“Project Based Learning (...) that’s really what it’s meant to be. All students at all levels working together to solve a problem, thinking critically, modeling it for each other.”

— Rachel Crawford, 1st Grade Facilitator, Babcock Neighborhood School | Babcock Ranch, FL

Welcome to the PBL Playbook, brought to you by Magnify Learning – where we put teachers back in their sweet spot. Make sure you follow us on Twitter: @magnifylearning, @askgiebs, @MissB103, #PBLPlaybook.

In this episode, Josh and Andrea continue their series about the 6 A’s of PBL Project Design, where each episode will focus on one of the A’s and its importance to the PBL framework. This week, they chat with 1st grade facilitator and familiar voice to the podcast Rachel Crawford (@BNS_RCraw) from Babcock Neighborhood School (@BabcockSchool) in Babcock Ranch, FL. The three discuss the next A on the rubric: Academic Rigor. The driving idea of the conversation is how to keep a project rigorous and content focused, even when the process and product of the project are what keep the students engaged. Rachel offers some great insight on how to imbed the content and standards as a part of that process to make students really want to learn the content in order to succeed in the project. They also talk about scaffolding in such a way that pushes students of all levels to achieve beyond what they think is possible academically.

Enjoy the second episode of the 6 A’s deep dive series, and stay tuned for more great content coming from the PBL Playbook every month!