Project Based Learning in ELA



First thing's first: Here is the link to the article I'm going to be talking about! --> https://www.edutopia.org/article/project-based-learning-and-research-paper 

Today we're talking about project based learning, which happens to be something I'm incredibly excited about and interested in. Our task for this post was to search "Project Based Learning" on edutopia.org and see what we can find / what's helpful / etc. While I was perusing, I came 
across an article called "Project-Based Learning and the Research Paper." It stood out because I happen to be in the process of creating a PBL research paper unit as we speak! I was excited to see this article, because I assumed it would be helpful. Spoiler alert - it was! 

Here are my major takeaways: 

PBL is great, because it allows for collaboration. Students are able to work on a project in a group setting, which allows for deeper engagement and connection. 

A PBL research unit allows students to work on a REAL-WORLD problem, and create REAL-WORLD solutions. This allows them to take ownership of their work, and feel proud of it, and committed to it. 

A PBL research unit gives students opportunities to engage in more than just writing - being able to write a formal essay is great, but having students conduct interviews and surveys, and organize their research and opinions in a creative way, allows them to engage with the content in a more meaningful way. 

All of this said, I am feeling very inspired to continue creating this PBL research unit, and I'm feeling great about actually implementing it in the classroom. 

The following quote really sums up my excitement: 

"I’ll never teach the research paper any other way because the PBL model we used helped develop real-world problem solvers, thinkers, and doers instead of rule followers. I learned that to encourage students to step out of their comfort zones, I too had to step out of mine, but beautiful, authentic learning happens when we create the right conditions for it," (Provenzano, 2018). 



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