A year of 5th grade PBL Pacing 

Most teachers are in schools that aren’t asking them to do “wall to wall” PBL;  if that’s the case for you, you may be wondering ‘how many projects should I do in a year?’. Creating a Year at a Glance (YAG) chart is one of my favorite exercises when I sit down to plan the first project with a team of teachers. ‘Zooming out to Zoom in’ [also known as Backwards Planning]  is a very necessary step in PBL planning! 

In chapter 4 of Keep it Real with PBL I break down how to plan a year of project-based learning, and below is what the outcome of that process looks like. A special thanks to the 5th grade team at Lake Elementary for putting your heads together with me to come up with this, together. 

Trimester 1: 

• Driving Subject: Science, NGSS, ELA-information reading 
• Topic: Web of Life 
• Project: Living off the Land  or We can Turn this Thing Around
• field work : Lagoon 
• Content crossover: Social Studies~ American Indian resources
• Conclude the above by parent/teacher conferences 

 

Trimester 2: 

• Driving Subject: Social Studies, ELA-research  
• Topic: Colonial life
• Mini-Project: Colonial Days
• Exhibition: Colonial Day 

 

• Driving Subject: Science, NGSS, ELA-informational writing 
• Topic: The Water Cycle 
• Project: “Water Woes”

 

Trimester 3: 

• Driving Subject: Social Studies, ELA-Narrative 
• Topic: American Revolution, perspective  
• Project: Silent Voices 
• Exhibition: San Diego County Fair student art submission