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Friendship Village teachers describe multi-week project-based learning units that boost engagement
Summary
Teachers at Friendship Village described multi-week project-based learning units — from a fourth-grade pizza shop to kindergarten hot-chocolate sales — that they say improve engagement, formative assessment and real-world math and literacy practice.
At a district board meeting, Friendship Village School teachers described a range of multi-week project-based learning (PBL) units they say have raised student engagement and provided rich opportunities for formative assessment.
"Project-based learning is hands-on learning, engaging students through practical real-world activities," said Sarah Ovenan, kindergarten teacher, who described the school’s fourth-grade pizza-shop project that taught fractions, pricing and profit by having students design menus, logos and boxes and sell slices to third graders using fake money. "They had to be able to make a profit," Ovenan said, explaining how pricing choices tied back to math standards.
First-grade teacher Eva Benner described hands-on maker activities that used clip-together kits and a BeaverBot tool to practice geometry and measurement, and said teachers took learning into the community by having students apply geometry to stocking shelves at a nearby food pantry.
Teachers emphasized that PBL requires multi-week planning, pre-teaching, reflection and revision. "None of these projects were a one-day event," Ovenan said. "These were multiple weeks of planning, prepping, thinking, changing, reflecting on what we have done so far and what we want to change."
Staff said projects support formative assessment and differentiated instruction: teachers use rubrics and self-reflection checkpoints to monitor progress, and WIN (intervention/enrichment) blocks let teachers pull small groups for targeted instruction. Kindergarteners’ hot-chocolate sales and second graders’ playground budgeting exercises offered practice in counting, budgeting and presenting models to peers and adults.
Board members and administrators noted PBL’s implications for professional learning and equity. Presenters said success depends on teacher planning time and professional supports: they credited an outside coach and district colleagues for guidance. The board discussed using successful small-school pilots as incubators to spread PBL and highlighted a need for common planning time and resources.
The meeting continues to discuss curriculum alignments and technology supports that staff say can amplify PBL rather than replace hands-on work.
