Teaching with Projects

Module 1 Summary

Review the guiding questions and key points of Module 1 and think about the ideas and materials you have created that can be used in your classroom, instruction, or planning to help improve learning.

Module Questions:

• How can projects help my learners meet assessment standards and develop 21st Century skills?
  
  
• How can I use projects to enhance learning?
  

Module 1 Key Points:

• Research on learning and teaching indicates the importance of:
  
  
  • In-depth coverage of important subject matter
    
    
  • Big ideas to organize understanding
    
    
  • Ongoing assessment
    
    
  • Purposeful, authentic tasks
    
    
• Projects concentrate on scenarios that provide rich learning opportunities. They involve learners in problem solving investigations and other meaningful tasks. Projects establish connections to life outside the classroom and address real world concerns.
  
  
• The steps for designing projects include:
  
  
  1. Determining specific learning goals (from assessment standards and 21st Century skills)
     
     
  2. Developing Curriculum-Framing Questions
     
     
  3. Making an assessment plan

In the following modules, you will build on these concepts as you discuss ways to support and encourage higher-order thinking skills through the use of assessment standards-based projects and learner-centred activities.