Dear Dr Project

It seems restrictive to tell every kid to make the same kind of product when we’re doing a project. How should I decide what parts of the project can be flexible and which are non-negotiable?

Usually when teachers are designing a project, they either make the type of content non-negotiable or the type of product non-negotiable.

Here are three examples to give you a sense of what I mean:

Non-negotiable content with a flexible product

Students share their learning about the Industrial Revolution through any creative form they choose.

Non-negotiable product with flexible content

Students make a 5-10 minute “This American Life”-style podcast that tells a compelling story of their choosing.

Content and product are both non-negotiable

Students make a 5-10 minute “This American Life”-style podcast in which they play the roles of people affected by the Industrial Revolution, sharing a believable story from that time and place.

If you only take one thing away from this answer, let it be this: I strongly encourage you to make the type of product non-negotiable. For example, if you’re making videos in your project, students should make videos. A kid who really wants to make a comic book can make a comic book in addition to the video, but not instead of the video.

There are six reasons for this:

1. “Project-based learning,” to state the obvious, means that students are learning “based on” a project. Developing a product over the course of multiple drafts is normally the driving force of the project, which means that a great deal of learning is going to occur through the process of making the product. If students are all making different products, it will be very difficult for you, as a teacher, to ensure that learning is taking place.
2. Projects should be, in part, lessons in quality and craftsmanship, and craftsmanship is specific to a medium. A well-crafted song is very different from a well-crafted table, and takes different skills and understanding to create.
3. Students need models. If they are all using the same project format, it is possible to provide them with one. If they are all using different project formats, how can you find, present, and analyze with students multiple examples of a quality product in every format?
4. Students should meet experts and be inspired and critiqued by them. If all students are creating an essay, a writer can be the expert; if all students are creating a scientific report, a scientist can be the expert; if all students are drafting blueprints, an architect or engineer can be the expert. If all students are using different media and formats, it’s almost impossible to arrange expert guides for the work.
5. When students are all making the same type of product, everyone’s emerging expertise can help everyone else, both through formal critique and informal support. A critique session in which three students review each other’s draft videos is rich in opportunities for learning and development. A critique session in which one student brings a short story, one brings a video, and one brings a comic? Not so much, because they will struggle to know what to focus on and how to help each other.
6. Every product has its own requisite materials and production timelines. Even the best PBL educators will struggle to manage several different schedules and materials requests. Class will flow much more smoothly if everyone is using the same materials on the same days.

These are all reasons we recommend that you choose a product for your project, rather than leaving it up to each student to choose their own. However, you don’t need to come up with the product by yourself! There are hundreds of models you can choose from and adapt. Here are some places to start looking:

• HTH Unboxed Project Cards
• EL Education Models of Excellence
• Changing the Subject: Twenty Years of Projects at High Tech High

Further reading:

What PBL is Not

• This video draws a distinction between “project-based learning,” in which the project drives the learning, and “project-oriented learning,” in which the project begins only after students have learned the core content in their class.

Ask Dr. Project: What if kids just copy the model?

• This column addresses a concern that many teachers have about using models in project-based learning.

The Power of My Mistakes

• In this article, a teacher describes what he (and his students) learned as a result of him “doing the project himself” before he asked students to do it.