More than Beowulf: Project-Base Learning

I subscribe heavily to project-based learning in my classroom. As a matter of fact, PBL sits at the center of my pedogogy.  I have found that PBL is the easiest way that I can infuse those real world learning experiences into my boxed-in world of standardized tests.  I am able to take curriculum that often times bores students and give them ways of expressing their learning that creates new and deeper learning.  The act of creating a product gives students many learning opportunities beyond the actual content.
     Project Based Learning changes how maybe traditionalist think about the classroom.  For example in the English classroom, a more 'traditionalist' approach would have students read a story then take a test over the content in the story.  The test would likely be presented in multiple choice that assesses comprehension and would have a writing component that attempts to have students think deeper or connect to the text.  I believe that this form of assessment forces teachers to focus on teaching the content, or the story, rather than teaching students the skills to think and connect to any text.  Students do not necessarily need to know what happened in every chapter of the Great Gatsby later in life, but if they can learn skills to think about what a text like this says about the American Dream, then deeper learning has happened.  Project Based Learning has allowed me the opportunity to get at those higher order skills.
   Just this week, I have students creating Powtoon animations that retell the middle sections of Beowulf.  The purpose of this project is for the students to demonstrate to me that they understand the plot sequence of the poem and that they have an understanding of the characters, but my choice to assess this way is more than seeing if they can understand Beowulf.  I firmly believe that my seniors could graduate without reading a word of Beowulf and be very successful in life.  With that realization in mind, I want to give them an opportunity to walk away with something more valueable. This Powtoon project gives my students the opportunity to learn a new piece of technology.  They have to learn how to collaborate effectively to accomplish a multi-step task.  They also have to learn how to create a plan to accomplish this task.  These are real world skills that they will take beyond Beowulf.
  All the positives aside, project-based learning is an ideal that takes a great deal of commitment on the teacher's part.  Giving a pop quiz over these sections of Beowulf this week would have been much easier for me as the teacher.  The project based approach takes a great deal of faciliting and planning, especially when dealing with class sizes of 30+.  It's simply more work, and often times, students can be resistant to it also.  They are trained to bubble tests and this approach requires them to think and work in new ways.  I have found that it takes constant reinforcement in the beginning for students to buy-in, but by the end of the year, they need less scaffolding and my work is less.  They are also able to create their own project ideas or develop spin off projects from my suggestions.  The road is long, but the products you receive are worth the effort.