Bringing PBL to Scale

Bringing PBL to Scale
Michael McDowell, Ed.D.

Structure of
Presentation
• Presentation Launch (20 min.)
• Workshop (90)
• Know/Need to Know Review (10 min)

Khan
• What are the key findings from the following
research?
• What inferences/assumptions emerge for you?
(Learning, Teaching, and Professional Development)
• What are the implications from the research to the
field?
• What do you see are next steps in relation to the
inferences drawn?

This is a common reaction to professional
development that does not provide teachers
with sufficient opportunities to study the
difference between their current practice and
the alternative that is being proposed by the
professional development provider. Robinson,
Viviane (2011-06-24). Student-Centered
Leadership (Jossey-Bass Leadership Library in
Education) (p. 50). Wiley. Kindle Edition.

Driving Question
• How do we bring problem and project based
learning to scale within a school or
educational system to substantially increase
near and far transfer of learning?

Connections
• Include your knowledge and skill on our
todaysmeet backchannel
• Tweet, handle @mmcdowell13
– Hashtag #pblny
• Take the following survey
http://mmcdowell13.polldaddy.com/s/effects-
on-student-learning-survey-2

Theory of Action
• If educators utilized a problem or project based
approach within a system-wide professional
learning community framework then students will
show substantial rates of progress and exceed
levels of proficiency within the knowledge, skills,
and dispositions areas identified as necessary to
be prepared for academic, vocational, societal,
and familial expectations.

Our Story
Learning System
Infrastructure
Daily operation

Systemic Professional Learning Community
Framework

Learning Centered Culture and Climate

• “Its unbelievable how much you don’t know
about the game you’ve been playing all your
life”
- Mantle

Few points of reference
- 915 Meta-analysis
- 60,155 studies
- 245 million students
- 159,570 effect sizes reported
- This data set is for the purpose of
discussion
- There are moderators

An example
• Homework- effect size = .29
• Rank 88th
• Number of Meta-analysis 5
• Number of studies 161
• Number of effects 295
• Number of people 105,282

• Exploring each variable-
• High school twice as large
• Short time periods are important
• Direct parent involvement had a negative
effect
• Lack of monitoring
• Difficulty
• Prescribing homework does not help
in time management skills

What’s the story?
• Teachers are among the most powerful
influences on learning

Teachers need to be directive, influential, caring,
and actively engaged in the passion of teaching
and learning

“Teachers don’t teach.”
– They

• Teachers need to be aware of what each and
every student is thinking and knowing, to
construct meaning and meaningful experiences in
light of this knowledge, and have proficient
knowledge and understanding of their content to
provide meaningful and appropriate feedback
such that each student moves progressively
through the curriculum levels

• Teachers and students need
to know
Where are we going?,
How are you going, and
what’s next?

• Teachers need to move from the single idea to
multiple ideas, and to relate and then extend
these ideas such that learners construct and
reconstruct knowledge and ideas. It is not the
knowledge or ideas, but the learner’s
construction of this knowledge and these
ideas that is critical.

• School leaders and teachers need to create
school, staffroom, and classroom
environments where error is welcomed as a
learning opportunity, where discarding
incorrect knowledge and understandings is
welcomed, and where participants can feel
safe to learn, re-learn, and explore knowledge
and understanding.

Factor influence on achievement (Hattie,
2009)
Birth weight (.54)
Lack of Illness (.23)
Diet (.12)
Drug interventions (.33)
Exercise (.28)
Socioeconomic status (.57)
Family structure (.17)
Home environment (.57)
Parental involvement (.51)
teacher student relationships (.72)
P.D. (.62)
teacher clarity (.75)
microteaching (.88)
feedback (.73)
Goals (.56)
Mastery Learning (.58)
Providing formative evaluation (.90)
Spaced vs. Massed Practice (.71)

Effect sizes from teaching or working
conditions
Quality of Teaching (.77)
Reciprocal Teaching (.74)
Teacher-Student
relationships (.72)
Providing Feedback (.72)
Meta-cognition strategies (.67)
Direct Instruction (.59)
Ave (.68)
Within class grouping (.28)
Adding more finances (.23)
Reducing class size (.21)
Ability grouping (.11)
Multi-grade/age (.04)
Open v. trad (. 01)
summer vacation (-.09)
Retention (-.16)
Ave (.08)

Effect sizes for teacher as activator and
teacher as facilitator
Feedback (.72)
Problem Solving teaching (.61)
Goals-Challenging (.56)
Average activator (.63)
Simulations and gaming (.32)
Inquiry-based teaching (.31)
Individualized instruction (.20)
PBL (.15)
Web-based learning (.09)
Whole language-reading (.06)
Average facilitator (.17)

Effect sizes for teacher as activator and
teacher as facilitator
Feedback (.72)
Problem Solving teaching (.61)
Goals-Challenging (.56)
Average activator (.63)
Simulations and gaming (.32)
Inquiry-based teaching (.31)
Individualized instruction (.20)
PBL (.15)
Web-based learning (.09)
Whole language-reading (.06)
Average facilitator (.17)
What are the key difference between these methods?
The key is the role of the teacher…We go back to the
story

Variables that don’t have a substantial
impact- THE POLITICS OF DISTRACTION
• Attributes of students have a low effect on student
learning (gender, parental employment, adoption,
personality, labeling of students) (less than .18)
• Deep Programs matching styles of learning, inquiry
based methods, individualized instruction, distance
education (less than .22)
• School and Class Structure Summer school,
finance, class size, ability grouping, retention, multi-
grade/age classes, changing school calendars (less
that .10)

Research Guidance
Strategy Effect
Teachers working together to evaluate their impact and responding to
that impact 0.93
Teachers conduct pre-assessments, utilizing data to inform instruction,
and providing students with a clear understanding of expectations for
meeting learning outcomes (Where are we going?, where are we now?,
and what’s next?
0.77
Teachers using practices in the classroom that values errors and trust 0.72
Teachers receive feedback on their impact on student learning 0.72
Teachers are providing an appropriate proportion of surface and deep
level knowledge 0.71
Providing students with challenge and practice at the right level 0.60

Assessment for
Learning
Learning
Centered
Culture
and
Climate
IMPACT
Backwards
Design
Differentiation
System-Wide PLC Framework

Professional Learning Community
Framework
• Quality project or problem based learning as
an instructional approach to enhance learning
is developed, implemented, and improved
upon only when anchored in a system-wide
professional learning community framework
that routinely reviews and acts upon student
progress and proficiency data with respect to
content literacy and 21st Century outcomes.

#vlconf2014
• Developing a backbone
• Embracing Customization
• Developing a support system

What do we want all
students to know and be
able to do?
How do we know when
students are learning?
What do we do based on
such results?
How do we work together
to review and respond to
student learning?

What do we want all
students to know and be
able to do?
What do we do based on
these results?
How do we work together
to review and respond to
student learning?
Common Outcomes
Common Scales
Common Intervention
Criteria
Common Culture and
Work
How do we know when

Common Outcomes
Common Scales
Common
Intervention Criteria
Common Culture
and Work
High Reliability Educational Organization
“Backbone”

Teaching [and learning] in the dark is a
questionable practice” (Taba, 1966)

Where
are we?
What’s
next?
Where
are we
going?

Where
are we?
What’s
next?
Where
are we
going?
How are we ensuring voice and choice?
What’s working? What needs improvement?

Where are we going?
Build a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum
• Identify key criteria
• Select possible content outcomes that meet
criteria
• Select possible skill outcomes that meet
criteria

Example Criteria
• Endurance. Standard includes the knowledge, skills, and
dispositions students are expected to retain over time as
opposed to those they merely learn for a test (Reeves, 2002).
• Curriculum Leverage. Standard includes the skills, knowledge,
and dispositions that will assist the student in becoming
proficient in other areas of the curriculum and other
academic disciplines (Reeves, 2002).
• Essential learning. Standard includes the critical skills,
knowledge, and dispositions each student must acquire as a
result of each course, grade level, and unit of instruction.

Assessment Exercise
• Section A: Ten multiple choice items that are factual in nature but
important to the topic
• Section B: Four short constructed-response items that require students
to explain principles or give examples of generalizations as presented
in class.
• Section C: Two short constructed-response items that require students
to make inferences and applications that go beyond what was
presented in class
• Points for Section A:_______
• Points for Section B: _______
• Points for Section C:_______
• Total: __100___

Student Performance
• The student...
• Answered all of Section A correctly
• Answered two of four correctly in Section
B correctly
• Answered all questions in Section C
incorrectly
• What is the student’s overall score: ____

Proficiency Scale
Score Description
4 More Complex
3 Target
2 Less Complex
1 With Support,
0 Even with support,

Proficiency Scale
Score Description
4 More Complex
3 Target
2 Less Complex

Assessment Use
Right/Wrong -3
provide correct answer 8.5
Criteria understood by student v. not understood 16
explain 20
student reassessed until correct 20
Public viewing and discussion 26
Evaluation by rule (Tight Logic) 38
Bangert-Drowns, Kulik, Kulik, & Morgan (1991)
Fuchs and Fuchs(1998)
Marzano (2010)

Creating Progressions: Learning
Hierarchies
• Learning progressions (also known as learning
sequences and learning hierarchies) are
attempts to organize academic content into a
progression of increasingly more complex and
generalizable knowledge.
• Each element in a learning progression is
necessary to understand the next element or
a natural developmental stage of
understanding subsequent to the next level.
TUHSD

SOLO- Structure of the observed learning outcome
• Extended- Requires a learner to transfer their
understand of single, multiple, and relational
content to outside contexts.
• Relational- Requires a learner to relate
single/multiple ideas together to further
understand core content
• Single/Multiple- Requires a learner to
understand single or multiple ideas related to
the core content standards
TUHSD

A tale of two tools
Rubric 1.0 Rubric 2.0 (scale)
Multi-dimensional Uni-dimensional
Context-rich Context-poor
Task oriented Learning oriented
Substantial criteria per level minimal criteria per level
Progression levels dictated
by rubric purpose
Progression levels dictated
by learning taxonomy
Limits autonomy Enhances autonomy
Compliance orientation Performance orientation
* This is typical , not always the case

#vlconf2014
- Where is the learner now?

“If we are to understand how teaching
relates to learning, we have to begin at
the closest point to that learning, and
that is students’ experience.”
- Nuthall (2001)

Score Description
4 Extension
Applying Understanding
3 Relational
Making Meaning
2 Single/Multiple
Building Knowledge
1 Direct Support
Proficiency
Not Yet
Proficiency

Score Description
4 Extension
Applying Understanding
3 Relational
Making Meaning
2 Single/Multiple
Building Knowledge
1 Direct Support
DEEP
SURFACE

Connections
Limited Growth (0.0-
0.39)
Expected Growth (.40 +)
Not Yet Proficient (0.0-
2.25)
Proficient (2.5-4.0)

Limited Growth (0.0-0.39) Expected Growth (.40 +)
Not Yet Proficient
(0.0-2.25)
Make A Change!
• Review & Make Changes to
Instructional Strategies
Keep it up!
• More Time
• Same Instructional
Program
• Celebrate Success
Proficient (2.5-4.0) Cruising
Success
• Capture Instructional
Strategies
• Continue Practices

Limited Growth (0.0-0.39) Expected Growth (.40 +)
Not Yet Proficient
(0.0-2.5)
Make A Change!
Keep it up!
• More Time
• Same Instructional
Program
Proficient (2.5-4.0) Cruising
Success
• Capture Instructional
Strategies
• Continue Practices
Capture
Success/Replicate
Change

What? So What? Now What?
Moving from Data Analysis to Response

Common
Outcomes
Common Scales
Common Intervention
Criteria
Common
Culture and
Work
Customized
Instruction
Customized
Assessment
Customized
Collaborative
Structures
Customized
Intervention

• Driver of customization is impact
• Impact is identified through progress and
proficiency
• Impact is discussed by all stakeholders
• All stakeholders have degrees of voice and
choice in showing, celebrating, and improving
upon their impact.

Customized
Instruction
Customized
Assessment
Customized
Collaborative
Structures
Customized
Intervention
Innovation

What do we want all
students to know and
be able to do?
How do we know when
What do we do based
on such results?
How do we work
together to review and
respond to student
learning?

What do we want all
students to know and
be able to do?
What do we do based
on these results?
How do we work
together to review and
respond to student
learning?
Common Outcomes
Common Scales
Common
Common Culture and
Work
How do we know when

Common Outcomes
Common Scales
Common
Common Culture and
Work

Common Outcomes
Common Scales
Common Intervention
Criteria
Common Culture and
Work
Learning System “Backbone”

Common
Outcomes
Common
Scales
Common
Common
Culture and
Work
Customized
Instruction
Customized
Assessment
Customized
Collaborative
Structures
Customized
Intervention

Professional Development
“Backbone” Innovative Leadership
• Year I New
Teacher
Professional
Development
• Grading P.D.
• Facilitative
Support
• ITTC
• New Tech
Network
• Buck Institute
of Education
• TL Bootcamp
• TLC on-going
P.D.
• Administrative
Support
(personal,
team,
organizational)

Tipping Point
August 2012 - March 2014
• ITTC- 5 Teachers enrolled to approximately 98 (33
SLC)
• Student Impact- (direct= 810) (indirect= 1,500)
• Teacher request for additional support creating a
collaborative learning environment, teaching and
assessing content and 21st century skills through
SBG, utilizing PBL, and effectively using
technology grew exponentially.
• Demand for a community of practice

How?
• Defined Autonomy
• Distributed Leadership
• Boundary Management
• Culture and Climate
• Leadership Competency (Model, Model,
Model)

What?
• Five Defining Features
– Professional Learning Community Framework
– Project Design
– Assessment for Learning
– Differentiation
– Learning Centered Culture and Climate

Systemic PLC Framework
Sub-Features Steps
LSI
•Establish a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum
•Establish reliable and valid assessment instruments
•Establish intervention criteria
•Develop and improve upon an instructional model
•Develop and improve upon critical friends teams
Support
System
•Align board priorities
•Align and allocate resources
•Establish a leadership team
Customization
•Implement high yield approaches
•Align to LSI features

# 2 Project Design
• Project based learning orients the learner to
transfer or application level problems or
challenges at the beginning of the learning
process and provides opportunities to learn
and time to learn pertinent content and 21st
Century knowledge and skills along a
learning progression to meet such
demanding learning expectations.
Therefore, teachers must utilize a backwards
design process to effectively design projects.

Sub-Features Steps
Outcome Identification Identify all facts, ideas, and concepts that are related to content
expected within each essential standard and/or 21st Century skill
Rubric Development
•Classify all facts, ideas, and concepts for each outcome into
appropriate progression levels
•Assign appropriate verbs for each progression level
•Develop a scoring scheme that aligns with progression levels
and enhances reliability
Driving Question
•Identify questions that can be used to guide the students
thinking
•Identify contexts that can be used to extend student learning
within and across disciplines
Assessment
Development
•Identify sample tasks that illustrate student knowledge across all
progression levels
•Identify potential sample obtrusive assessment items that align
with all progression levels
Entry Event Planning Construct entry event content

Lecture Activity Quiz Lecture Activity Quiz Review Exam
Project
Launch
Entry Event and
Rubric Create
“Need to Knows”
and Next Steps

Driving Question
Would changing the material of our currency
reduce or inhibit the amount of drug-resistant
microbe DNA found on dollar bills?

Project-Based Learning Unit:
Project
Launch
Entry Event and
Rubric Create
“Need to Knows”
and Next Steps
Activities
Workshops
Lectures
Homework
Benchmark
Research
Labs
Simulations
Discussions
Modeling
Reading
Benchmark
Interviews
Quiz
Reflectionon
Learning
P
R
E
S
E
N
T
Creating
Feedback
Building
Writing
Preparing
Drafts

Lecture Activity Quiz Lecture Activity Quiz Review Exam Project
PBL is NOT the Same as "Doing
Projects"
Traditional Unit With Project:
Project-Based Learning Unit:
Project
Launch
Entry Event and
Rubric Create
“Need to Knows”
and Next Steps
Activities
Workshops
Lectures
Homework
Benchmark
Research
Labs
Simulations
Discussions
Modeling
Reading
Benchmark
Interviews
Quiz
Reflectionon
Learning
P
R
E
S
E
N
T
Creating
Feedback
Building
Writing
Preparing
Drafts

Verizon Operator Problem
• Provide a clear rationale for whether the
operator or the customer is correct in the
following situation.

A recent web release on Wikipedia
reports that 8 % of all Americans eat at
McDonald’s every day. Current data
reveals that there are approximately
310 million Americans and 12,800
McDonald’s restaurants in the United
States. Make a conjecture as to
whether or not you believe the web
release to be true, and then create a
mathematical argument that justifies
your conclusion

Which line would you take and why?

Mathematical Practices
• Make sense of problems
• Persevere in solving them
• Reason abstractly and quantitatively
• Construct viable arguments
• Critique the reasoning of others
• Model with Mathematics
• Use appropriate tools strategically
• Attend to precision
• Look for and make use of structure
• Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning

PBL vs. DOING PROJECTS
PBL: Students are pulled through the curriculum by a driving question or
realistic problem that provides a “need to know”. Lectures, readings, and
skill building are integrated into the problem as the students need the
information.
Know/ Need to Know

WHAT DOES PBL LOOK LIKE?
PROJECT
INFORMATION
RESEARCH AND
INVESTIGATIONFORMAL
TEACHING
DRAFT
SOLUTIONS
REFLECTION
FINAL
PRESENTATIONS
GROUP
PLANNING
Teachers develop
problems based on
content standards that
students, working in
teams, develop solutions
to. Teachers provide
coaching, assignments
and direct instruction to
address student needs.

Project Essentials
• Confront significant content and authentic issues
• Develop 21st Century skills
• Conclude with a public presentation
• Organize activities around a driving questions or challenge
• Establish a Need to Know or do
• Engage students in inquiry
• Require innovation
• Encourage student voice and choice
• Incorporate critique and revision

Project
Design (content & products)
• Confront significant content
and authentic issues
• Develop 21st Century skills
• Conclude with a public
presentation
• Organize activities around a
driving questions or
challenge
Implementation- “habits of
practice”
• Establish a Need to Know or
do
• Engage students in inquiry
• Require innovation
• Encourage student voice and
choice
• Incorporate critique and
revision

Bumps in the road
• Students are rarely involved in the
assessment process
• Curriculum design rarely introduces
questions, criteria, and tasks for students to
solve that require a range of surface and
deep level knowledge
• Student thinking is dramatically influenced
by context (rubrics and project
expectations)
• Voice and Choice in tasks and

Suggestions:
1. Create discipline centered questions for surface
and deep level understanding
2. Identify a myriad of contexts that can be used to
extend student learning across disciplines
3. Determine degree of autonomy related to
context and tasks.

Art ExampleGoal- Student understands the relationship between historical events and
artistic expression
Extended- Understand how art represents human behavior that stands the
test of time.
Relational- Understands the relationship between the creation or
expression of art and the events of the time.
Single/Multiple- Understand how compositional principles are identified in
famous pieces of art
TUHSD

Art Example
TUHSD
Goal- Student understands the relationship
between historical events and artistic
expression
Academic Question
Extended- Understand how art represents
human behavior that stands the test of time.
Relational- Understands the relationship
between the creation or expression of art
and the events of the time.
Single/Multiple- Understand how
compositional principles are identified in
How does this painting relate to
contemporary time?
How does this piece connect to the time of
its creation? Or, What do you consider the
author was saying through his painting?
Who created the following piece? What is
the name of the piece? What are two
compositional principles that the artist used
in the piece?

Identify a myriad of contexts that
can be used to extend student
learning across disciplines

Art Example
McDowell, Ed.D.
Goal Academic Question Application
Questions
human behavior that stands the test of
time.
How does this painting relate
to human behavior as
expressed in contemporary
events?
How does this piece connect to
the time of its creation? Or,
What do you consider the
author was saying through his
painting?
Who created the following
piece? What is the name of the
piece? What are two
compositional principles that
the artist used in the piece?
Should we use art as a way
to understand the causes
and effects of violent acts in
the middle east?

• The student will initiate and participate effectively in a
range of collaborative discussions (one on one, in
groups, and teacher led) with diverse partners on
grade-appropriate topics, texts, and issues, building on
others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and
persuasively (SL. 11-12.1)
• The student will draw skillfully across various sources
of influence to motivate and enable vital behaviors so
that important personal, social, and organization goals
are accomplished.

Determine degree of
autonomy related to
context and tasks.

Units of Study
Stage I Desired Results - Where are we going?
Established Goals Driving Question
Stage II Assessment Evidence – Where are we?
Scale
2.0
3.0
4.0
Tasks
Stage III Learning Plan- What’s next?
Steps Days

Creating a Driving Question
TUHSD

Crafting a Driving Question
• Problem: Curriculum design rarely
introduces questions for students to
solve that require ALL levels of
knowledge in relevant disciplines AND
connects to authentic contexts
• Solution: Develop questions that require
learning at ALL levels AND requires
students to think about how the subject
matter relates to various contexts.

McDowell, Ed.D.
Driving Question 1 2 3 4
Provocative
Initial: “How do the beliefs of people influence and impact the rights of
others?”
Emerging: “How do conservative policies influence women’s rights related to
abortion?”
Answerable
Initial: “How has technology affected world history?”
Emerging: “Does technology make war more or less humane?”
Relational
Initial: “How does the author use voice and perspective in The House on
Mango Street to reflect on his childhood and community?”
Emerging: “How can childhood memories show who we are today?
Concrete and challenging
Initial: “How do architects use geometry?”
Emerging: “How can we design a theater that meets specification with the
greatest number of seats?”
Academic & Applicable
Initial: How can changes in the protein synthesis process alter protein
development? What treatments enhance patient survival rates with HIV?
Emerging: What, if any, antiviral drug treatments increase and maintain
normal protein development in patients with HIV over time? Explain the most
effective strategy to date.

Science Example
• Questions
McDowell, Ed.D.
Goal- Students are able to describe the flow of
information from transcription of ribonucleic
acid (RNA) in the nucleus to translation of
proteins on ribosomes.
Academic Question
Extended- Understand how various factors
may influence protein creation.
Relational- Understands how transcription
and translation relate to one another to create
proteins
Single/Multiple- Understands that
transcription, translation, RNA, and DNA are
involved in creating proteins.
How can changes in the protein synthesis
process alter protein development?
How are proteins made through the
transcription and translation process?
What is translation? What is transcription?
What is RNA?

21ST Century Skills
• Questions
McDowell, Ed.D.
Goal: Student builds relational trust with
peers while addressing technical project
issues
Academic Question
Extended- Understands how open to learning
conversation strategies can be used in closed
to learning environments
between between open to learning
conversation values and strategies
Single/Multiple- Understands how values are
expressed in open to learning conversation
How do facilitators create the conditions
necessary to engage participants who are
unfamiliar with open to learning
conversations?
How do facilitators utilize strategies to express
their understanding of the embedded values of
open to learning conversation?
What are two values that are common in
“open to learning” conversations?

Art Example
Goal- Student understands the relationship
between historical events and artistic
expression
Academic Question
human behavior that stands the test of time.
How do painting relate to contemporary
time?
How do paintings connect to the time of
their creation? Or, What do you consider the
painter was saying through their paintings?
Who created the following piece? What is
the name of the piece? What are two
compositional principles that the artist used
in the piece?
TUHSD

SOLO
• Questions
McDowell, Ed.D.
Goal Academic Question Application Questions
Extended- Understand
how various factors
may influence protein
creation.
Relational-
Understands how
transcription and
translation relate to
one another to create
proteins
Single/Multiple-
Understands that
transcription,
translation, RNA, and
DNA are involved in
creating proteins.
How can changes in the
protein synthesis process
alter protein development?
How are proteins made
through the transcription and
translation process?
What is translation? What is
transcription? What is RNA?
What is the most effective antiviral
drug treatment to increase and
maintain normal protein
development in patients with HIV
over time? Explain.
How do immune cells relate to the
HIV virus?
What is the structure and function
of HIV? What is the structure and
function of T-Cells?

21st Century Skill Example
McDowell, Ed.D.
Goal: Student builds relational trust
with peers while addressing technical
project issues
Academic Question Application
Questions
Extended- Understands how open to
learning conversation strategies can
be used in closed to learning
environments
Relational- Understands the
relationship between between open
to learning conversation values and
strategies
Single/Multiple- Understands how
values are expressed in open to
learning conversation
How do facilitators create the
conditions necessary to
engage participants who are
unfamiliar with open to
learning conversations?
How do facilitators utilize
strategies to express their
understanding of the
embedded values of open to
learning conversation?
What are two values that are
common in “open to
learning” conversations?
How do we handle
the following group
situations using
appropriate
facilitative strategies?

Art Example
McDowell, Ed.D.
Goal Academic Question Application
Questions
Extended- Understand how art
represents human behavior that
stands the test of time.
Relational- Understands the
relationship between the creation or
expression of art and the events of
the time.
compositional principles are identified
in famous pieces of art
How does this painting
relate to human behavior
as expressed in
contemporary events?
How does this piece
connect to the time of its
creation? Or, What do you
consider the author was
saying through his
painting?
Who created the following
piece? What is the name of
the piece? What are two
Should we use art as a
way to understand the
causes and effects of
violent acts in the
middle east?

Teaser
• What elements are critical for developing and
implementing problems?
• What stood out for you in the film?

Review a Problem
• http://threeacts.mrmeyer.com/tacocart/

Three Acts: Act One
• Act One- Introduce the central conflict of your
story/task clearly, visually and viscerally.

Three Acts: Act Two
• Act Two: The protagonist overcomes
obstacles, looks for resources, and develops
new tools

Three Acts: Act Three
• Act Three: Resolve the conflict and set up a
sequel.

Design: Develop Assessments
• Problem: Assessments rarely address
ALL progression levels AND are rarely
diverse in type to represent student
progress and proficiency.
• Solution: Design assessments that
represent the varying progression levels
AND represent a diversity in typology to
ascertain student progress and
proficiency.

Does it have to be paper and pencil?
• Student interviews (probing)
• Performance based tasks
• Unobtrusive assessments
• Student generated
• Observation
• Projects
• Re-do of specific items on a test
• And….

Assessment Types
Unobtrusive Obtrusive
Student
Generated
Applying
Understanding
Making Meaning
Building Knowledge

Assessment Types
Unobstrusive Obtrusive
Student
Generated
Applying
Understanding
Making Meaning
Building Knowledge

More
Complex
Target
Less
Complex

Design: Craft an Entry Event
• Problem: When introducing curriculum
to pupils we rarely focus student learning
on the driving question & the essential
learning outcomes
• Solution: Introduce curriculum with a
driving question that requires student
understanding and application within and
across disciplines.

Assessment for Learning
• To meet project expectations, teachers
utilize targeted inquiry to articulate
expectations, identify current progress, and
enable learners and teachers to co-construct
next steps in the learning process.

Assessment for Learning
Sub-Feature Steps
Targeted
Inquiry
•Clarify learning intentions
•Identify progress and proficiency
•Provide targeted feedback
•Leverage self, peer, and teachers in AfL process
•Review and respond to efficacy of AfL practices

Where we are
going?Where we are? Where to next?

Be honest with where I am at on
learning progressions. I
definitely am honest with where I
am in this class. This way of
assessment has completely
made me feel alright with being
in the pit because I know that I
am not stuck there and that I can
get myself out of it. I really
appreciate all that you have
done to make us feel
comfortable with progress.

Be open to struggling. What I said above
encompasses this. Before this class I was not
open to struggling at all, so this took me a while to
get used to. Now I know that I can get myself out
of the pit, so I feel comfortable being in it! I just
wish it was this way in the rest of my classes. ):

My annotations and thoughts on written
pieces were at about a 1 level at the
beginning of the semester, but with
guidance in class and a lot of practice I
have grown to getting a four on the last
annotation. Next semester I hope to grow
further.

# 4 Differentiation
• Implementation of a project-based learning
approach is complex due to the range of
instructional strategies and resources that
are utilized to substantially impact student
learning across a learning progression.
Throughout the project process, instructors
must utilize progress and proficiency data to
target instruction in order to enhance
student learning.

Differentiation
Sub-Feature Steps
Targeted
Instruction
•Develop workshops for content and skill progression
levels
•Align workshops to problem solving process
•Develop a project calendar
Resource
Utilization
Access technology, maximize adult connections, and
utilize collaborative tools

Questions to consider:
• What strategies yield a high effect at
the far transfer “applying
understanding” level?
• What strategies yield a high effect at
the near transfer level?
• How do we arrange workshops to
match student learning needs
• Identifying efficiency and effective
means for leveraging teacher practice

Aligning “High Probability Strategies” from the
Art and Science of Teaching to Progression
Levels.
Outcome Questions Activities
Applying understanding What do I typically do to
engage students in
cognitively complex tasks
involving hypothesis
generation and testing?
Experimental-inquiry
tasks
Problem-solving tasks
Making meaning What do I typically do to
organize students and
deepen knowledge?
Venn diagrams
Comparison matrix
Building knowledge What do I typically do to
identify critical
information?
Identifying critical input
experiences

Single/Multiple Ideas- What instructional approaches
will support students in understanding foundational
knowledge (e.g. facts, vocabulary terms) related to
learning outcomes?
Relating ideas- What instructional approaches support
students in connecting and contrasting ideas? What
are generalizations and principles that can be made
about these ideas?
Extending ideas- What instructional approaches support
students in applying the learning outcomes to other
contexts
Next Steps- Teachers

Single/Multiple Ideas- What strategies am I using that
will support me in building knowledge and skills (e.g.
facts, vocabulary terms) related to learning outcomes?
Relating ideas- What approaches appear to be working
or I should attempt to connect and contrast ideas? How
am I going as related to making generalizations and
principles?
Extending ideas- What approaches support me in
applying the learning outcomes to other contexts?
Next Steps- Students

Math Strategies
Below Average
• Counting all 22%
• Counting on 72%
• Known facts 6%
• Derived facts/Number
Sense 0%
Above Average
• Counting all 0%
• Counting on 9%
• Known facts 30%
• Derived facts/Number
Sense 61%

Simplistic Model
Project
Launch/PreAssessment
“Building Knowledge”
Workshops/AfL
“Making Meaning”
Workshops/AfL
“Applying
Understanding” Project
Presentation
Sequel- Context Switch

More realistic “messy” model
• All models are wrong, some are useful-
George Box

# 5 Learning Centered Culture and
Climate
• Project based learning requires a unique set
of classroom strategies to support all
students in meeting content and 21st
Century skill knowledge and skill based
transfer level requirements.

Learning Centered Culture and Climate
Sub-Feature Steps
Group
Parameters
•Create and implement agreements, roles and intervention
processes
•Establish a language of learning and empathy
•Inspect culture and climate through an intervention process
•Structural devices and processes for conversations
Organization Organize room, meetings, and teams to leverage collaboration

Project
Relational
• “We are change agents”
• Talk more about learning
than teaching
• Engage in dialogue not
monologue
• Enjoying the challenge
• Positive relationships
Tactical
• Evaluate the effects of their
teaching
• Assessment as feedback
regarding their impact
• Inform all about the
language of learning

#vlconf2014
• “We are change
agents”
• Talk more about
learning than
teaching
• Engage in dialogue
not monologue
• Enjoying the
challenge
• Positive
relationships

#vlconf2014
• “We are change
agents”
• Talk more about
learning than
teaching
• Engage in dialogue
not monologue
• Enjoying the
challenge
• Positive
relationships
• Hiring Practices
• Creating a CIA
defined autonomy
Infrastructure
• Meeting Structure and
Function
• Codifying Capacity
Building
• Developing a
Distributed Leadership
Team

Model, Model, Model
#vlconf2014

Ideal
Professional culture
Existing

• Create an agreed upon decision-making process
• Use that process to check for disagreements and to discuss
“undiscussables”
• Use questions to address potential conflicts and to explore ideas
• Always check in on each member of the group to make sure they
understand group process
• Each group member will explain their actions or beliefs to the group
• Each group member is responsible for all other group members in
understanding the task and coaching each other to perform at a high
level
• Each group member will explain important words and provide
specific examples when needed
• All group members will question other members when they
encounter “jump to conclusion” comments
• When sharing ideas all members will advocate their ideas and ask
questions about other ideas.

osts:• Be behaviorally specific (e.g. look fors) , e.g.
each group member will explain their actions
or beliefs to the group.
• Stay small, stay focused: test drive a few
agreements, 2-3

osts:• Focus on conversational agreements- no need
for “be on time”, everyone knows that
• Create roles- create a viewpoint coach
(summarizes what folks are saying) and a
process observer (reviews agreements and
monitors process)
.

osts:
• Use agreements to intervene: The strategy I’ve seen
work the best is the following: state facts, test
assumption, ask if assumption is correct, discuss
infraction OR move on.
• Call out “critical moments”- think of those moments
where the use of agreements are critical, did you or
your teammates take action? Process these critical
moments, they are usually in the undiscussable range.
• Arrange meetings for tough conversations, nuts and
bolts go into memos or in short 5-10 minute
sequences.

osts:
• Be behaviorally specific (e.g. look fors) , e.g. each group member will
explain their actions or beliefs to the group.
• Stay small, stay focused: test drive a few agreements, 2-3
• Focus on conversational agreements- no need for “be on time”, everyone
knows that
• Create roles- create a viewpoint coach (summarizes what folks are saying)
and a process observer (reviews agreements and monitors process)
• Use agreements to intervene: The strategy I’ve seen work the best is the
following: state facts, test assumption, ask if assumption is correct, discuss
infraction OR move on.
• Call out “critical moments”- think of those moments where the use of
agreements are critical, did you or your teammates take action? Process
these critical moments, they are usually in the undiscussable range.
• Arrange meetings for tough conversations, nuts and bolts go into memos
or in short 5-10 minute sequences.

Unhealthy Motives Motives of Dialogue
Be right
Look good/safe face
Win
Punish, blame
Avoid conflict
Learn
Find the truth
Produce results
Strengthen
relationships

Leading by understanding the
infusion process

Novice – short items
focused on skills and routines
Apprentice –
medium performance tasks
with scaffolding
Expert – long tasks
with high cognitive load and/or
complexity.
Types of Tasks on SBAC

Stories of Change
• What are the key stories that emerge when
facing second order changes?

Stories of Change
I. Look like an extension from the past (We
have done this before).
II. Things become worse, people are
uncomfortable (e.g. communication has
broken down)
III. Ready, fire, aim (what’s needed in process is
opposite to the perception of buy in)
IV. Assumptions, mental models, are challenged
(sacred cows)

Underlying Assumptions
• The ability to learn at high levels
• The actual causal and correlational variables
that influence high levels of learning
• The burden of responsibility for learning
• The aspects to be learned; the culminating
deliverables of an education
• The structure and function of delivery and
inspection

Our perception of material advantage

How does the conversation shift?

1.We have material advantage (we can reduce class size)
2.We have maximized such an advantage yet perpetuate the
same story (we don’t see the U shape curve)
3.We have political, social, and personal investment to reinforce
past practice (we were successful in this game)
4. Focusing on finance and class size moves us away from difficult
conversations (we can’t say “we can’t”. We have to say “we
won’t” and then provide a rationale)
5.The much more difficult change efforts required (Lawrence of
Arabia) is taxing and difficult to execute over time
6. Facts are funny things. Paradoxes (both/ands) exist in student
achievement, leadership, and change. These complexities are
hard to understand and challenge current many times
“collective” thinking.

#vlconf2014
Dialogue: https://todaysmeet.com/VLMindframe
Twitter: @mmcdowell13 ; #VLConf2014
Email: michaelmcdowell@icloud.com

"Every teacher needs to improve, not because
they are not good enough, but because they can
be even better.”- Dylan Wiliam

Eugene o Neil
The people who succeed and do not push on for
a greater failure are the spiritual middle classers

Bringing PBL to Scale

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