When I met up with Dawn at Starbucks to take part in my coaching cycle, I walked in feeling deflated. I had introduced my PBL unit to two of my three groups the day before, and one of my best groups had fallen FLAT ON IT'S FACE when it came time to get started. They were hostile and frustrated and not engaged with their peers. What was going on?!?! They'd done an individual PBL (the Pieces of Me one I'd written for first semester) and a partner PBL (journal for teens prototyping) and been just fine. Meanwhile, I was having another group that was so "off-kilter" that there was no way I was willing to try another PBL with them having seen them struggle mightily with the partner PBL from the previous unit. Whatever the reasons for the struggles, I was feeling like a total PBL failure!
It was the perfect time to meet up with Dawn, and she helped me re-examine what was going on. We began by talking about students' behavior (how they fell apart) and some students' adamant refusals to work with others and what might be going on, as well as coming up with some options to work around that, such as the possibility of having students work alone and complete individual work contracts. Dawn and I also talked about my one class that "just couldn't handle PBL," and she reminded me not all of our students are ready for the same things at the same time, and it's OKAY to differentiate and offer different project options or less options or go with a completely different option because that is what it looks like if we're really meeting the needs of our students.
Once we had all those huge concerns covered, we moved into the meat of our coaching cycle, which focused on how to help students create meaningful group contracts that would help them build trust with one another. We came up with a sort of outline that I could provide to students via Google Classroom that they could then fill in and personalize for their groups' needs. Through our conversation, I started to visualize the contract outline in three parts: 1) the group agreements/promises to each other 2)the "To-Do List" that would be consistently updated throughout the project at the beginning and end of each work block, and 3) a Plan of Action to help guide the groups' service projects. I'm attaching a link here for y'all to see what I ended up creating, and a student sample to see how it turned out!
My blank outline
Student Sample Contract
Overall, the coaching cycle was a HUGE help to me, and helped us reach lift off (after crashing and burning early on) with what would become a really special PBL! :)
Hi Rachael,
ReplyDeleteI am glad the coaching cycle was helpful to you and that you found the process of discussing the problems one group was having, naming them, and then using the list to provide differentiated support to each class beneficial. The outline you created provided you with a clear framework to see each class and then provide support to each one. I liked the "To Do List" and the "Plan of Action" you created and would love to share these with future pbl cohorts as well. Sincerely, Dawn