Driving questions (DQ) can be a beast. When I train teachers, they say the same thing, “Writing the Driving question is one of the hardest parts of an effective PBL.” I agree. When I am constructing a DQ for a PBL project, I go through many drafts. It’s only now, after implementing many projects and having coached countless teachers that I consider myself adept.

To get a better sense of this, I encourage you to watch some videos at the Buck Institute for Education’s “How To Do PBL” playlist on their YouTube Channel before we dig in.

Our Driving Question Now Is: How do we write an Effective Driving Question?
First, we need to understand why we have them. Driving questions are there for two entities, the teacher and the student.

For the teacher: A DQ helps to initiate and focus the inquiry. Remember the project shouldn’t be trying to solve the world’s problems. Instead, it should be a focused action, and focused inquiry; the goal is to ensure the students are focused. The teacher needs to help focus the teaching and learning, and the driving question help with that.

It also captures and communicates the purpose of the project in a succinct question. When reading the driving question, the teacher and student should be clear on what the overall project is as well as its purpose. Also for the teacher, it helps to guide planning and reframe standards or big content and skills. I will say more about this later, but the driving question should not sound like a standard reimagined in the form of a question. Instead, use the driving question to reframe the standards in ways that are accessible to both you the teacher and the student.

For the student: Ultimately, the driving question is for the students. It creates interest and a feeling of challenge so that even the most reluctant student thinks, “Hmmm, I guess that sounds kinda cool.”

It guides the project work. All work for the project, including the culminating project and daily lessons and activities, should be trying to help students answer the driving question. Whether it’s a lesson on commas, or implementation time, or drill-and-skill with math problems, the work needs to connect to the driving question. Why? The seemingly “boring” activities of the day-to-day have reason, relevancy and purpose, and then guess what? They aren’t boring anymore.

This relates to my next point. It helps student answer the question: “Why are we doing this?” This is the Golden Question that many administrators ask students when they are visiting. If your driving question is good, it can help connect that work so that students can articulate the reason behind daily lessons and activities.

My driving question is posted all over my classroom. It’s on worksheets, the project wall, and the online blog. It is continually referred to while we are working on the project so students are reminded of the purpose of the project and daily work.

The Tale of the “Snarky Kid”
I must tell the story about “Snarky Kid.” Snarky Kid is the kid who pretends to hate everything in school or your class, but still shows up and does work. In my class, we were doing some comma practice sheets in class right after a direct instruction lesson. Our driving question was: “How do we get a government official to preserve both casinos and the culture of local native peoples?”

My administrator, of course, came up to Snarky Kid, and asked, “What are you working on and why?”

Snarky Kid replied, “We are working on stupid commas.”

“Oh, I see,” said my administrator. “Why are you working on commas?”

“Because we are writing letters to the senator to make her change her mind, and we don’t want our letters to suck. We want her to read them, and not look bad.”

Fantastic, right!?! Despite the crass answer, Snarky Kid was able to articulate the immediate relevance of the task. I’d like to think that maybe the driving question helped that student to answer the administrator’s question.

In my next blog, we will explore different types of driving questions, look at some transformations from bad to good driving questions, and look are some further criteria. In the meantime, I’m leaving you with a task to practice refining driving questions.

Practice Refining Driving Questions
Watch the video on the Tubric, a useful tool to help create effective driving questions, and then follow this link to create one of your own. (courtesy of my colleagues at the Buck Institute for Education)

Even nerdy activities have their place in the classroom. (Can I get an amen?)

Next, use the Tubric to refine the poorly written driving questions below. It’s true, you have not yet received all the tips and tricks I have to share, nor do you know exactly what the PBL projects are that connect to the driving questions presented. However, you can still practice, and maybe come up with questions of your own around creating effective driving questions. (Hint: I’m modeling part of the PBL process in this exercise.)

Here are some driving questions for you to refine. Feel free to pick one and focus your work. I’ll be covering some of the tips and tricks to refine driving questions in my next post.

What is epic poetry?
How have native peoples been impacted by changes in the world?
How does probability relate to games?
Why is science important and how can it help save people?

Project-based learning (PBL) is rightfully touted as a way not only to create engagement in the classroom, but also to prepare students for their lives once they leave the confines of our classrooms. When given an authentic task to complete that is aligned to standards, students engage in an inquiry process, both as a team and individually, to innovate a solution. The task creates engagement in learning content and also 21st century skills. But let’s cut to the chase and see exactly what about PBL aligns to aspects of being career and college ready.

Public Audience

Every project in which students engage demands a public presentation of their learning. Similar to a board of directors presentation or a sales pitch, students are required to present their products to the public, whether through YouTube, a formal presentation, a podcast, or a portfolio. The audience usually comprises experts in the field. As in the work world, when there is accountability not only to ourselves, but experts, our level of work increases. Students will do the same. If you give them the opportunity to present to an expert, they will rise to the challenge and emulate a real-world experience.

Driving Question and Student Voice and Choice

These two foundations for PBL are closely related in terms of preparing students for college and careers. The driving question creates a feeling of challenge and interest in solving a real and authentic problem. It can be abstract: “How does who we are as teenagers affect who we become as adults?” It can be concrete: “How do we create an ideal outside classroom for our school?” Regardless, students create authentic products for an audience to answer the question, similar to a project in the real world. In addition, the question is open-ended and complex, and allows for student voice and choice in creating a product to answer the question. In college, although requirements are defined, there is often space for students to express their own viewpoint or method. As adults, we have complex and open-ended questions we answer in the career world every day. Students need to be given the opportunity to not “look for one answer” but solve complex, open-ended questions that allow for different ways of knowing in order to prepare for them for that post-secondary experience.

Revision and Reflection

PBL fosters a culture on ongoing feedback and revision. Students learn that it is OK to make mistakes and revise work. This is counter-paradigm. Some traditional teachers might demand a rough draft, but PBL creates multiple opportunities to revise and reflect on work before the actual due date. Like in the workplace, students critique each other, critique themselves, and receive critique from teachers and experts. It helps to prepare students to be independent in their critique and to continually seek feedback from peers and experts, a skill not taught explicitly at the college or career level, but nevertheless is needed and valued.

21st Century Skills

The Buck Institute for Education currently focuses on three major 21st century skills: collaboration, critical thinking, and communication. All are critical to being prepared for college or career. Whether it’s problem solving with teammates, being able to articulate work to a client, or analyzing a solution for effectiveness, all of these skills can be at practice in a PBL project. In fact, they can be taught and assessed. Instead of simply allowing students to experience these 21st century skills, PBL values them as part of the grade and demands teachers not only assess them, but teach them. They are just as important as the content that is being learned in the project.

“Now” Ready

One of the pitfalls to avoid with the idea of being career- and college-ready is just what the term can imply: “This will matter when you go to college.” “This will prepare you for college.” As Chris Lehmann in a recent TED talk espoused, “why can’t what students do matter now?” Why do we as educators default to the response that this material will help you later? For some kids, that idea of college and career is well out of their realm of possibility. The language of being career- and college-ready will not break through to them. However, when done well, PBL frames the content to be learned in a relevant and engaging current problem. With PBL, you can make students “now” ready. You can make the learning and project matter to them now, honoring them as critical to creating and innovating in the current world around them. Use PBL to not only make your students career- and college-ready, but also “now” ready. By making them “now” ready, you will make them college- and career-ready.