinforce your own learning and knowledge base, but also provide another means of proving mastery of unit goals and project expectations.

IMPORTANT: As with essentially everything you do at this school and in this class, collaboration with classmates is a key expectation!

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7. (Continued): C. As you and your teammates build your

knowledge base opposite the essential questions for the project, you will begin doing fewer scaffolding activities and mini-lectures and more direct work on the actual product, per the project’s driving question.

As you do the above, use the KNTK log and the PBL Presentation Rubric (or other project-specific rubric, if applicable) to clearly identify what team tasks are needed to product a high-quality product and master all unit goals.

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Milestone Check:

As you do step 7 above, you and Mr. Owens will frequently give and receive feedback regarding your progress opposite the unit’s goals. Use this feedback as you work with your team to complete and refine your final product, as well as to make frequent updates and adjustments to keep your PBL portfolio current.

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Important Reminder:At some point in the PBL process, you must

ultimately prove that you have mastered each of the unit goals, but that can occur in a number of ways: Show & Explain – e.g. Mr. Owens asking you and/or

your teammates a questions at the board, Helping a classmate master a goal, High-quality work on a scaffolding activity you have

Mr. Owens assess, Doing an exceptional job of explaining your PBL

portfolio, Extraordinary performance on a topic pop-quiz, or… Ultimately displaying said mastery as part of the

final product presentation - ideally when all goals are finally addressed.

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8. As you work on step 7, you are expected to keep a daily journal of the work you do, including a reflection of the status of your progress as it relates to the mastery of unit goals and/or completion of the project - e.g. what you and your group has accomplished, what remains to be done, and any revisions are needed to your schedule (refer to the PBL Activity Journal for an example).

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8. (Continued):

Note that it is important that the Driving Question for the project set the overall framework and theme of your journal.

Your journal, along with the rest of your project portfolio, will be checked by Mr. Owens for completeness and accuracy on a periodic basis and is a major component of your individual grade for this project.

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9. At whatever point you and your project team can check-off the following three items, you are ready to prepare for the formal presentation of your final product:Your project team has developed a high quality final

product that is consistent with the requirements of the Master Document and completely answers the project’s Driving Question.

All team members can confidently say that they have mastered each of the unit goals (i.e. can prove such mastery to each other by thoroughly and accurately answering all the essential questions).

You and your team have a complete, current, and organized portfolio of PBL documents (Task Plan & Timeline, KNTK Log, Contract, Journal, etc.) as well as group or individual Scaffolding Activities.

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Milestone Check:

When the items from step 9 have all been satisfied, your team will schedule a time to present your project to Mr. Owens (and other audience members, as appropriate). You will, at that time, also submit your complete project package for its final assessment.

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Important Reminders:

The team presentation of your final product is a single group grade and accounts for a significant part of your final grade for the unit. As such, you must ensure all team members are fully prepared to equally participate in the product presentation.

Every team member should expect to be asked to justify and defend aspects of your product, as well as be able to prove mastery of each specific unit goal.

You are strongly encouraged to complete the Presentation Checklist and do a mock presentation before making this formal presentation.

Presentations or products that obviously do not meet this criterion will be stopped and rescheduled.

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When the final product has been presented, it will be graded on a “Mastery” (B) or “High Mastery” (A) basis, per the items listed below. Note that until your team has achieved one of

these two grades, the project is considered “in progress” and will be noted as such on your grade report.

This includes projects that are presented, but are of either poor quality or do not meet the requirements of the Master Document, are not done with equal participation by all team members, or are done with one or more team members that clearly do not have a solid grasp of the project’s goals.

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Product Presentation : The team presentation is a single group grade and accounts for 50% of the final project grade (i.e. everyone in the group will get the same grade for this portion of the project). This presentation will be graded per the PBL Group Presentation Rubric and must clearly answer the project’s driving question, as well as meet all product requirements specified in the original project package.

In short, this is the chance where you and your teammates have the chance to impress Mr. Owens and any other audience members with a high quality product presentation and a solid working knowledge of the specific goals of the project!

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Scaffolding Activities & Teamwork: This part of the unit grade is on an individual basis, accounts for 30% of the unit grade, and is based Mr. Owens’ observations of how well you work with your team to master the goals of the unit, per the specific things you do in step 7 above.

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Scaffolding Activities & Teamwork (Continued): This portion of one’s grade also includes routine

feedback per and your project portfolio and your timely participation level in successfully completion of the project.

In other words, throughout the PBL process, Mr. Owens will be taking great pains to observe your specific progress: how you seek and provide help with classmates, the quality of your artifacts from scaffolding activities, how much quality work you do outside of class, how well you use your time in class, your progress against unit goals and your Task Plan & Timeline, how well you keep your KNTK Log and PBL journal current, etc.

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Self/Peer Assessment: The final 20% of your unit grade will come from the Project Self-Reflection Rubric (10%) and feedback from a Peer Assessment Rubric (10%): The former is where you will reflect on what you learned from the project and how well you did to ensure its successful completion, while the latter is an assessment by your team members on your specific contribution to their learning and the success of the project.

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Note that any student or group of students wising to improve his/her grade beyond “Mastery” to “High Mastery” may attempt to do by re-presenting the product in a way that addresses any areas identified for improvement and/or by following the project extension examples listed in the project package or negotiating with Mr. Owens an alternative on a case-by case basis. Any group presentation grade below “Mastery” will require a redo by the entire team until this minimum level of quality is achieved.

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