An instructional coach and media coordinator share how they collaborated to create an innovative and engaging PBL curriculum
By Dr. Angela Mullennix
During the most recent school year, I was fortunate to work with an individual who made my job of coaching teachers through the inclusion of project-based learning (PBL) a fairly seamless process. That person is someone who most campuses have but who is rarely accessed in a way that promotes further student learning and growth. That person is the campus librarian, otherwise known on many campuses as the media coordinator. Being at an alternative campus with many different programs, serving children ages birth to twenty-two years old, spreading a campus-wide inclusion of PBL was a challenge. While most campuses have several instructional coaches who specialize in one content area--or maybe two at most--I was the only instructional coach for all of the programs, all of the content areas, and all of the grade levels. Given that challenge, alongside the other responsibilities of my position, I asked the media coordinator what she had in mind for the upcoming school year. Her background also included extensive experience in curriculum and instruction, thus we collaborated on how we could provide a campus-wide culture that encouraged PBL. The result was far better than either of us could have ever imagined in those initial phases of planning.
Each week or two, depending on the length of what she was covering, the media coordinator created a unit plan with a theme. She then scaffolded the activities for students in each of the programs: Pre-K 3 students, Pre-K 4 students, elementary school students, middle school students, high school students, and the transition program students (ages 18-22). She then scaffolded further based on the cognitive and behavioral levels of the students in each of the programs. For example, for two weeks, she created lessons and activities with “Space” as the theme. The Pre-K 3’s and 4’s used paper mache to create space helmets, and they learned about gravity and weights. They also went through an “Astronaut Training Program,” which earned them each a certificate and photograph using the campus green screen and DoInk app. Progressing forward, middle school students built rocket ships using a variety of materials. The rocket ships had specific requirements, but the students were able to determine for themselves how to meet those requirements, such as a door on the rocket ship that would not blow off during liftoff and in the air. The elementary and middle school students also made their own miniature rockets that were ejected from a bicycle pump and cork creation. This is just one example of the thematic units that the media coordinator created. These units started at the beginning of the school year, and she continued the units through the beginning of May. Given that our campus transformed the library into a makerspace (Think: Home Depot meets Hobby Lobby meets Best Buy) the previous Spring semester, this environment allowed for a great deal of exploration, creation, innovation, and, basically, all things science, technology,engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM).
To allow teachers an opportunity to align their lessons to the thematic lessons in the library, the media coordinator created a Google Classroom for all teachers to access. She also sent out weekly emails with her schedule, planned activities, and possible curriculum alignments for each content area. Teachers could access the Google Classroom at any time to see the media coordinator’s past lessons in the event that one of those aligned with the teacher’s current objectives; the media coordinator would happily replicate a past lesson upon teacher request.
As the instructional coach, I received all of the teachers’ unit plans and lesson plans, and as I received those, I was specifically looking for ways in which what the content area teachers planned to cover would align with the library lessons. Then, I would coach those teachers through the process of how the alignment could work well for students’ learning. I highly encouraged teachers to take advantage of these opportunities because the students were able to practically apply the content to the lessons in the library. For example, during a unit the media coordinator created called “Catapults!”, the Science and Math teachers applied Newton’s Law, projectile motion, and accuracy versus precision. Though Engineering is not a core or elective subject on our campus, this unit lent itself to that, as well. In terms of the Arts, the students were creating their own catapults. The students used Technology in a variety of ways, from initial research about catapults to recording the catapults in slow motion in order to record the projectile movement in action.
Having access to such engaging lessons in the campus makerspace helped me, as the instructional coach, to fulfill the campus goal of teachers doing at least one three-week PBL unit in the Fall and one three-week PBL cross-curricular unit in the Spring. When teachers and their students were working with the media coordinator in the makerspace, I would visit and take pictures. I would share those pictures on Twitter and even spotlight those teachers and the librarian in professional development. I would also meet with the teachers to conduct a post-lesson coaching session to learn of how the teachers felt the lessons went. I was always particularly interested in hearing their comparison of teaching the content in this much more creative way versus a more traditional, classroom-based learning experience. That information was also shared with the media coordinator for her professional growth. Essentially, this was a team effort that helped set the campus culture for authentic PBL and an innovative, engaging curriculum.
About the Author:
Dr. Angela Mullennix is an Instructional Coach with Moore County Schools in North Carolina and the owner/operator of Innovative Consulting. With more than ten years’ experience at the K-12 and higher education levels, she specializes in project-based learning, maker education, STEAM, and writing instruction. Follow her on Twitter @DocAngMullennix.
