This year, I was very lucky to have the opportunity to teach entrepreneurship. I used the opportunity to experiment and reflect on proficiency-based assessment as it relates to project-based learning. The driving question for this semester long course was what businesses make the best Shark Tank pitches? This overarching idea was broken into four parts. I developed a learning scale for each of the four parts. Students learned about looking for problems in order to identify business ideas, the design thinking process, eleven business planning elements and finally the characteristics of an effective pitch. They pitched their ideas to a small audience of teachers during semester 1. This semester, I’m working toward a more authentic audience.

Introducing the project

When I introduced this project, I focused on the driving question but also directed attention to the goals of each of the four parts of the project. Each of these sections was designed to allow students to drive the direction of the project whole still teaching mini-lessons on various topics. I was careful and deliberate in designing a learning scale that allowed students to have complete control over their project. One characteristic was that the scale focused on skills and content that were specific to entrepreneurship but not specific to the project. While students were expected to articulate the problem they were solving, the problem was 100% up to them. For all the pieces of content they learned, the lens through which they learned it was up to them.

The learning scale as a map

I found myself constantly referring students back to the learning scale in order to identify their next steps. The learning scale needed to be designed in a way that helped learners know where they were and understand exactly what they needed to know or do to move forward. I also provided several different scaffolds to help learners track their progress. For example, during the second unit, I provided a template that showed each of the elements to be learned and questions to help propel them forward. As they filled in the information, they gained an understanding of each element and were able to see how that moved them along on the learning scale.

Targets strategically addressed as they come up

I pulled daily targets out of the learning scale when it appeared learners were in need of the information. As I noticed that students needed information about certain things, I provided instruction on those items either as a whole group or in small groups. I think this is how most targets get addressed in project-based learning.

Reflection

In a truly proficiency-based system, the use of a body of evidence for assessment is ideal. We are currently back to a system that requires numbers but I did my best to stay true to proficiency-based assessment using evidence and reflection. I gave written feedback throughout each part of this project-based experience and nobody complained about not seeing a score until the very end. In order to assess learners, I simply used the evidence that they had created as they developed their ideas and provided them opportunities to reflect on their progress. The documents combined with the reflection compared to each learning scale served as the assessment process. I experimented with digital interactive notebooks as a way of providing feedback, keeping track of progress, and student reflection.

Overall, this project-based learning experience worked in concert with the proficiency-based learning goals. In fact, the learning scale helped to focus the learning perfectly while still allowing students to drive and personalize their learning. I wonder how others are mixing project-based and proficiency-based (competency-based) learning? Tweet @fearlessteachrs #pbls (like, more than one PBL acronym) if you are playing with these two ideas and have something to share.