PBL in the Library:  A Menu for Teachers
By:  Justine Keuning-LaFrence

Project at a Glance :

As the middle school librarian, I want to be available to help teachers with their content areas.  Through my experience with Future Prep’d and PBL, I want to be able to run protocols with and for teachers to show them how to incorporate these strategies into their classroom.  I’m hoping I’ll be able to connect with not only the language arts teachers, but also with the other content areas.   ​

Driving Question:

How can protocols be used to support learning outside of a complete project?     

Standards:

• Collaboration
• Building Empathy
• Setting Goals

Team / Culture Building:

• The 6 Word Memoir activity - turned into a project with 6th graders.​​

• Lock Box activity

​Entry Event:

• Introduce the BBYA book club to the Hopes, Fears, & Norms activity.

Stakeholders:​

• West Ottawa Middle School students
• West Ottawa Middle School teachers

Empathy Building:

• Use the Value Cards activity to help students think about what they want in the books they read. Students narrowed down to their top 10 and then their top 5. They wrote their top 5 on a piece of paper and then did a modified Chalk Talk. They walked around, read each other's lists and wrote recommendations for each other.
  

Incubation:

• ​Mind Mapping, Rip/Slap/Pass, and Crazy Eights are all activities that could be used in a library setting around book recommendations and ideas. ​

Mindmapping

Rip, Slap, Pass

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Solution Building:

• Teachers are invited to use the Library space as a place to run their solution phase protocols.

Presentation:

• The library can be a space for pitches and audiences to gather, the librarian can be a member of the authentic audience, depending on the project, or students can potentially get presentation help from the librarian.

Click here for teacher's full plan.

​Reflection and Feedback:

• 6 Word Review Cards - 6th graders used the idea of a 6 word memoir to check in on their independent reading with 6 word reviews.

Click here for the teacher's Journey through PBL on Padlet . . .

Meet the Educator:

​Justine Keuning-LaFrence is the middle school librarian at Macatawa Bay Middle School and Harbor Lights Middle School.

     "I love showing how literature can help students become better critical thinkers and more empathetic members of their community.  They can then take those skills to tackle real world problems with creative and interesting solutions."