Vance Holmes

Project-Based Learning Prompts

Project-Based Learning is a dynamic classroom approach that allows learners to acquire deep knowledge through active exploration of real-world problems and challenges.

The following series of fill-in-the-blank prompts can be used by students to design and create their own projects. The  prompts are most effective when coupled with a technology component –- social media channels, blogs, audio/visual apps and other digital tools -- that can help develop, organize and present information and ideas.
 
EXAMPLES: Clarify racism in the US for high school students in India. Design a compelling eBook using a smartphone app. Change a local business owner’s mind about hiring felons. Compare the force of a tsunami with a nuclear bomb. Theorize what Emily Dickinson would say about Twitter.

40 Fill-in-the-Blank PBL Prompts

1. Clarify… for an audience of...
2. Stylize… without changing…
3. Illuminate…
4. Solve…. together with….
5. Rethink….by…
6. Learn to….using…
7. Repackage…for…
8. Identify what’s implied in…
9. Design a ….using…
10. Make a…with…
11. Find the best evidence that supports…
12. Find a better/smarter/faster/safer way to…
13. Simplify….for….
14. Explain how others misunderstand…
15. Narrate the sequence of…
16. Change…’s mind about…
17. Socialize your opinion on…and refine or clarify it based on feedback.
18. Explain the significance of….by….
19. Contextualize the history of….
20. Explore and curate the history of…
21. Document…for the purpose of…
22. Document how…was able to…
23. Digitize…so that….
24. Find another way to solve…
25. Turn the problem of…into a manageable project
26. Practice…until you can…
27. Honor the complexity of…by…
28. Debate the merit of…compared to…
29. Collaborate with…in order to…
30. Restore…
31. Identify and elegantly demonstrate the sources of…
32. Find the patterns in…
33. Analyze…through a series of questions.
34. Identify analogous situations compared to…
35. Iterate…in light of…
36. Untangle the causes from the effects of…
37. Contrast…and…
38. See…from the perspective of…
39. Merge the thinking of…and…
40. Theorize what…would say about…

 Terry Heick, 10/2014

TeachThought.com

Time Capsule

Get boxes for each member of the group. If you choose, you can decorate the boxes in the group or outside of group time. Tell the kids to pretend these boxes are time capsules that will be buried for 100 years. When they are dug up, people will know about them only from the items in the capsule and the way they are decorated. Instruct the kids to fill the capsule with items that describe/show who they are, where they came from or how they feel. Items can include pictures, toys, etc. They can do this over the week then show and discuss with the group the items in each member's box and why they included them.

Purpose

To get students to think about who they are, things that are important to them, and things that have made them who they are. Also, to get students thinking about how they want others to see them.

Goals

To get students to share pieces of themselves, their values and their culture with other members of the group. For other students to show an interest in lives of their group members and to be supportive of the sharing and self-disclosure that goes on.

The rationale behind this activity is that students of other cultures spend a lot of time trying to fit in with the majority and often are not encouraged to share aspects of their culture that they are proud of. This gives them the opportunity to be proud of themselves and their heritage. They are the experts on this subject and are being encouraged to share. I think this will work because it is presented in a fun, futuristic, "let's pretend" manner, but they get to share items that represent themselves.

Revision Workshop

Revision Techniques for Writing

Teacher asks the students if they would like to find out about an easy way to revise their writing without recopying it.

Activities:

1. Begin Writer’s Workshop with a mini-lesson about some techniques of revision.

2. Teacher selects a student writing sample (with permission), makes a transparency of the selection, and offers it as an example of a piece that may need revising.

3. Teacher reads sentences from the writing sample and engages students to think about which sentences need to be put together so the piece of writing will be more cohesive. The teacher then numbers the sentences that should be placed together.

4. As a second revision technique, the teacher shows the students how to use different colored pencils or markers to group sentences that would go together to make a more interesting, cohesive piece of writing.

5. Teacher facilitates the process by engaging the students to enter the discussion and assist in completing the revision technique of rearranging the sentences for better organization.

6. After clarifying any student questions, the teacher invites the students to try this technique with their own writing.

7. Students then write independently and try this technique or engage in another aspect of Writer’s Workshop such as meeting in pairs for a peer conference.


Closure: As the class period comes to a close, the teacher may ask the students to form a Share Circle to discuss and review the revision technique previously presented during the mini-lesson. Students will be asked to share how the revision technique worked for them.

Knowledge Rating

Teacher asks the students if they have ever had a dream come true.


1. Brainstorm "dream" in large group.

2. Continue brainstorming, adding "American" to dream.

3. Read a selected poem that further develops the theme of the American Dream (for
example, Harlem by Langston Hughes).

4. Discuss the American Dream while interpreting the poem.

5. Pass out individual copies of the Knowledge Rating strategy sheet to the students.Go over the directions, perhaps doing the first term together in large group.

6. Have learners analyze each word and note whether the term is familiar. If the student knows the meaning of the word, a short definition is written in the appropriate column.

7. Learners then skim the text noting the location of the vocabulary words in context.

8. Read the text in large group, small groups, or individually.

9. Revisit the vocabulary words and note a definition for each. Note: No glossary or
dictionary is used for this activity.

Closure: Review the definitions so that each learner will have an accurate explanation of each term as it was used in the text.

Evaluation suggestions: The Knowledge Rating sheet; group work participation; writing a
short paragraph describing the topic (to assess comprehension).

GIST

Teacher asks what it means to have the “gist” of a topic. Discuss this, with examples.

Activities:

1. The teacher explains that the class will be working short text prompts using a literacy strategy that will help them be more successful in comprehending exactly what the point is.

2. Read a prompt together.

3. Learners take turns telling the teacher words that they find most essential. The teacher may list the words on a chart on the overhead or board. After the list of 5 -10 words is established, the students make suggestions to revise the list until the class comes to some consensus.

4. Read another prompt together. Learners now are asked to line out information that is not essential.

5. Students are given problems to work on their own or in small groups.

Cubing

Designed by G. E. Tompkins

Cubing is a literacy strategy which uses the concrete visual of a cube with its six sides to serve as a starting point for consideration of the multiple dimensions of topics within subject areas.

To introduce Cubing, start with a familiar topic and model the process. Then, assign more complex topics once learners have a grasp of how the process works. Learners examine the topic using the prompts from the six sides of the cube.


Describe it
If applicable, include color, shape, size.
How would you describe the issue/topic?

Compare it
What it is similar to or different from.
“It’s sort of like ______________________ .”

Associate it
What it makes you think of.
How does the topic connect to other issues/subjects?

Analyze it
Tell how it is made or what it is composed of.
How would you break the problem/issue into smaller
parts?

Apply it
Tell how it can be used.
How does it help you understand other topics/issues?

Argue for/against it
Take a stand and support it.

I am for this because __________________.
This works because ___________________ .
I agree because ______________________ .