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Roots and Leadership Embracing Place-Based Learning for Empowered Student Leaders: My Experience Presenting at the Inaugural ASCDGhana Conference

4/7/2025

By Charity Marcella Moran, Ed.S.

In July 2024, I had the incredible opportunity to represent PBLPath, and introduce our book to a global audience, at the inaugural ASCDGhana conference. It was a profound experience to present on a topic that deeply resonates with my own educational philosophy: "Roots and Leadership: Embracing Place-Based Learning for Empowered Student Leaders." This session wasn't just about sharing ideas; it was about validating the importance of grounding education in the rich soil of local knowledge and culture, particularly through the lens of place-based learning.

A Divine Connection: Partnering with Mr. Peter-Jones Adjei
One of the most meaningful aspects of this experience was forming a partnership with Mr. Peter-Jones Adjei, a local expert on education and place. Mr. Peter-Jones Adjei is a passionate educator and native of Ghana, dedicated to preserving and sharing the country’s rich cultural heritage. As a tour guide and guardian of Ghanaian history, he masterfully weaves traditional knowledge, such as the significance of Adinkra symbols, into his storytelling, making history come alive for his audiences. His work bridges the past and present, empowering communities to see the enduring relevance of their cultural identity in modern education and leadership. Mr. Adjei, who also served as an Adinkra group tour guide, brought a wealth of knowledge and a spiritual depth to our conversations about place-based learning. His insights were not just informative; they felt divinely guided, as if our collaboration was meant to be. He spoke passionately about how place-based learning is not just an educational strategy but a sacred duty, pivotal for both rural and urban schools. Mr. Adjei illustrated how a soybean farming community could use place-based learning to connect agricultural practices with science, economics, and environmental sustainability. By engaging students in real-world projects, such as studying crop rotation techniques or marketing local produce, he emphasized how education could directly enhance community resilience and prosperity.

Mr. Adjei’s expertise validated our discussions on how grounding students in their cultural heritage and local environment can transform their educational experience. He emphasized the importance of understanding the land, the stories, and the symbols—like the Adinkra—that hold the wisdom of generations. This connection reinforced the idea that place-based learning is essential in nurturing students who are not only academically proficient but also culturally and spiritually rooted.

Community Mapping: A Key Tool for Connecting Education to Culture
In our session, we utilized community mapping as a dynamic tool to bring our design principles to life, helping educators and leaders unlock the potential of their local communities as living classrooms. Guided by the principle of authentic connection, community mapping visually and conceptually linked local knowledge, community assets, and the curriculum. It empowered participants—including primary and secondary teachers, as well as school leaders—to see actionable ways to leverage their community's unique characteristics to enrich content and inquiry while fostering student-centered learning.

This approach underscored the principle of contextual relevance, showing how bringing the community into the classroom—and vice versa—transforms education into a living, breathing process deeply tied to students' lived experiences. The exercise also revealed how deeply rooted educational practices could empower student leaders. By connecting their learning to their cultural and geographical context, students begin to see themselves as integral parts of their community, fostering both a sense of responsibility and an innate ability to lead.
For more on these principles and actionable strategies, explore our book, Place-Based Learning: Connecting Inquiry, Community, and Culture, and visit us at PBLPath.com.

Empowering Student Leaders in a Global Context
I highlighted examples like the Kenyan youth protests and the Indian student protests, where young people are leading the charge for change. During the session, I also discussed how the concept of empowered student leaders is not limited to protest or responses to calls to action, though those are important. But empowerment is not always about resistance; it can also be about amplifying and celebrating the bright spots and assets within a community.
By leaning into the intellectual and cultural legacy of their communities and their own histories, students can become leaders who not only advocate for change but also uplift and enrich their communities. This dual approach to empowerment—both as a response to injustice and as a means of celebrating cultural strengths—is crucial in today’s world.

A Transformative Experience
Presenting at ASCDGhana was more than just sharing my knowledge; it was an opportunity to connect with like-minded educators and leaders who are passionate about transforming education through place-based learning. The session was interactive and engaging, with participants actively involved in discussions, workshops, and case studies that provided them with practical tools and methodologies to bring back to their own schools and communities.

I left the conference feeling inspired and deeply committed to continuing this work. The connections made, particularly with Mr. Peter-Jones Adjei, and the insights gained, will continue to shape my approach to education. Place-based learning, as we explored together, is not just a method—it's a movement, one that has the power to empower students, uplift communities, and honor the rich tapestry of our shared cultural heritage.

We invite you to bring PBLPath to your school or district to unlock the transformative power of place-based learning for your educators and students. Together, we can create authentic, community-rooted learning experiences that empower students as leaders and stewards of their culture. Join us as we continue this work globally, including our forthcoming collaboration with the early adopter cohort in the Central Ghana region, where local educators are pioneering innovative strategies to integrate culture, inquiry, and community into their classrooms. Visit PBLPath.com to learn more and start your journey.

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Unlocking Potential: Liberatory Assessment Practices in Education – A Tale of Tyler’s Triumph

2/20/2024

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By Micki Evans and Charity Marcella Moran
“There needs to be a lot more emphasis on what a child can do instead of what he cannot do.”
-Dr. Temple Grandin

A Student Named Tyler

Once upon a time, there was a student named Tyler who had autism. Tyler was a bright and curious child who loved learning about science and technology. Despite his strong interest in these subjects, Tyler struggled with traditional forms of assessment, such as multiple choice tests and written essays. He found it difficult to demonstrate his understanding of complex concepts in a way that aligned with the expectations of his teachers. Despite his struggles, Tyler's teachers were determined to accurately evaluate his learning and progress. Unfortunately, they relied heavily on standardized tests and other rigid forms of assessment that did not take into account Tyler's unique strengths and challenges. As a result, Tyler often felt frustrated and discouraged, and his test scores did not accurately reflect his knowledge and abilities. One day, Tyler's new teacher, Mrs. Stills, introduced a different approach to assessment. She encouraged Tyler to create a portfolio of his work, which included projects and presentations he had created on his own time. She also incorporated self-reflection and performance-based tasks into her evaluations, and took into account Tyler's interests and background.

With these new assessments, Tyler was able to showcase his knowledge and understanding in a way that felt more authentic and meaningful to him. He was no longer limited by traditional forms of evaluation, and was able to demonstrate his true potential. Mrs. Stills’ liberatory assessment practices allowed Tyler to feel valued and supported in his learning, and gave him the confidence to continue pursuing his passions. In the end, Tyler AND Mrs. Stills learned that assessment can be a powerful tool for promoting learning and growth, but it is important to approach it in a way that is inclusive and equitable for all students, including those with autism.

The power of PbL is connecting learning to life outside of school. The same is true for liberatory pedagogy.
“(L)iberatory pedagogy flips the classroom on its head, treats students as co-creators of knowledge that learn alongside the teacher, and have a say in what they learn. By centering student voice and choice, students are liberated to lead their learning and make meaningful connections to the world around them. This helps develop a critical consciousness in which students are empowered to identify, question and solve relevant problems in society rather than passively absorb knowledge for no other reason than to be tested on." (F. Fischer, 11/2/2020 p.1)
https://techaccess.org/leadingliberated/.

What are Liberatory Assessment Practices?

Liberatory assessment practices refer to educational assessment methods that prioritize empowering students and communities, promoting equity and social justice, and undermining oppressive structures and power imbalances. They focus on students' strengths, interests, and cultural backgrounds, and encourage them to take an active role in their own learning and assessment process. Liberatory assessments aim to provide a more meaningful, authentic, and relevant evaluation of student learning and growth, rather than simply testing for rote knowledge or conformity to predetermined standards. The background of liberatory assessment practices stems from critiques of traditional forms of assessment that are seen as oppressive and limiting to students' growth and development. Traditional assessments, such as standardized tests, have been criticized for perpetuating cultural biases, reinforcing inequalities, and narrowing the curriculum to focus solely on what can be tested. “Many communities [of color] have suffered the most from high-stakes testing. Since their inception almost a century ago, the tests have been instruments of racism and a biased system. Decades of research demonstrate that Black, Latin(o/a/x), and Native students, as well as students from some Asian groups, experience bias from standardized tests administered from early childhood through college.” (J.Rosales & T. Walker, 3/20/21 p. 1)
https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/racist-beginnings-standardized-testing

In response, liberatory assessment practices emerged as an alternative approach, rooted in the principles of liberation pedagogy and critical education. The goal is to shift away from traditional assessments that prioritize compliance and conformity, and towards forms of assessment that value students' experiences, perspectives, and agency.
Liberatory assessment practices draw upon a variety of critical and feminist theories, as well as cultural and educational research, to challenge the ways in which power and knowledge are constructed and transmitted through the assessment process. The ultimate aim is to create more equitable and just educational experiences for all students, particularly those who have been marginalized by traditional assessments.

Liberatory Assessment - Tyler’s Story

Let’s circle back to Tyler and Mrs. Stills. Liberatory assessment practices in the Place-based learning experiences that we design have implications for ALL children including students with autism in that they provide an alternative approach to assessment that can better meet the needs of ALL students. Children with autism, like Tyler, may experience difficulties with traditional forms of assessment that rely on standardized tests or other rigid evaluation methods. They may struggle with the social and communication demands of these assessments, or have difficulty demonstrating their knowledge in a way that aligns with traditional assessment practices. Liberatory assessment practices and decolonized PbL experiences offer a more inclusive and flexible approach to assessment, allowing for accommodations and modifications that can better support children with autism. This may involve incorporating assessments that take into account the strengths and interests of the child, such as portfolios, self-reflection, or performance-based tasks. It may also involve incorporating the child and their family in the assessment process, and considering the child's cultural and linguistic background.
By adopting liberatory assessment practices, educators can help ensure that children with autism are able to fully participate in the assessment process and have their learning accurately and fairly evaluated. This can help promote a more inclusive and equitable educational experience for children with autism, and support their growth and development.

Implementing authentic equitable assessment practices moves us closer to providing opportunities for all students to succeed, not just in academics but in life skills, sense of self and pride in their identity and cultural traditions. How will you infuse these concepts into your instruction this week? Comment below & talk with us more on Twitter @PBLPath.

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Pinning Down Purpose-Driven Inquiry

6/13/2019

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By Charity Moran, Ed.S.

“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.”
-John Dewey

What Is Purpose Driven Inquiry?

Purpose Driven Inquiry is one of the biggest shifts Place Based Learning (PBL) asks us to make in our practice. We shift our focus from coverage of content to uncovering knowledge, skills, processes, information and perspectives. Purpose Driven Inquiry is student driven. For the teacher, Purpose Driven Inquiry can be a shift in when and how we facilitate learning, we no longer have to marry ourselves to a strict sequence of lessons. Instead, we pivot to presenting a question or challenge and then providing the “just in time” resources. For the student, Purpose Driven Inquiry goes beyond research alone and includes interviewing, consulting experts, conducting surveys, field studies, and data collection all while building the necessary knowledge along the way .

No longer are we following a set of arbitrary and often invariant lessons. With Purpose Driven Inquiry, we utilize project design to mould these lessons into key components of purposeful learning. Specific learning tasks and activities are selected to support and scaffold student centered learning. All of the set lessons are now reimagined and made purposeful as the “doing” to which John Dewey refers. Consider this list as a start when you think of the tools necessary to achieve Purpose Driven Inquiry:

Purpose Driven Inquiry reboots the use of district mandated curricula; each lesson now becomes key links in a weekly chain of explorations and discoveries. Students build the skills necessary to achieve a purpose driven goal - to answer their Essential Question.

How do I build Purpose Driven Inquiry into MY PBL Unit?

Begin with the end in mind. What do we want students to know as a result of the “doing”?
Our Project Snapshots and Assessment Maps serve as tools to codify our practice and overtly spell out the PURPOSE of the Community Product.

Teachers at an elementary school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, were guided on a tour of the Whitney Plantation, their Authentic Community Partner. They then decided that the 3rd graders would contribute to an upcoming celebration on site at the Whitney Plantation by providing information and explanation of cultural elements from African and Indigenous people that have contributed to Louisiana’s heritage. The PURPOSE of this exploration was for students to experience the place of Whitney Plantation and connect their informative/explanatory writing lessons to contribute to and inform their community.

Plan for “Just in Time” Instruction.

First and foremost, a strong Essential Question will harness students’ inquiry. The Essential Question helps connect purpose to the place. Used as an anchor, the Essential Question can also help us anticipate students’ questions. We can then plan for the questions overtly, so as to facilitate and guide the student-centered inquiry.

As a critical piece in crafting their Essential Question, teachers in the 3rd grade Whitney project examined the “doing” they pictured as part of the students’ learning experience. They envisioned students: gathering artifacts from the plantation tour, interviewing tour guides, surveying other tour participants on their understanding of Louisiana heritage, surveying their family, and leveraging all of their research and in-class readings and discussions. With all of this inquiry in mind, teachers landed on the project’s Essential Question: “What can we create to educate and inform Whitney Plantation visitors about the ways African and Indigenous people have impacted Louisiana heritage?”.

For teachers whose instruction is very linear, a second step may be to map out weekly instruction (as opposed to daily) and be prepared to provide direct instruction, point students to a resource, or conduct a targeted small group workshop on the day that students start asking questions about that facet of the project. Here is an example of a project “flow” that allows for student inquiry:

Each of the open-faced circles represent key formative assessment touchpoints throughout the project. There can be more than two formative assessment checkpoints, according to the depth and breadth of content and Ways of Knowing included in the design. The formative assessment checkpoints are planned and can come in the form of feedback, reflections and quizzes, to name a few.

By deliberately including Feedback and Revision within the project’s design, we can build in formative assessments in a targeted and intentional fashion, allowing us to let students’ curiosity “free roam” within the framework of the intended marks along the way. These marks helps us to monitor instruction’s efficacy and differentiate accordingly. Most importantly, we can plan to empower students to also track their progress. When we introduce the Essential Question, as we gather and revisit students’ Inquiry Questions (questions that students generate in response to the Essential Question), we can overtly model this tracking as well. As you refine your design, focus formative assessment checkpoints around the knowledge, skills, processes, information and Ways of Knowing you intend students to uncover throughout their work.

P.I.N. Down the Connections. To sum it all up, P.I.N. down the connections on a daily basis. Allow this tool to become a pillar of your classroom culture. P.I.N. is an acronym that represents three major ways we can ensure that students and teachers both are able to effectively speak to and demonstrate the connections between the purpose of the PBL Unit and their work, solutions, and products.

P. - Process each day’s work. For teachers, this means facilitating a conversation or an exit ticket that gets students to call out the process they’ve undergone that day. For students, processing might be responding to a journal prompt or submitting an exit ticket

Students might reflect upon: WHAT did we do today? HOW did we do that today?

I. - Incorporate the day’s work into the larger picture. Teachers plan for specific procedures and structures for students to use and show how the day’s learning supports the larger purpose of the PBL Unit.

Students might reflect upon: WHY did we do what we did today?

N. - Note any connections. Revisit the Essential Question, the Inquiry Questions, and the work that has been completed so far. Mark questions that have been answered and any new questions that evolve.

Students might reflect upon: HOW does what we did today help me answer the Essential Question? Do I have any new Inquiry Questions?

Pinning down the purpose in Place Based Learning is necessary to ensuring that the “doing” is not in vain. Daily P.I.N.s can fold into the formative assessment checkpoints we’ve planned out for the entire project. As often as students are allowed to make these connections, the deeper they can understand the project’s PURPOSE. Trusting that students will “get there” and then being ready to guide them is what moves Place Based teachers from presenters to facilitators, and students from receivers to creators and innovators.

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Student Ownership is a Gradual Release

5/8/2019

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By Erin Sanchez

“When young people discover they can become agents of change, wonderful things happen. They start to serve in the neighborhoods, learn about public issues, create innovative solutions to tough public challenges and eventually become the voters, community project builders and leaders in our communities and nation.
-Alma Powell

Place Based Learning empowers students by giving them a voice in the work they produce, but
student ownership - a defining design principle of any great project - is a gradual release, as we create self-managers capable of taking their learning to a new level. It creates ownership and pride in the process and creation of a meaningful product. It scaffolds the skills for being a change agent in the community and the world. It requires that we explicitly teach self-management skills and then step out of the way, allowing students to try out their efficacy in project work.

How do you build project efficacy in your classroom when just starting out with a place-based methodology? If students have the opportunity to exercise ownership over their learning only a few select, teacher-orchestrated times a year there will be limited lasting benefit and those self-management skills will be underdeveloped. Skills like critical thinking, innovating, metacognition and collaboration must be explicitly taught and assessed throughout a student’s educational life for the reward to manifest in project output.

Finding the Student Ownership “Sweet Spot”

Student ownership can be as simple as students generating questions they need answers to after working with a community partner, or as involved as students forming teams, deciding on the best way to showcase their work to the public, drafting, revising and presenting.

I know what you’re thinking. That sounds big and scary and my students aren’t ready for that. Let’s examine the following example from my 10th grade humanities class and instead think about small, manageable risks that lead to student growth and project efficacy.

Spring semester is always a hectic time of the school year. I knew I wanted to run a project that would take advantage of the strong classroom culture we had built while being respectful of how busy students’ schedules are. I also had a laundry list of writing, speaking and listening standards to teach and assess. (*Note the literacy content taught and assessed throughout the project in bold.) After looking at the Design Principles of Place Based Learning I constructed a few lessons where my students and I learned about Non-cognitive Competencies. We agreed that the class was pretty good at “Navigating Systems and Understanding and Dealing with Discrimination” (one of the competencies). We also agreed that we were getting better at “understanding multiple points of view,” a feature of a team mindset.

Armed with this new group awareness, and our co-created Essential Question of How can we, as teenage change agents, market our assets for the benefit of our community? we began to brainstorm community partners who might need people with these specific assets. My students thought that organizations focused on assisting recent immigrants with gaining access to jobs, housing and resources might be a place to start. We then composed emails and a phone script and student teams reached out to three potential partners asking to meet with one person from the organization to have a “learning session” focused on the question: How can we be an asset to your organization and end users? Then we waited, and while we waited we did things unrelated to our project.

After a few weeks, we had a nibble on the line. The director of an immigrant advocacy organization was willing to Skype with us to talk about possibilities. Students, instead of writing interview questions, crafted team asset statements, highlighting where their strengths lay and a few initial ideas for how the organization might benefit from a partnership (based on research students did on the organization). A few more weeks went by, during which time we again did things unrelated to our project.

Over the next month students talked to the partner a handful of times as they generated ideas together, clarified need and intent, and decided what was reasonable, spending approximately 10 hours on this phase of the project. In tandem with our partner, we found out that immigrants with teen children were often unfamiliar with the realities and nuances of American teen life – social media, peer pressure, drugs and alcohol, personal safety. Students began to think about how to fill this information gap for immigrant teens and their families in their community. Each team came up with a different idea and pitched it to our partner. To the surprise of many, the partner decided to go with a “no tech” solution of partnering immigrant teens with teens at our school to have a Scoop Session – a question and answer session – at the school or community center, whereby they could ask questions and get much-needed information while also making a face-to-face connection with a peer.

From there, my students recruited peers, created a database, set guidelines, compiled information they thought was vital to share, and tested the program. Once these pieces were in place it was fully turned over to the community partner to sustain, and the product was co-created with our partner as a natural result of the relationship we built and the questions we asked. We reflected with our partner, individually, and as a team, and the project (and school year) concluded.

The students owned the process, but every step of the way (for each of the bolded items above) I assessed students’ readiness levels and provided substantial support and scaffolding. Some students and/or teams needed extra time, 1:1 with me, accommodations, direct instruction and low-stakes practice with their emerging skills. My job was to teach and scaffold, both before and during the project, self-management skills such as: reflection, self-assessment, cross-cultural and intercultural communication, advocacy, collaboration, presentation, persuasion, ideation and evaluation.

Why Student Ownership Matters

If there were one word to sum up what students say it feels like to own their learning that word would have to be PURPOSEFUL. Students say things like, “I know why I’m doing this,” and “it makes sense,” and “I can figure it out.” Walk into any learner-driven classroom and you’ll find students who know the why, what and how of their task, and they are doing it! You’ll see a teacher orchestrating the environment, locating the resources, teaching just-in-time content and skills, and differentiating to meet the needs of all students. And you’ll see students who know how to use their teacher to get what they need to further their inquiry. I fondly remember a day toward the end of the project when a team of students called me over to their table and asked me if I had procured a particular resource from our community partner that they needed for their pitch. When I informed them I hadn’t received it yet, one student said, “Okay, then we don’t need you. Come back when you have it.” Although a little harsh, I was pleased that I’d taught myself out of the equation.

Student ownership isn’t either or. A common error that teachers new to place based learning make is to swing the student ownership pendulum to extremes in either direction, and then blame the resultant failure on the methodology. The refrain goes something like, “I tried PBL but my students couldn’t handle the freedom” or, “my students crave structure and the room was out of control.” When this occurs it is important to examine our attitudes and beliefs about our students’ ability to self-manage. Are we expecting our students to instinctively know how to manage their learning because of their age or gender? Likewise, do we think our students need structure because of how they were historically taught? What is at the root of our perceptions? Every child needs freedom and every child needs structure. Personalizing the project based on a calculated balance of these needs, putting in place appropriate scaffolds and removing them as students gain efficacy, and asking students to reflect on the experience in real time will help us understand that project learning isn’t an extreme, but a meeting in the middle of student potential and teacher support. As Deborah Meier says, “There is a radical - and wonderful - new idea here...that all learners could and should be inventors of their own theories, critics of other people’s ideas, analyzers of evidence, and makers of their own personal marks on the world. It’s an idea with revolutionary implications. If we take it seriously.”

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Designing Community Products that Address Real Needs

3/4/2019

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By: Micki Evans

“Educating oneself is easy, but educating ourselves to help the community is much more difficult.”
Cesar E. Chavez

When students, parents and many teachers think of a “project” what they are often thinking of is a product – that “thing” students create to show what they know, usually after all the content has been taught. In Place Based Learning it is essential to understand that the project encapsulates ALL the learning – from day one to the final reflection – and the product(s) are embedded in a project to assess students’ understanding of content, concepts, skills and cultural knowledge. Products are one component in the project process and when we understand that, Place Based Learning becomes much richer and more meaningful.

Community Product is a critical Design Principle of Place Based Learning. It might be an action such as an awareness campaign, a solution to a problem facing the community, an action plan for the betterment of the community or a service to address a genuine need. The final community product can take many forms such as a web page, blog, mural, proposal, documentary or podcast – all as a way to engage, educate, increase awareness or solve a problem within the community.

Students at a middle school on the Fort Yuma Quechan Reservation near Yuma, Arizona identified the increase of type 2 Diabetes among tribal and community members over the past 50 years as a major concern. Through purpose-driven inquiry they discovered that Type 2 diabetes is one of the most common ailments affecting Native Americans at epidemic levels. Their inquiry led them to understand the historical context, such as the damming of the Colorado River, the introduction of government commodities, and the impact on diet. They conducted a comparative study of the nutritional values of government commodities to foods grown and harvested one hundred years ago. Students wondered how they could reduce this alarming trend in their community. They decided to focus on diet and the traditional foods from the past. Through extensive interviews with tribal elders, native nutritionists and family members they compiled recipes that used traditional foods such as tepary beans, chollo buds, prickly pear cactus, saguaro fruit, squash and corn as well a fresh foods grown today in the area. This “Back to Our Roots Cookbook” was shared throughout the community in hopes they could revitalize their native food culture and positively impact the health of their community members, both young and old. They next hope to create a display garden that grows traditional foods and traditional planting practices.

By engaging students in working towards the betterment of their community – the whole community benefits. Students are viewed as a valuable resource as they become knowledgeable about the environmental, cultural, sociopolitical, economic and historical context of their community or region. This in-depth understanding of place guides them in their search for solutions for positive change. When students are engaged in this manner, learning takes on a new dimension. They engage with the power of place and see how they fit into their community and the contributions they can make. Content, skills and cultural knowledge come alive when rooted in places.

Community Partner(s) take on a unique role in the product phase of a project, as well. They often provide the initial idea for the product or even ask students to come up with a solution to a local issue. Community partners may give feedback on student works in progress, and/or may be the audience to showcase the final product. Community partners ramp up the quality and authenticity of student work, lending purpose and agency to Place Based projects and the products students create.

Assessing Student Growth

Whether a community partner has come to you with an issue or a specific request, or students through inquiry and investigation have determined an issue and solution for action, you want to make sure the final product(s) and/or deliverables show evidence of understanding and application of the content within the community context. Consider ways to individually assess student work throughout the process. It might take the form of an individual product such as a lab report or science journal. The individual product or deliverables helps students take unfamiliar content and make it familiar. Build in deliverables and formative assessments along the way to make sure students stay on target and strive towards creating quality work.

Oftentimes the community product is created in collaborative groups where students synthesize their knowledge and understanding to come up with the final product. Here students can be assessed on their cultural knowledge and awareness, application of the content, and specific skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, communication and problem solving. This collaborative product is often what is shared with the community. In this process, students are now taking what is familiar and making it strange – the process of innovating by coming up with a solution, action plan and/or product to address a real need. This is how students hone the skills that will help them succeed beyond the school setting. This is where they come to understand civic responsibility and the many different ways they can participate.

We want to be sure to leave room for student ownership in the design and implementation of the community product. Think about how you can build in processes that empower the voices of all – students taking the lead in deciding next steps, ideating solutions, surveying community members, testing prototypes and holding town meetings. Be flexible with this process as this is how we engage the creativity and hearts of our students. This is how students build agency and recognize that their voice is formidable and can be used to make positive changes in their community. Provide ways for students to discover their strengths and how they are an integral factor in the “power of place”.

For more ideas on Community Product, check out: www.pblpath.com

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Now is YOUR Time! - A Whitney Plantation Experience

3/8/2017

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By: Charity Moran Parsons

During the Fall of 2016, a team of Southern University and A&M College graduate students set out to explore the Whitney Plantation. No ordinary group of graduate students, their mission at the Whitney Plantation was no ordinary task.

These alternate certification students were also teachers in elementary schools in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

As a part of the collaboration between their Field Experience course, iDoSchool.org, and PBL Path, these teachers explored the intersections between the Principles of Place Based Learning, the design elements of Project Based Learning, as well as the factors that Dr. Lisa Delpit suggests foster excellence in schools.

The Expedition: The Whitney Plantation was the “place” in this Place Based Learning experience. Coincidentally, the Southern University students were able to join a class of undergraduate education students from Southeastern Louisiana University. The prospect of rain on a chilly December morning only added to the intensity of the expedition. Dr. Ibrahima Seck, the Whitney Institute’s Research Director, guided the teams of teachers through the memorials and exhibits on site.   As teachers experienced the plantation through the perspective of slaves who had lived and worked here, their task was to seek out artifacts, photographs, narratives, quotes, and facts from the expedition to help them as they explored the Driving Question:

How do we leverage the rich resources of the Whitney plantation to build robust projects for our students?

With these artifacts, teachers then created a Project Snapshot that incorporated the legacies of slavery in a manner appropriate for their grade level.   Teachers leveraged this Project Snapshot to create PBL Units designed to incorporate storytelling components and connect students to their history, with authentic community products and calls to action
.
Stay Tuned.... As a group, we were fortunate to indulge in a Q&A Session with Dr. Seck and Caitlin Sheehan, Education and Group Sales Coordinator. To make sense of this powerful expedition, teachers created a 6-word story to capture their feelings about what they had just experienced. In the act of sharing, natural intersections between the stories became evident and grounded the work in this shared experience.  Teachers’ children participated as well; out of the mouths of babes, one 10-year old expressed that he felt:

Happy

Smarter

Interested

Educated

Excited

Surprised

An immense power engulfed the room after seeing how their own children reacted to the experience, giving a vision of how powerful the place based learning experience would be for their students. In exploring the gift shop, we noticed a New Orleans area school had a team of students who produced a book of their own narratives after experiencing the Whitney Plantation entitled Now is Your Time. The title strikes me as the quintessential call to action! Now is YOUR time, join us as we dive deeper into the PBL Path partnership with the Whitney Plantation and teachers in local schools. Our upcoming blog series will highlight the stages of preparation, personalization, and production as we journey with another team of teachers to the Whitney Plantation and create robust projects for their students.

But the fun doesn’t stop there… PBL Path and teachers will then experience the place with students! Stay tuned and follow us on Twitter @PBLPath for more updates and the latest resources.

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A Winning Season with Big Picture Planning

2/1/2017

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By: Erin Sanchez

I’m an Instructional Facilitator at a school with a winning basketball team. I go to the games and watch a whole community of like-minded coaches, players and fans who know what the end goal is – no question. They know the importance of strategy. They can see the necessity of revision. They appreciate the power of team reflection and the learning that comes even with losing. They take collective responsibility and can therefore celebrate success together. Then those same players walk into the classroom and the game changes.

I’ve recently been working with teachers who have volunteered to teach an elective course, having about 10 days to say “yes” to the opportunity and design the course, all while wrapping up their current semester. After my initial excitement around supporting them to plan what was sold to students as a “project-based course” we met to map out the semester using backward design.

Here is where my metaphor applies. Much work has been done in this K-12 school to standards map and create exemplary designs for learning (a.k.a. unit plans) with K-5 grade level teams. However, the secondary teachers for these new elective courses haven’t experienced this backward design and just want to know, in the most urgent way, “what am I teaching on Monday and where am I getting the resources to pull this off?” An essential question, indeed. The luxury the K-5 teacher teams, and the basketball team, were afforded that the secondary teams were not, was big picture planning. Being able to envision the whole and how daily instruction – both content and strategies – lead us closer to the end goal.

The Difference Between Surviving and Thriving
Many of us survive in the classroom. If we’re able to build relationships with our students - two points. If we’re able to align our content with the standards - score another basket. Formatively assess and use data to drive our instruction - three pointer. Unfortunately, just surviving means we’re worn out halfway through the game. To have thriving classrooms that impact student learning, planning for teaching needs to be respected as much as executing the plan. When presenting at a recent conference I admitted to participants that the teachers I coach are close to mutiny every time I say, “the standards are your curriculum,” until they’ve gone through the process of standards mapping and their co-created plan is made visible. An administrator in the room said, “curriculum fidelity frees teachers up to teach,” and I had to agree. If you give teachers their class schedule mere days before the school year or semester begins then you better have a guide for them to follow. That said, if you want innovation, if you want teacher teams (and students) that can adapt, think critically and collaborate, then time to map their way to the win is imperative.

How School Leaders Can Help
School and district leadership can provide the leverage to prioritize big picture planning, giving teachers time to big picture plan for teaching content, concepts and skills, using high-yield instructional strategies to engage all learners. Leaders, ask yourselves:

Why is time for big picture planning important?
What will happen if we don’t prioritize this change?
Why haven’t we done this before?
What does this goal conflict with?
Who has capacity to lead this work?
How do we involve all stakeholders?
Could the planning begin within an existing structure (PLCs, professional development opportunities, study groups, etc.)?
How will we know if it’s working?

How Teachers Can Advocate
Prioritizing big picture planning begins with school leadership, but responsibility also lies with teachers and instructional coaches too. What can I do? Begin by asking yourself a few reflective questions.

What are my expectations for planning at the start of a school year or semester? How much time do I typically spend in “big picture mode?” Is the time sufficient?

Do I rely on curriculum provided by my school or district? Does the curriculum lend itself to big picture thinking? Are my students aware of the big picture of instruction? How would they articulate it?

What are my expectations for professional development time and structures to support big picture planning? Who has influence in that arena? Have I used my voice to advocate for timely big picture planning? How can I ensure that my colleagues and I don’t normalize untimely scheduling?

Nothing But Net
Now that you’ve read this far I can admit that I’ve never voluntarily played a sport in my life. I’m strictly a single-sport spectator from a basketball family, where sitting in the bleachers became a way to spend quality time. One thing I admire about the players is how they can adapt and change the trajectory of the game on the fly with mere eye contact, hand signal or shout from the coach. Although the teaching profession is often tied to sluggish bureaucracies, I’ve seen that same transformative power happen in the classroom when teachers own their practice, when leadership provides the leverage and when student learning is everyone’s end game. With planning and reflection, all school teams can have nothing but net.

To learn more about Erin Sanchez, a PBL coach, practitioner and resource provider who prides herself on being a realist with just enough vision to be disruptive when necessary, please visit our Team Page.

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So, what can WE do? PLACE in action at Whitney Plantation

12/16/2016

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By: Charity Moran Parsons

"What religion do you observe?"

I knew it was a loaded question and that my answer could make or break the trajectory of the conversation.

"Well..."

I paused. I didn't want to deter the now young man whom I had taught in high school. I wanted to build upon the connection we just made at the Wall of Honor over a selfie.

And who doesn't love a selfie? These kinds of questions being posed midway through a tour of a plantation with a focus on the slave experience signaled that some level of introspection was occurring, and he needed a thought partner. I was honored, thinking to myself, "Questions like his give my life purpose!"

"...I believe in the universality of one creator and that at the core, major religions have one thing in common - love."

I glanced his way to see if that landed well and quickly added "...BUT I was raised Baptist and Catholic, so what's up?"

"I'm mad Ms. Momo! I don't understand why we didn't learn this in school. I'm REALLY mad at my people for insisting on maintaining their belief in religion! Religion that's STILL being used to hold us down!"

Without hesitation, he divulged his worries, explaining why and how he has decided to become a teacher. His undergraduate coursework connected him to the Whitney Plantation tour.

You see, there's a point in the tour where Dr. Seck, the Director of Research for the Whitney Plantation, described to us the process of re-naming the human property when they arrived at the plantations. Religion, names, and families were all stripped from the enslaved Africans whilst their skills, traditions, and talents were exploited and replaced with forced Christianity and manipulated Biblical scriptures, which slaves were not even allowed to read. Imagine a life where being caught with a pencil could mean losing your hand at the chopping block! THIS is how you debilitate a people - destroy their families and terminate their education. Bringing awareness to the importance of family and education is a pillar of the Whitney Plantation's mission.

The young man, my former student, was on to something. His next question let me know that he meant business, "So what can WE do? How do I change my people's minds?"

Eureka! This is the purpose of Place Based Learning! This is the reason why students must be immersed in the PLACE to truly encourage the ways of knowing and to arrive at this purpose-driven inquiry in a culturally relevant way. Our conversation turned into comparisons of slavery to more contemporary issues and the many forms of activism that we all can take on as we traverse day to day.

All of the inquiry we see here could quite possibly have evolved in a traditional textbook learning experience of slavery...perhaps. Yet to actually experience the place where slavery occurred and to read and hear the narratives, the true stories from the point of view of the enslaved Africans themselves; this is the power of PLACE, the value of authentic community partnerships! We don't have to imagine the depth of inquiry. The young man's questions speak it loudly.

Because I'm a math teacher at heart, geometrically speaking, a place is a particular point in time and space; place is also a portion of space available or being used by someone. In our community, one point in time and space has been preserved for our exploration and learning – the Whitney Plantation.

What places have stories to share in your community?
How will you use these spaces to facilitate learning experiences for your students?
What is there to be taught that your students "are not learning in school”?

We'd love to hear from you! Tweet us @PBLPath, and stay tuned for more of the purposeful work being done in partnership with the Whitney Plantation!

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Whitney Plantation: The Untold Story of Plantation Life

11/29/2016

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Field of Angels

By: Micki Evans

In October of 2015, I experienced my first plantation tour. Having traveled to the south for the past 30 years, I had never wanted to visit a plantation. Plantations seemed an odd venue for tours that celebrated the heyday of the old south, the ultimate symbol of white privilege. I wondered how individuals could celebrate weddings, anniversaries and retirement parties in places that harbored the pain of those who had been enslaved.

However, the Whitney Plantation piqued my interest. My daughter was a senior at Loyola New Orleans. An article in the LOYNO caught my eye; the story was about Alumnus John Cummings, M.B.A./J.D “…who invested time and money to create the Whitney Plantation, America’s first….museum of slavery, which takes a hard and honest look at the real story of plantation life. (Dyer, Angelique” “Unflinching Honesty”, LOYNO, Summer, 2015.)

John Cummings chose to tell a different story by sharing the narratives of past slaves - adults and children - who lived and labored on the former sugarcane plantation. Whitney Plantation is a memorial to all those who were enslaved.

Upon my first steps on the grounds, I was in awe of the power of this place. There are black granite memorial walls that share the stories and names of over 350 slaves. The Field of Angels records the names of at least 2000 slave children who died before their second birthday. In the middle of the Field of Angels, a statue of a black angel holding a baby memorializes their journey to heaven.

After that first visit, and for many months, I was haunted by what I saw and experienced. Having just launched PBL Path, I was intrigued with the idea of creating a partnership with the Whitney Plantation and nearby schools. I spoke to my colleague and friend, Charity Parsons from Baton Rouge about creating a collaborative partnership. We believe that Place Based Learning provides a pathway for students to uncover the origins of systemic racism through understanding the historical implications of slavery that occurred literally, in their backyard. Understanding the historical perspective and the root causes of racism, we believe that young adults can impact their community, their world and the lives of others.

There was a sense of urgency to get the project off the ground after the Alton Sterling shooting, the subsequent protests in Baton Rouge and the killing of four police officers during the summer of 2016. Charity began making contacts with schools and teachers to see who would like to be involved in the pilot project. To date, PBL Path is working with Park Elementary in East Baton Rouge Parish, and Dr. Lisa Delpit and Southern University teacher candidates, who will be implementing projects in a variety of middle schools throughout Baton Rouge.

When we met with Dr. Ibrahima Seck, a Senegalese historian and the Director of Research for the Whitney Plantation, both Charity and I felt we were in the presence of greatness. Dr. Seck is an unassuming man with a huge heart and a passion for telling the true story of slavery in Louisiana. After our meeting we had a plan in place and our collaborative partnership was launched. Dr. Seck left us with these words, “Education is reparation. This is how we amend these prejudices.”

Charity has been conducting workshops with Park Elementary teachers and teacher candidates from Southern University on our design principles of Placed Based Learning. Saturday, December 3rd will be the first expedition to the Whitney Plantation to uncover project ideas. Possibilities include:

Oral histories
Case studies
Community events
Children’s literature/teaching tools
Public art/expression
Creating partnerships with public institutions
Impacting policy
Museum installation/interpretive signage
Awareness campaign
Community policing projects

The Whitney Plantation provides a powerful learning environment for local students to explore first-hand the history of slavery in the US and, specifically, within Louisiana. This understanding builds historical context and sheds light on the impact of systemic racism across many institutions today. Through the exploration of story, students will discover the narratives of those enslaved while creating a counter narrative that gives them ownership of their future. Stay tuned for more stories about this collaborative partnership; project ideas and student work in the coming months.

Website: www.whitneyplantation.com
Twitter: @whitplantation

Wall of Honor

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Place Based Learning and Thanksgiving

11/21/2016

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By: Erin Sanchez

Thanksgiving can be a precarious holiday for Place Based Learning. I’ve conducted a number of workshops across the country where primary teachers wanted to take the Indians and pilgrims coloring sheets they had been assigning for years and turn them into a “project,” replete with kids in black and white and feathered headbands. How do we tell well-intentioned teachers that what they are doing is dangerous and aggravates historical traumas? How do we keep traditions without telling our children lies?

This year my daughter started kindergarten. We got through Columbus Day unscathed with nary a mention of the homicidal opportunist, but last week a letter came home announcing a Thanksgiving play, in which my daughter had a part and a line to memorize. She would be “Native American #2” and say something about the pilgrims’ hard winter. It was autumn of her first year of school and I was about to become THAT parent.

After agonizing over the email to the principal and teacher (in which I pointed out the troubling irony of the only Latina girl in class playing the Indian), I got the most appropriate response and resolution I could hope for. Instead of perpetuating the myth of a peaceful, uncomplicated event that scholars and tribal historians agree happened very differently, the school chose to cull the universal themes of sharing, respect and community-building, hosting a gathering where songs and stories of giving thanks, from the many cultures represented in class, will be shared.

Place Based Learning, at its core, is about connecting – to one another, to our environment, to ourselves – in the most authentic and curious voice we have. When we think about ideas for projects we want to explore with our students, do we begin by asking, “Whose voice hasn’t been heard? Whose story hasn’t been told? How does this place speak to us?” Even with complex historical events like Thanksgiving, allowing students to grapple with ambiguous questions gives rise to the possibility of a new generation of ideas, more creative than anything we’ve imagined. Whether it’s celebrating intercultural themes in kindergarten or high school seniors grappling with systemic racism, we all have a responsibility to be THAT parent/teacher/child/leader and shape our little place in the universe.

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Stories from PBL Path

Roots and Leadership Embracing Place-Based Learning for Empowered Student Leaders: My Experience Presenting at the Inaugural ASCDGhana Conference

Unlocking Potential: Liberatory Assessment Practices in Education – A Tale of Tyler’s Triumph

Pinning Down Purpose-Driven Inquiry

Student Ownership is a Gradual Release

Designing Community Products that Address Real Needs

Now is YOUR Time! - A Whitney Plantation Experience

A Winning Season with Big Picture Planning

So, what can WE do? PLACE in action at Whitney Plantation

Whitney Plantation: The Untold Story of Plantation Life

Place Based Learning and Thanksgiving

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