When I work with secondary schools I often feel terrible about leaving out the World Language teachers. Truth be told, it’s a bit out of my comfort zone not having taught a foreign language in my teaching days. However, I know it’s possible and I know it holds potential; So in my work last week with a school I committed to wrapping my mind around PBL in the World Language class. This by no means is an exhaustive list of resources, nor does it reflect all of the ideas that swirl around in my mind when I think about the challenges and opportunities that PBL poses for a World Language teacher, BUT it’s a start…

  • Start here with this PPT: https://www.slideshare.net/ddoehla/pbl-for-wl (I would recommend starting at slide 12;)
  • Review examples of building fluency through model projects. You may also want to view this sample student video, this project or read this additional resource, as well.
  • Read this resource and consider how you may use a Problem Based approach, similar to math, for teaching language skills. Note: this is one of my favorite quotes from Emergent Math:
    • “PrBL does allow for the use of non-real-world connections, and promote pure mathematical conceptual understanding, whereas a Project really sort of needs to be couched in some real-world product.”

Jenny’s Questions/thoughts to consider:

  • In designing a WL project does it make sense to sometimes focus more on the process, rather than a product? If so, when are those times and can you do more of a PrBL structure?
  • How can you leverage the PBL benchmarking process to help you 1) identify skills 2) scaffold skills 3) more frequently assess skills
  • How can you use what we know about PBL best practices to inform how you assess/reflect on speaking in the target language? How might these tools or either one of these tools help you?

Additional resources: