For a few years now I have embraced project based learning as a way to foster greater engagement and understanding of my classroom content. Fortunately I am not the only teacher in my district that has done so, and now having students that have been exposed to this environment for a few years has led to some great results.
Bottom line, if you want to get the absolute best results from your students, let them choose how to give it to you!!!! Usually when I assign a new project I allow the students to cover the content in a variety of ways, if there is one they can think of that I haven't and it has value I allow them to do it. In the last ten days I've had so many students come out of their shell and for the first time and I am seeing what they are truly capable of.
To really get into this method you must be able to let go of the idea of a teacher focused class and embrace the idea of the teacher as a project overseer/manager. Instead of delivering the content you help them figure out where they can find it and give some ideas of how they can assimilate it and demonstrate understanding. Making website, videos, avatars, collaborative presentations are all great mediums for this. Also, allowing the students to be more creative and being flexible on time cuts down a great deal of information regurgitation.
Were there projects that were less than stellar? Absolutely! Are there projects that have yet to be turned in? Aren't there always. These are the same kids that never turned in their worksheets either.
In public education we often forget about the students in the middle. The struggling students get special attention and your high achievers would do well even if instructed by a well trained monkey. However, we often let middle of the road students sink or swim without as much thought for a myriad of reasons. It is my contention that if you want to get the most out of these students you should try at least a few PBL assignments and it's important that you let the students choose how to demonstrate their learning. I'm not an expert, but I know that I was a much happier teacher by the end of this past week.
For some examples of what I'm talking about please check out my student project wiki located here.
