Intellectual Challenge & Accomplishment

Module Overview

Please take a moment to review our module description, outcomes, and purpose. Consider: What are you hoping to learn, and what do you want to implement into your teaching?

Description

Intellectual Challenge and Accomplishment is the foundation upon which a high-quality project is built. In this module, get to know this important criterion and how it creates the conditions for all students to succeed. Begin with an introductory video. Then, see more elements of the criterion in action through a project vignette. Close your experience with a reflection and commit to a next step.

Driving Question

How do I choose a worthy project topic?

Outcomes

  1. Explore the role PBL has in the daily student experience. Identify the elements of Intellectual Challenge and Accomplishment
  2. Recognize lesson design features that the HQPBL criterion

Purposes

  1. Become familiar with Intellectual Challenge and Accomplishment
  2. Learn one way to begin planning a project from standards
  3. To make connections to your own practice

Your Task

On a sheet of paper or in your journal, write a question you hope to have answered by the end of the course based on our outcomes. Consider what would shift for you if you've answered this question.

Make sure you can find this question later and actively reflect on it throughout the module.

Your Inquiry Question

  1. What is the question you hope to have answered by the end of this course?
  2. What would shift for you if you’ve answered this question?

Your Next Stop...

Alright. With your question in hand, meet you at the video introduction to Intellectual Challenge and Accomplishment!

Intellectual Challenge and Accomplishment in HQPBL

Vignette of Projects

The video explained using the standards to select the intellectual challenge or problem. In the vignette, we aim to expand your understanding of the other elements via the Project Learning Experience Steps — if this is new to you, learn more here!

Your Task

The three experience steps are the Launch, Investigation Cycle, and Present Product & Explain Learning. Each section provides an overview of what is taking place at that step with some added detail about the Intellectual Challenge and Accomplishment components. These are Extended Over Time, Scaffolding, and Assessment.

Read the vignette and then:

  1. Notice how the inclusion of the various elements of Intellectual Challenge and Accomplishment show up in the different learning experience steps. Consider how they create the conditions for student success.
  2. Scroll down to the bottom to answer the formative assessment questions to check your understanding.
Middle Grades Example
Example Details

Middle Grades Example

Background Information

Project Idea:
Using the book The Giver, students explore themes related to history, memory, justice, and action. They use their understanding of the themes to investigate a current issue and its origins. Teams will share their discoveries via a podcast.
Brief book synopsis:
The book introduces the reader to a world in which no one suffers from war, homelessness, joblessness, hunger, etc. However, as the book continues, students learn that the community is being controlled, and only “the giver” has any memories of the past. At the book’s height, the main character, Jonah, decides to free his community from being controlled.
Driving Question:
How do we use the past to free our future?

End Products:

  • Group Product: A 5-8 minute podcast episode that details the history of a current event and how the themes in The Giver help inform action or understanding on the issue.
  • Individual Product: A written or audio /video reflection highlighting the student’s learning and shifts in understanding.

Launch:

In the project launch, students used a modified 5 Whys protocol for a well-known (current) pop culture event. Students read a short article on the event. Then, they would ask a “why” question to dig deeper and research as necessary. After a few rounds, the teacher moved students into a discussion that connected this current event (and its nesting doll of facts) to upcoming themes from the book, The Giver. After presenting the driving question and the project challenge, students generated need-to-know questions — which they would reference throughout the project.

Extended Over Time

While this was just the beginning of the project, the creation and collection of student questions launched the inquiry, which made the extended learning opportunity possible.

Scaffolding

Generating and exploring questions is a critical part of the HQPBL experience. The teacher used the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) to make this possible for all students. This process teaches students how to create quality questions collaboratively.

Assessment Practices

If we see assessment as feedback, then feedback can happen anytime! In the launch, students receive feedback on their need-to-know questions through the QFT process. They also self-reflect on their process related to understanding events and the past. What are their trusted sources (e.g., family, friends, specific news outlets, etc.) What questions do they already ask? Do they accept things at face value? What do they do if they encounter something that doesn’t seem fair or accurate?

During Investigation Cycles:

During the heart of the project, students had four key tasks:

  1. Read the novel and connect it to the themes.
  2. Research a current event and its historical origins. Students formed teams based on their preferred topic.
  3. Connect the examples and themes in The Giver to the current event.
  4. Teams take incremental steps toward outlining and producing their podcast episode.
Extended Over Time

Students were challenged to “think like a disciplinarian,” which in this case was a historian. How would a historian look at a current event? What questions would they ask to get at the origins of said event? What perspectives and resources would they consider and why? What makes certain resources or individuals useful or reliable for their research? As the teacher was able, students connected with individuals who were either an expert on the current event or directly impacted by it.

Scaffolding

To aid research, the teacher provided a learning journal template. The journal included graphic organizers to record and organize ideas and information. The teacher also led a brief mini-session in which students co-crafted discussion stems for team discussions.

Assessment Practices

There were several built-in checkpoints. Teams submitted their learning journals so the teacher could determine if students understood how to identify useful or appropriate sources. Teams also participated in peer-to-peer feedback and self-reflection on their understanding of the themes and accuracy of the current events research. Students used the feedback to refine their products and learning approaches.

Present Products and Explain Learning:

The project concludes with a listening party! Guests could listen to the podcasts via a class-created website. Round table discussions were set up for the podcast creators to talk with guests. Students answered questions and shared their reflections on the process and issue explored in the podcast. The listening party was also made available via a video conferencing platform. Those folks could also listen in and chat with people at the school.

Extended Over Time

While the products are complete, student learning is still happening through the discussions about their products. They receive essential feedback from the guests and have the opportunity to learn from other teams’ processes and reflections.

Scaffolding

Students co-created a list of questions to offer their audience. Through the process of co-creating the questions, students had the opportunity to reflect on and shape the showcase experience. It also afforded them the time to reflect on questions they may expect to receive, thus lowering possible affective filters that would have made responding in the moment challenging.

Assessment Practices

Just before the listening party, students reflected on their individual and team performance and contributions to the project. Their teacher used the reflections as a way to provide last-minute feedback. Students used that feedback to shape how they talked about their work and learning.

Formative Assessment

Question 1 / 2
In this project example, students commit themselves to high-quality work by
Incorrect. Being in a team in the foundation. Working collaboratively provides the structure on top of that foundation. When the team works with intention and openness to revise, they can create high-quality work!
Incorrect. This is an essential part of research and thinking like a historian, and this does not lend itself to the creation of high-quality work.
Incorrect. Finishing a product doesn’t mean it is of the student’s best or highest quality. Giving and receiving feedback is one way this group of students is committed to creating high-quality work.
Correct. Throughout the project, students gave and received feedback. Note, there are other ways to commit to high-quality work, such as team contracts, exploring new questions as they arise, using quality tools, and leveraging a growth mindset.
True or False: Students play a role in shaping the project learning experience steps (e.g., Launch, Investigation Cycles, and Present Products and Explain Learning).
Correct. At any stage and any age range, students can have a role in making decisions that shape the trajectory of the project. Things like co-creation of tools and student choice count!
Incorrect. At any stage and in any age range, students can have a role in making decisions that shape the trajectory of the project. Depending on the project goals and student readiness, this may require more scaffolding and support.
Choose the answer to proceed to next question.
Check Answer

Next Steps and Resources to Get Started

“No one is born with skill. It is developed through exercise, through repetition, through a blend of learning and reflection that's both painstaking and rewarding. And it takes time.” – Twyla Tharp

Thank you for taking the time to exercise your HQPBL muscle with this module! At the end of each module, we ask you to complete two reflections. The first one is about your learning during the module. (It is also an activity you can use with students!) The second reflection takes you back to the inquiry question you formed at the beginning of the module. 

Here is a 3-2-1 reflection. 

Reflect

Let's do 3-2-1!

3

What are three (3)
things you learned?

2

What are two (2)
connections you make?

1

What is one (1) thing that inspired you or made you curious?

Resources to Get Started

There is so much more to learn. If you have time or interest, here are some resources to help you continue the journey.

Choosing the Right Standards

PBL & Students

Assessment in PBL

Learning Needed Content in a Project

Returning to Our Initial Inquiry Question

At the beginning of this module, we introduced the module description, outcomes, and purpose and asked you to write a question that you hoped would be answered. While reviewing our outcomes and purpose, refer back to that question to answer the following prompt below:

Driving Question

How do I choose a worthy project topic?

Outcomes

  1. Identify the elements of Intellectual Challenge and Accomplishment
  2. Recognize lesson design features that the HQPBL criterion

Purpose

  1. Become familiar with Intellectual Challenge and Accomplishment
  2. Learn one way to begin planning a project from standards
  3. To make connections to your own practice

Inquiry Question Revisited

  1. How would you answer your initial inquiry question now?
  2. What are your next steps in deepening your answer?
What's next...

Time to party (and plan that project you have on your mind with some really high-quality challenges and accomplishments)!

Next Module:
Authenticity
Building relationships
between our community, industry, and teachers
to meet the needs of OUR students