PBL, SBG, and DL

Project-based Learning (or Problem-based Learning), Standards-based Grading, and Discovery Learning are the cornerstones on which I want to base my approach to teaching when I return to the HS English classroom.

If I could boil down the four and a half years of professional development I have experienced since I left the classroom into one phrase, it would be, "Let's figure it out."

I would like to quote John Cleese and Eric Idle, and tell my students that they are in the "right room for an argument," because they will have to create and share projects that demonstrate their proficiency or mastery of every skill and essential content in the curriculum, and prove to me that their work actually does show their understanding, the same way most workers must convince their supervisors that their work is adequate.

I want my students to create an electronic portfolio of the work that they do to show their depth of understanding in each skill they master.

I want them to develop skills to face a new problem and work with others to solve it efficiently. This is what the workplace has become. We face new and unforeseen challenges, often stemming from human or technological advances, and solve them with human knowledge or technology.

I would like to get a few signs that say, "The answers are not found here" to hang on my desk, the chalkboard, the ceiling, the clock, maybe even my own person.

I want to say, "That's a good question," 100 times more frequently than I say, "The answer is..."

I want my students to know what they are learning, why they are learning it, and how to recall and demonstrate their knowledge.

Above all else, I want my students to find the answers for themselves, in real, authentic projects or problems that they help create, so they will be ready to face the challenges of their futures, adapt to change, and solve the problems they will face.