Early Childhood: Project Based Learning

This course provides an opportunity for early childhood educators to take an in-depth look at professional texts that focus on best practices in Reading, Writing, and Talking Processes Across the Curriculum. During this course, participants explore Project-Based Learning (PBL) for young children, inviting a culture of inquiry and creativity in the classroom where student voice, choice, and creative thinking are integral parts of the learning process. In addition to an in-depth exploration of the course texts, educators learn a variety of ways to approach and encourage rich, meaningful discussions surrounding PBL best practices against the backdrop of the PLN Frameworks: The Four Lenses of Learning and The Five Early Reading, Writing, and Talking Across the Curriculum Processes.

Participants engage in collaborative learning opportunities, where ideas inspire productive problem solving, deep understanding, and best outcomes for young children. Use of formative assessment, purposeful and consistent collegial feedback, and the implementation of the PBL process occur throughout this course. The PLN core texts of study selected for this course are (1) Hacking Project Based Learning by Ross Cooper and Erin Murphy and (2) The Plainer Truths of Teaching, Learning and Literacy by Dr. Morton Botel and Lara Paparo. The Plainer Truths is provided as an ebook only. Participants receive a code to get a free copy of this text online. During each class meeting, participants share how their reading of Plainer Truths and Hacking Project Based Learning (as well as course presentations and discussions) can be applied and adapted to their early childhood classrooms. Based on the Penn Literacy Network frameworks of The Five Early Reading, Writing, and Talking (RWT) Processes and The Four Lenses of Learning, participants explore ways to construct learning experiences that help their young students grow to be co-constructive, resilient problem solvers.