Project-Based, Student-Led: A Process for Co-designing Projects with Students

Outline

Content and Engagement:
In 2023 Columbia Heights Education Campus (CHEC) in Washington, DC was selected as one of DC Public School’s XQ Redesign Schools. One of the key levers of their redesign process has been an authentic focus on student voice and choice. This led the school to redesign their approach to project-based learning. CHEC’s curriculum had been based on project-based learning for the last 20 years, however in the past two years they have redesigned their approach by engaging in professional development with PBL Works and involving students in co-designing their projects in collaboration with teachers. As a result, the topics of projects and the ways in which they can be completed are more authentic, relevant, and engaging for students. This session will cover the professional development system for teachers and students and the co-designing process they use throughout the school year.
This session will dive deep into project co-design as an equity strategy, noting how CHEC has intentionally engaged students furthest from opportunity (based on district metrics such as family income, special needs, multilingual learner status, experiencing homelessness) or furthest from feeling a sense of belonging (as measured by a bi-annual perceptual survey). The presenters will share initial qualitative and quantitative outcome data disaggregated by different subgroups.
The presenters will share some of the initial challenges and lessons learned throughout this process, including scaffolds and steps to guide students through the options for their very first co-designed project. The participants will also learn how to balance rigor with student interest, having teachers write their own clear, effective, rigorous rubrics that include standards, and then supporting students to rephrase those standards in their own words and develop a specific and aligned goal that they want to focus on.
Attendees will receive and be guided through CHEC’s resources for co-designing projects, including the project-based-learning co-design planning template, the pre-planning checklist, and the co-designing protocol.

Time:
The presentation will be broken up into 3 sections
1. Information Sharing - 20min
2. Q and A presenters including students- 20 min
3. Sharing Tools and Resources and give participants time to adapt for their school environment. - 20 min

Process:
There will be several peer-to-peer interactions along with device based activities, and time to for the participants to engage with the tools and resources.

Supporting research

https://www.pblworks.org/
The Shift to Student-Led: Reimagining Classroom Workflows with UDL and Blended Learning by Catlin R. Tucker (Author), Katie Novak