PBJ is PBL?

My daughter is obsessive and picky about her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. As I was putting just the right amount of peanut butter on her lunch, listening to a podcast, and thinking about project-based learning (PBL), it occurred to me that with this sandwich, I might just have a project on my hands.

You see, many teachers of writing have done some version of the peanut butter & jelly sandwich writing activity. (I used to do a version called "How to Eat an Oreo.") The gist is to model how "bad instructions" can lead to confusion (i.e. smearing jelly on a nose, instead of on bread), while clear and specific instructions lead to perfection.

While this is certainly a fun activity, most educators would say it doesn't rise to the level of project-based learning (PBL). We often hear that PBL has to have certain steps or rules, like an authentic audience and outside experts, and making a PBJ just doesn't cut it.

But who gets to say that isn't PBL?

PBL Works shares that:

Project Based Learning (PBL) is a teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects.

About 15 minutes into a recent podcast, PBL expert Trevor Muir shares that his own first grade son's experience crafting his dream house as part of class showed him that PBL is flexible, as "real-world authenticity" can vary a lot based on the students in the classroom. 

For example, if your child is very, very picky about how her PBJ is made--lots of jelly, cut into squares, arranged in a circle on the plate, etc.--then that child will have a greater sense of ownership than a student who is allergic to peanut butter or who doesn't eat bread. Likewise, students interested in food science might want to investigate what it is about the PBJ that makes it such a popular combination of flavors, or experiment to see if other PBJ applications are as popular.

The key is helping to make the learning address or solve a problem or questions that is meaningful and relevant to YOUR students. Often times we have elements of this in our classrooms already, and framing our planned activities with a question or giving students opportunities to own a topic can make the difference. The GHS Biology team made a similar shift two years ago, taking a project they would normally do at the end of the unit and making it the driving purpose of a unit: as students explored their species, the lessons the teachers taught about evolution were made all the more relevant.

There is so much research behind the power of PBL that it is worth the try. Feeling like you have to be "perfect" before trying it or that students can't handle it ought not to stand in the way. Students can learn just as much, if not more, from a failed experiment as an epic project, and as a teacher, you get to model the same humility and growth mindset that you want to foster.

Think that your unit would be more interesting if centered around addressing a  real-world problem or question? Check out these resources for more ideas on how to start using PBL to make your classroom more responsive to student voice and choice.