Socially Distant PBL
I work at a project-based, expeditionary learning public school that serves children K-5. This year, I began teaching in a hybrid setting, meaning I taught one cohort of students Monday/Tuesday and one cohort Thursday/Friday with everyone online together on Wednesdays. When I began teaching this way, I was committed to engaging my students in meaningful, rigorous, and exciting PBL units, despite the limited amount of time we spent together in-person. In a year full of unknowns and restrictions, my core belief remained unwavering - that Project Based Learning is the best way to reach all learners. My goal is to bring quality PBL units to my kindergartners and help them develop relationships with one another while at the same time keep everyone safe and healthy.
Here is a peek into how we have had to adapt instruction due to our ever-changing class configuration, and some tips for how you might approach socially-distant PBL.
The driving question for our current unit is, “How can people help animals survive and thrive?” Our public product is a student-run zoo and a set of published nonfiction animal books (written by the children).
Creating and Sustaining a PBL Culture
PBL begins with laying a strong learner-centered foundation. This is key to building community and setting the stage for a PBL unit. This year I’ve tried to be creative with building and sustaining this culture by diligently looking for ways to honor the safety guidelines while offering students choice in the classroom, giving voice to their ideas, and using as many collaborative experiences as possible.
Tips for creating and sustaining a PBL Culture:
Small groups/cohorts: Group your students and have them remain with those students throughout the day. It is easier to distance 4-5 small groups than 25 individual students.
Consistent Partnerships: Within these cohorts, assign each student a partner. This partner provides support and feedback when needed.
Remain Learner-Centered: Students can still participate in various classroom activities such as choice time or stations if you get a bit creative. I put out laminated stop signs, and once a student completes their choice/work they place a stop sign on the material. This signals to the other students that a given material needs to be cleaned. I clean it and then remove the stop signs, letting children know it is ready to use again.
Create a Project Wall (in-person or virtual): A project wall is a central area of the classroom for our questions, research, student work, to-do list, essential/driving questions, and vocabulary. If you are teaching online in any capacity, using an online tool such as Jamboard or Padlet makes it easy to set up a virtual project wall as well. If you have students both in- person and online who don’t mix, you may consider having a virtual representation of your physical project wall if you want both groups to feel like one cohesive classroom.
Class Discussions
Another important aspect of PBL is being able to facilitate rich discussions. Although socially distant conversations are a bit more challenging, I’ve found the following tips helpful.
Tips for socially distant discussions:
Assign “turn and talk” partners: At the carpet or during group time, my students have an assigned turn and talk/think-pair-share partner. This cuts down on time finding a partner and allows them to maximize the 30 seconds they have to turn and talk without distance.
Share Circle: It works to have students stand and share in a large circle around the perimeter of the room. This also helps students to learn to project their voices and to really hone their listening skills.
Voice Amplifier: If you are able to acquire a voice amplifier such a mic, this is a great tool to have when you are speaking (to not strain as much) and to help students share and be heard.
Collaboration
In our project, students selected the animals they wanted to research, and I placed them in zoologist research teams. I now refer to them only as “Jr. Zoologists” and they take that role very seriously. These teams work collaboratively throughout the entirety of the PBL unit. They are researching the same animal, writing a book about the same animal, and creating their zoo exhibit together. These teams meet weekly to discuss research, to review one another’s writing, and to offer feedback and support. (These groups are also their cohorts this quarter). Children in each group share a 2-gallon Ziploc bag that is filled with books as they engage in reading and research.
Tips for socially distant collaboration
Assign cohorted groups: Have students in predetermined groups that are able to be closer together for short periods of time. That way your exposure is limited to just that small group, but students are still able to collaborate with one another.
Integrate online and face-to-face learners: If you have technology available in the classroom, you can have one group member from each face-to-face collaborative cohort log into the Zoom call. The use of breakout rooms allow multiple Zoologist groups to be on the same Zoom call, but consider how you can space the in-person learners to prevent feedback from the computer audio.
Expeditions (Field Work) and Expert Visitors
Learning expeditions and expert visitors are an excellent way for children to engage in research. These experiences invite students to ask questions and make meaningful connections in their learning. With some advanced planning, it is still possible for students to engage in experiences and with experts.
Tips for socially distant field work experiences:
Set up a planning meeting: Schedule a video chat or a meeting with the host of the venue and make sure they know and understand your school’s regulations and restrictions and are willing to follow them. Outline exactly why you are coming and what you hope your students learn so that the trip can be concise and condensed to eliminate unneeded exposure.
Virtual Field Work: There is an abundance of excellent online virtual field trips. There are also many experts in the field that are willing to video conference with your students. Setting up virtual expeditions/field work is an excellent way to engage both face-to-face and online learners.
Outdoor Field Work: Weather permitting, outdoor field work is even more beneficial this year.
Altering different aspects of this unit hasn't been as difficult as I expected because our students have been so adaptive, our community partners have been cooperative, and our teaching teams have been creative. I do mourn some of the missing pieces of PBL: the collaboration amongst classrooms in the school, the ability to involve families, and being able to host exhibition nights for students to present their work to members of the community. But I remind myself daily that my students don’t know the difference between their experience with this unit and what this unit has been in the past. They are thriving, excited, and engaged because the key aspects of PBL are still there; children still have voice and choice, they are asking and answering questions through research in the field and in the classroom, and they are working creatively and collaboratively with one another. Our youngest learners are so resilient. I admire them for their tenacity, their “go get ‘em” attitudes, and the joy they bring into their learning, whether they are sitting in front of me in-person or in front of a computer.
Mikaela Martinez is a kindergarten teacher at Northwest Expedition Academy, a public Project-Based Learning school, in Hayden, Idaho. Her passion in education is to work with the youngest learners and help them become inquisitive, independent, and compassionate leaders of their community. With a Montessori and inquiry-based focus, her classroom is always buzzing with children authoring their own books, creating scientific diagrams, or reading to one another. Outside of teaching Mikaela authors @raisinglittlegoose on Instagram, mentoring parents and primary teachers. She lives in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and enjoys spending time with her husband and daughter and their three dogs.
