PBL Unit Development Tool Kit
A Project Based unit defined within the Common Core and 21st Century learning skills is a three to six week series of specific lessons, learning experiences, and related assessments based upon designated Essential Standards and connected Supporting Standards. A Supporting Standard are those standards that are related to and support the teaching of an individual Essential Standard or of the overall unit. Each unit of study should have at least one to two reading standards included as well as the Lexile range in complexity of text tied to material selection. Each unit should be named to give it meaning of purpose. One method in naming a Project Based unit of study could be according to their thematic purpose and the dominant Reading and Writing focus throughout the unit.
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Project Based Learning (PBL) Thematic Unit
On the other hand PBL thematic units have a different design, in that an essential question drives the theme of the unit. One way to outline the Essential and Supporting standards for a Common Core unit is to develop a Curriculum Web. To create an effective Common Core unit each Essential Standard should be represented in at least one unit and may appear in multiple units. In a growth curriculum Essential Standards will be split across multiple units especially if skills detected in a particular standard are determined in need of additional instructional support. In one unit an Essential Standard may be a supporting standard while in another unit the Essential Standard becomes a supporting standard. To determine the opportunity to learn standards becomes essential in a growth curriculum as it is measured within the zone of proximal development. The particular units of study should be named according to their purpose and the dominant Reading and Writing focus throughout the unit. When constructing a PBL thematic unit supporting standards like NET Standards need to be taken into consideration when building capacity for the development of 21st Century learning skills and Common Core standards. Units have traditionaly be categorized into one of four types:
- Thematic - emphasizes the use of an essential question or big idea to support the theme of the unit.
- Genre based -emphasizes an approach with the whole text as the unit in focus rather than the sentence. The focus on the whole texts implies that there is higher level of order and patterning in language than just in sentence-grammar at the level of discourse organization and meta-patterning of grammatical features.
- Skill-based—Emphasizes application (writing narratives; using context to determine meanings of words)
- Topic-based--Emphasizes a cluster of skills related to one topic but that contains several skills.
PBL Thematic Units Defined
Thematic units of study should be identified according to their purpose and the dominant focus as it is related to the essential question that drives the theme of the unit. The form of the unit will be developed through the focus of the essential question as standards are selected within the Curriculum Web. For a PLB Thematic Unit to be successful, the theme must allow for many different areas of exploration and should relate to some facet of the students' lives so that it will capture their interest and give the unit a real-life application. When the curriculum connects with the students' lives and experiences, they are more likely to internalize what they learn.
The theme should be developed around an essential question. The essential question is the driving force behind the unit that supports instructional delivery as it refocuses the attention to what is important about the unit. For example an essential question for a particular unit might be "How Literature Effects Our Lives." As a theme for the unit, the statement becomes the introductory clause for each lesson. The teacher would consistently and periodically state to the class, "In today's lesson, we are going to further explore ways that literature effects our lives." The restatement of the essential question or theme of the unit then drives instruction and assessment for a particular unit of study.
PBL thematic unit assessments are performance based and how standards are tied together will determine the type of task required when designing end of unit assessments. It is important to remember that standards are not taught in isolation as each standard may carry different conceptual ties to performance reviews. That is why it is important that units include skills from multiple strands that relate to and reinforce one another as these skills within the standards are assessable with one integrated performance task.
The theme should be developed around an essential question. The essential question is the driving force behind the unit that supports instructional delivery as it refocuses the attention to what is important about the unit. For example an essential question for a particular unit might be "How Literature Effects Our Lives." As a theme for the unit, the statement becomes the introductory clause for each lesson. The teacher would consistently and periodically state to the class, "In today's lesson, we are going to further explore ways that literature effects our lives." The restatement of the essential question or theme of the unit then drives instruction and assessment for a particular unit of study.
PBL thematic unit assessments are performance based and how standards are tied together will determine the type of task required when designing end of unit assessments. It is important to remember that standards are not taught in isolation as each standard may carry different conceptual ties to performance reviews. That is why it is important that units include skills from multiple strands that relate to and reinforce one another as these skills within the standards are assessable with one integrated performance task.
Resources In Student Centered Learning: These films look specifically at ways in which school leaders and educators are testing and proving project-based models for a new, student-centered model of learning.