Project-based learning can provide an intentional and effective opportunity to integrate the arts across disciplines and curriculum. While valuable as a stand-alone discipline, arts education can be given further power and value when used in a PBL project as part of the core curriculum.

When teachers begin designing PBL projects, they often start small, maybe with a recommended idea to internalize the design process and a reflection on how to improve. As teachers become more familiar with PBL, integration is a great next step for taking it up a notch. This is where the arts come in! If you are thinking about your next PBL project, consider using one or more of these intentional moments to integrate art.

The Arts as the Entry Event
When launching a PBL project, it is crucial to have an entry event that engages students and creates excitement for the project. From movies and music to activities and simulations, teachers can launch a project with one or more entry events that relate to the arts. Start the project with an art anchor text, not only to build inquiry, but also to keep the momentum going along the way by revisiting that anchor.

The Arts in Culminating Products or Performances
PBL demands voice and choice in how students spend their time and how they show their learning. Each project culminates in a presentation or product that is presented to a public audience. The best products meet the needs of the audience, which means that creating the project must focus not only on relevance, but also on engagement. Teachers can use this design element to further leverage the arts by providing an arts product as one or more of the choices. We know students can show their learning in a variety of ways and through multiple intelligences. In addition to a persuasive letter, consider a collage or songbook of lyrics.

The Arts as Scaffolding
Students need scaffolding through a variety of instructional activities that will arm them with the skills and content they’ll need to be successful on the project. As you consider this scaffolding, include arts-related activities. Use these activities to help students process their content and represent their thinking. For example, have students do a “tableau” activity where they represent the structure of the cell. From this, the teacher helps students metacognitively and transparently connect this individual activity to the larger project. Students learn from this arts-based activity during the project and will apply it to their product. Role-plays, simulations, music comprehension strategies, visual processing, dramatic acting — all these activities and more can help support and scaffold the many learning targets within a PBL project.

The Arts As Formative Assessment
Similar to assessing their students’ culminating products or performances, teachers must formatively assess learning objectives and skills throughout the PBL project. As students participate in scaffolding and activities, use the arts as the method to formatively assess content and 21st century skills. If you are assessing collaboration, use a visual representation as evidence.

While arts integration in the core discipline alone is valuable, doing it within the context of a PBL project can make the integration seamless as well as valuable. PBL projects provide a space to meet multiple learning targets, whether those are core discipline standards or arts standards. Whether or not you are intending to assess arts standards on your PBL project, you can still find intentional instructional moments for using the arts, not only to value them, but also to create engagement for everyone. Your students can learn the arts as well as learning through the arts.

A recent blog by Grant Wiggins affirmed what I have long believed about creativity: it is a 21st-century skill we can teach and assess. Creativity fosters deeper learning, builds confidence and creates a student ready for college and career.

However, many teachers don’t know how to implement the teaching and assessment of creativity in their classrooms. While we may have the tools to teach and assess content, creativity is another matter, especially if we want to be intentional about teaching it as a 21st-century skill. In a PBL project, some teachers focus on just one skill, while others focus on many. Here are some strategies educators can use tomorrow to get started teaching and assessing creativity — just one more highly necessary skill in that 21st-century toolkit.

Quality Indicators
If you and your students don’t unpack and understand what creativity looks like, then teaching and assessing it will be very difficult. Here are some quality indicators to look at:

Synthesize ideas in original and surprising ways.
Ask new questions to build upon an idea.
Brainstorm multiple ideas and solutions to problems.
Communicate ideas in new and innovative ways.

Now, these are just some of the quality indicators you might create or use. Don’t forget to make them age- or grade-level appropriate so that students can understand the targets and how they are being assessed. You might create a rubric from these quality indicators or keep them as overall goals for the students to work on throughout the year. Wiggins mentioned this rubric as a start. The February 2013 issue of ASCD’s Educational Leadership also has an article that includes a rubric.

Activities Targeted to Quality Indicators
We have all used activities for students to brainstorm solutions to problems, be artistically creative and more. Now is a chance to be very intentional with these exercises. In addition to just “doing” them, pick the activities that specifically work on quality indicators of creativity. They can occur at varying stages of a PBL project, whenever the timing is appropriate to where students are in the PBL process.

Voice and Choice in Products
We know that students can show knowledge in different ways. In a PBL project, for example, public audience is an essential component, and students must present their work. PBL teachers offer voice and choice in how they spend their time and what they create. This is a great opportunity to foster the creative process. Students can collaborate on how to best present their information, what to include, and perhaps even a target audience. Coupled with the other strategies mentioned in this piece, voice and choice can build creative thinkers.

Model Thinking Skills
There are some specific thinking skills that creative people use. You will often find these in the quality indicators of creative people and embedded in the language. One example is synthesis. In synthesis, people combine sources, ideas, etc. to solve problems, address an issue or make something new. Being able to synthesize well can be a challenge. If we want our students to do well with this creative skill, we need to model the thinking of synthesis in a low-stakes, scaffolding activity that they can translate into a more academic pursuit. I find that the more I help students understand and practice these thinking skills, the better prepared they are to be creative! These mini-lessons and activities occur within the context of a PBL project to support student learning.

Reflection and Goal Setting
Whether you are using S.M.A.R.T Goals or short reflective activities, this is a critical component of teaching and assessing creativity. Students need time to look at the quality indicators and reflect on how they are doing when it comes to mastery. They can also set goals on one or more these quality indicators and how they will go about doing it. This reflective process and metacognition also helps build critical thinking skills, and should be used throughout the process of a PBL project, curriculum unit or marking period. Let’s provide opportunities for students to think critically about creativity.

If we want our students to be creative, we must give them not only the opportunity to do so, but also the finite skills and targets to be able to do so. When you combine these strategies, creativity can become part of the culture of a PBL project and classroom in general. You may or may not “grade” creativity, but you can certainly assess it.

How do you intentionally teach and assess creativity in your classroom?

The ISTE NETS (National Educational Technology Standards) are more than just simple content standards and learning objectives. If examined closely, they truly can foster an educational shift to engaging, relevant, technology-rich learning. In terms of project-based learning (PBL), the ISTE NETS, not only align, but can truly support a PBL environment. After my own examination, I felt we must have a #pblchat on the subject.

Weeks ago, this was our topic. Feel free review the storify archive of the whole chat to get more ideas. Here are some of my ideas and take-aways as well as inspirations from others on how some the ISTE Student NETS can support PBL. We will focus on five of the Student NETS this time, but keep in mind there are more, as well as the NETS for teachers, administrators and coaches!

Student NET #1: Creativity and Innovation
Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.

Okay, I’m going to be a bit crass with this description. PBL requires that students create something new, innovate with content, and develop products that show this deeper learning. Students do not gorge on content and then throw it up in a pretty new genre or technology tool. This NET can help teachers ensure that they’re asking for products that require innovation of the content and not regurgitation. Through an innovative project idea and driving question, your students are not only learning content, but creating something new with it.

Student NET #2: Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, sometimes at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

Two of the key 21st century skills in PBL are communication and collaboration. PBL projects balance the learning not only of content, but also 21st century skills that are transferable across disciplines and into life after K-12 schooling. Through this standard, students can communicate and collaborate, both in person with their teams and across the globe, giving an opportunity for global education. Using the right tools for the authentic purposes of collaboration and communication, students can engage in innovative PBL projects.

Student NET #3: Research and Information Fluency
Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate and use information.

When we unpack this standard, one of the key words here is “inquiry.” Students are not simply doing research. PBL projects require students to engage in in-depth inquiry on a specific topic through posing questions, researching and interpreting data, and reporting it. However, as students move through this cycle of inquiry, they may find incomplete data, require further information or make mistakes. This NET lets students know that revision and reflection are critical to the inquiry process. In addition, it leverages higher-order thinking skills like synthesis and evaluation, which can ensure that PBL projects are stimulating deep learning.

Student NET #4: Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources.

PBL projects must engage students in critically thinking around content, and they often have students attempt to solve a problem. In addition, this standard really pushes for student-centered learning. It is on the students to manage themselves, make decisions and more. The teacher’s role is more of guide on the side, with “just in time” moments of instruction to help students with critical thinking and problem solving. PBL projects also leverage the 21st century skill of critical thinking and problem solving through assessment.

Student NET #5: Digital Citizenship
Students understand human, cultural and societal issues related to technology, and practice legal and ethical behavior.

As students engage in technology-rich projects, it is important to model and practice digital citizenship. Explicit instruction, lessons and activities must take place to ensure that students are creating good “digital footprints.” In addition, this is a great theme inspiration for a PBL project. From a technology class to a language arts class, you can have students make recommendations about digital policy or teach other members of the school community and beyond how to be good digital citizens.

As you build your PBL projects, consider how the ISTE NETS can support your work. The NETS will not only help to hone and refine a PBL project, but also serve as an advocacy piece to stakeholders and other “naysayers.” They can help you focus how to use the technology and keep that focus on student learning for the 21st century. Consider assessing these standards to leverage them! How are you using the NETS in your classroom?