Bienvenidos! /Bienvenue!
“Moving from application
projects towards the
implementation of PBL in the
second language classroom”
Resources/References
• National Foreign Language Resource Center:
http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/events/view/75/
• Project-Based Learning in World Languages: http://pbl-wl.wikispaces.com/
• Edutopia. Check this page: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/world-languageproject-based-learning-education-curriculum-don-doehla
• The Buck Institute for Education. The 8 essentials of PBL
Source: Project-Based Learning in World Languages
Retrieved from: http://pbl-wl.wikispaces.com/what+is+pbl%3F
Doing projects vs project-based
learning
The difference between projects and project-based learning
12 Ways to Know if You’re in a Project-Based Learning Environment or
Merely Having Kids Create Projects in Your Classroom
Eight Essentials for Project-Based
Learning
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Significant content
A need to know
A driving question
Student voice and choice
21st Century skills
Inquiry and innovation
Feedback and revision
Publicly presented product
(J. Larmer and J. Mergendoller, PhD, Buck Institute for Education,
Retrieved from http://pbl-wl.wikispaces.com/what+is+pbl%3F)
The Eight Essentials of PBL and PBLL
1. Significant Content:
PBL
PBLL
Project focus is on PLO’s and
concepts that are significant for
students (based on their own lives and
interests).
Content should reflect essential
knowledge for learners to acquire and
the essential language knowledge that
learners need to acquire to
successfully complete the project.
2. Entry Event:
PBL
It engages student interest and
initiates questioning.
PBLL
It should activate interest in
content knowledge and spark
student’s interest in learning about the
target language and culture (interest in
language knowledge)
3. Driving Question
PBL
It captures the heart of the
project in clear, compelling language,
and gives students a sense of purpose
and challenge. It should be
provocative, open-ended, complex,
and linked to the core of what
students should learn.
PBLL
It should challenge learners to
increase their language proficiency
and create the need for them to
engage with the target culture using
the target language.
4. Students’ voice and choice
PBL
Learners can choose how to
design, create, and present products.
PBLL
Teachers consider the learner’s
proficiency in the target language.
Learners may be allowed to set their
own language learning goals. Teacher
should be ready to scaffold students’
use of the target language whenever
necessary.
5. 21ST CENTURY SKILLS
PBL
21st century skills: collaboration,
communication, critical thinking, and
the use of technology
PBLL
Students in a PBLL environment
should be encouraged to develop the
21st century skills such as
communication, collaboration, and
critical thinking using the target
language in real-world interactions
with the target culture.
6. INQUIRY AND INNOVATION
PBL
Project work is more meaningful
if students are asked to conduct real
inquiry. A real inquiry leads to
innovation, a new answer to a driving
question, a new product, a new
solution to a problem.
PBLL
If projects generate the need to
meaningfully interact in the target language
with the target culture, the conditions are
created for learners to engage in authentic
communication. To conduct real inquiry,
students should be encouraged to engage in
meaningful conversations, use oral and
written communication skills to articulate
thoughts and ideas effectively, and analyze
and synthesize information from spoken and
written texts in different linguistic and
cultural contexts..
7. FEEDBACK AND REVISION
PBL
PBLL
In addition to providing direct
feedback, a teacher should coach students
in using rubrics or other set of criteria
to critique one another’s work. Students
need to learn that revision is a frequent
feature of real-world work.
Teachers should scaffold students’
use of the target language by providing
language-specific feedback and create
opportunities for learners to engage in
self-evaluation, revision, and peer
feedback on the linguistic output
throughout the project.
8. PUBLIC AUDIENCE
PBL
Students should be given
opportunities to present their work
to a real audience.
PBLL
Projects create a rich language learning
experience, and provide opportunities for
learners to gain in-depth understanding.
Such projects also give learners
opportunities to use oral and written
communicative skills in the target
language as the vehicle to present their
work and share the final product.
Driving Questions:
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Engage students with the world
Frame and bound student exploration
Give direction to the project
Are open-ended
Have multiple possible answers that can't be "Googled" or found in a textbook
Evoke curiosity
Motivate communication, inquiry, and action
Invite students to narrate, describe, and hypothesize about the topic
Have a conceptual anchor
Essential and Driving Questions
How to create driving questions in second
language instruction
1) List vocabulary topics you must teach (i.e., clothing, body parts,
school).
2) Expand each topic conceptually (i.e., fashion, health care,
education).
3) Brainstorm related conceptual issues or global problems YOUR
students care about (i.e. personal identity, access to health care,
illiteracy).
How to create driving questions in second
language instruction
4) List relevant cultural contexts (i.e., personal/cultural identity in Guatemala, access
to health care in the Dominican Republic, illiteracy among street children in
Colombia).
5) Generate possible driving questions in student-friendly language (i.e., How does
what I wear reflect who I am, where I come from, and what I value?, How does my
access to health care influence my opportunities?, How does education change what is
possible?)
6) Select a promising question and evaluate it.
Evaluation rubric
Beginning your Project Planning
• Start with the end in mind (backward design). What do we expect from our
students? What are the learning outcomes or goals?
• Which tasks can we use for our students to demonstrate their achievement
of the outcomes?
• What learning activities, materials and pedagogical approaches can we use?
Project-Based Language Learning
Using language to learn, learning to
use language
1. Identify conceptual content learners need
for the project
a. Contextual information→ social issues, personal experiences, etc.
b. Background information→ what do they need to know?
c. Key concepts or principles→ what do they need to understand in order
to seek information?
2. Determine language patterns necessary for
discussing conceptual content.
• grammatical structures or patterns
• key vocabulary terms
• activities
3. Authentic texts
4.Critical thinking activities
5.Interpersonal communication
6.Scaffolding strategies
Why is scaffolding an essential component
of building language proficiency?
Zone of Proximal Development:
"The distance between the actual developmental level as determined by
independent problem solving and the level of potential development as
determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in
collaboration with more capable peers" (Vygotsky, 1978).
How can we scaffold language in a PBLL
context (especially for beginners)?
• Determine what language your project requires.
• Identify what learners CAN do with language.
• Identify which pieces of the next highest level of performance are difficult
for learners.
• Target the gaps.
• Determine where student performance is likely to break down and insert
scaffolding, keeping in mind that scaffolding strategies will differ depending
on what aspects of a task you are scaffolding.
How can we scaffold content knowledge in the
PBLL classroom?
In PBLL, content is NOT grammar and vocabulary, but rather,
consists of information from other disciplines that students need in
order to complete the project. In other words, grammar and vocabulary
are TOOLS for accessing and communicating about content, and not
the content itself
How can we scaffold content knowledge in the
PBLL classroom?
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Check students’ prior knowledge and experiences with the topic.
Use graphic organizers
Represent the content in different ways
Reinforce critical thinking skills and metacognitive strategies to help students
navigate through the content.
• Model each skill, engage students in guided practice, and gradually remove the
support so students can perform the skills autonomously.
Start the Year with a Project…or Wait?
The answer is: It depends…
If students have are not ready yet, you could approach the foundation-laying job in a variety of ways.
You could have students practice what they’ll need for PBL in a series of discreet lessons:
• On one day (or two or three) they learn about Internet research
• the next few days they learn how to work in teams, next week they learn processes for problem-solving and
for giving and receiving critical feedback on their work.
• Then they might learn how to use a certain technology, speak in public, and organize a presentation.
• Or instead of separate lessons, you could have students experience one or more “mini-projects” which
emphasize various PBL competencies and habits of mind and work.
By John Larmer: http://bie.org/blog/start_the_year_with_a_project_or_wait
Projects samples/ideas
• The Menu Project (by Don Doehla): http://www.edutopia.org/blog/world-languageproject-based-learning-education-curriculum-don-doehla
• The Children’s Story Book (by Don Doehla): http://www.edutopia.org/blog/worldlanguage-project-based-learning-education-curriculum-don-doehla
• How can we help children at a struggling rural school in Colombia? (by Señora
Spanglish): http://www.pblinthetl.com/2013/05/ayudando-ando-round-2.html
• How can you market a product you have invented to a Spanish-speaking audience? (by
Señora Spanglish): http://www.pblinthetl.com/2014/11/inventions-novice-pbl-unitintroduction.html
• Sauvez le Français! (by Karen Dymit): http://savefrenchpbl.weebly.com/essential-anddriving-questions.html
My own samples for Inquiry-based learning:
• WebQuest: “Mi viaje a un país hispano”
www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=265240
• Nuestras Vacaciones (past tense in Spanish, travel vocabulary):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/x7ounn5fvu5kxfa/Spanish%2011%20term%201
%20project%20.mp4?dl=0
• “Bienvenidos a Mexican Cuisine”:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7ny42c65mhdc1o1/Connor%2C%20Mike%2
C%20Eric.mp4?dl=0