Step 1: Beginning at the End
Step 1: Decide on an End Product
As you sit down with your team and start talking about PBL for the school year and all of your amazingly creative ideas, make sure that the first thing you discuss is your end product. Many teachers make this mistake: they focus on the text or novel, the unit, or even the standards they want to cover before really thinking through how the PBL experience will end. I hope I've caught you in time!
In order for PBL to have the most impact, you'll want to consider some kind of experience for the students at the end of their learning where they can present to an authentic audience. Some schools can reserve their auditorium and contact a panel of judges to come in an see projects. Others host an after school event that looks like a research-style conference and community members are invited in to come and watch presentations. And still, others harness the power of technology and create products to publish and share with an audience online.
Work with your team now to discuss and decide what you want the end product to look like. Everything else you do must contribute or lead up to this "event", so begin with the end in mind knowing exactly what the students will be working toward.
And before, you ask, yes, of course the students could simply present to each other and to you, but isn't that what we do all the time anyway?!