Edutopia’s latest newsletter (June 23) offers examples from King Middle School of how to select a topic or  field site for a visit and how to plan a project in six steps.  The planning is designed for middle school age range but would be very suitable with little adaptation to projects at the upper elementary age too.
http://www.edutopia.org/maine-project-learning-how-to-plan-a-project
http://www.edutopia.org/maine-project-learning-questions-before-starting
The “five questions before starting” article offers an example of evaluating the usefulness of a field visit before going ahead with planning.  The same questions could apply to the selection of a project topic.
http://www.edutopia.org/maine-project-learning-six-steps-planning
In the “Six Steps for Planning a Successful Project” article the steps described can be related to planning work for each of the three phases of a project as described in the Project Approach. 
The first step applies to the selection of the topic and the teacher’s preliminary planning in developing a topic web.
“Develop a compelling topic that covers state standards, has an authentic connection to the local community, and provides opportunities for every student to do meaningful, independent research.”
If these criteria are not met then the topic web will not be easily developed to include at least 100 words of categorized and topic focused vocabulary.
Steps 2 and 6  refer to the third phase of the project where the teacher visualizes the sharing of final representations of what the students have learned and the importance of sharing the results of the investigation.
Step 3 refers to the importance of community involvement and the sense on th epart of the students that they are investigating the real world and have important roles to play in doing so.
Steps 4 and 5 are about field work and how this can be done in the most authentic  ways.  It also refers to the the important work of students meaningfully representing what they have learned.

Lilian Katz and I recently accompanied a group of early childhood educators on a two week tour in India.  This very interesting cultural experience was organized by Vashima Goyal, the founder of  EduRetreat.  We visited urban and rural schools and ashrams, talked with educators, philosophers and artists, and participated in two conferences.

We were a group of American, Argentinian, British, and Canadian scholars and teachers interested in leearning about the education ofy oung children in India.  We were graciously received, enjoying fantastic hospitality wherever we went. With our various hosts we discussed our mutual interests in education and reflected on similarities and differences in our priorities for young children.

Among the major similarities were a concern for each individual child and the provision of an educational context which honoured all aspects of children's development. The most marked difference for me was Indian concern with the spiritual development of children.  In some cases this was aligned with physical development and the opportunity for children to engage in yoga and meditation.

If you would be interested in such an opportunity to visit India please visit the EduRetreat web site.

It is hard to find research on the Project Approach.  However, it is not so hard to find research on related topics.  Here are examples of pages which review research that could be helpful to graduate students working on research proposals in this area of education.

1.  Research on the Responsive Classroom

The relevance here is that the project approach has many of the features of responsiveness to the learner that are cited in the list of principles guiding teaching that is responsive to students  http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/about/aboutrc.html.

2.  The Edutopia web site occasionally offers reviews of relevant research such as this page:  http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning-research

While the research may not be on the Project Approach specifically there are many factors shared by the classrooms involved in this research.

If you know of useful reviews of research please leave us a comment after this blog.

This blog post by Sylvia Chard

The strategy known as KWL (which was originally designed to help students approach the reading of texts) is of questionable value in the context of a project.  What seems to help teachers most for real world investigations through the Project Approach is EKWQ (which is more like a tongue twister than a mnemonic!).

E is for Experience; K is for Knowledge; W is for Wonder; Q is for Questions.

In the first phase of a project the teacher takes the role of an ethnographer, someone who finds out about the experiences of a group of people and learns by various strategies how that group of people construe those experiences, that is, their knowledge.

Throughout the first week or more of a project, the students reflect on their experiences of the topic and share what they have experienced with their classmates. This sharing is facilitated when the students first reflect on and represent their experiences in some way.  The can tell stories, write, draw pictures, label drawings, make paintings and collages, make clay models, construct with blocks, role play, etc.

They can also research their classmates' experience through interviewing each other and doing surveys to find out about each other's experiences. This research of their classmates involves students in rehearsing interview techniques, taking notes, data collection and representation of the group's collective experience in graphs and charts of various kinds. In these ways the students share and deepen their prior knowledge.

The teacher's role is to support the use of a variety of investigative and representational strategies. S/he also has a special responsibility to encourage the students to reflect on their experiences and explain them.  As students explain their experiences they develop theories about how and why things might be the way they remember them. During the first phase of a project interest can be developed in the topic especially because the students are the experts.  They know what they have experienced and they reflect on what they know.

Throughout this process students wonder about the different experiences and explanations their classmates offer.  The teacher's ethnographic role extends to coordinating the work produced so that all can become aware of what has been learned and can develop a collective baseline understanding. This basic knowledge can be the foundation of the collaborative research process ahead of the students in the second phase of the project.

The wondering is a by-product of the growing interest the students experience in the topic of the project. Out of the wondering comes the desire to question. In these times of immediate, electronically available answers to questions, the question itself becomes increasingly important.

KWL may be a good strategy for the reading of texts, and perhaps also in thematic units, but it is not enough for a project and can even inhibit the development of interest, which is built to last in the early part of a project.  If a mnemonic helps you to remember the process, the following is the one: EKWQ (even if you may have to practice it in the shower!)

This Blog post is written by Sylvia Chard and updates a section on the former web site. Reference will be made to this EKWQ blog post in the Study Guide (download free from the top right part of the home page).

Many people have emailed me about the availability of the online course which used to run from this web site.  It is now replaced by the Study Guide which is freely available from this page.  This guide offers ways to learn about the Project Approach by means of self study through the use of a variety of books, articles, and directly accessible online resources. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have about this development.

You can now see a small selection of the EduRetreat photographs in this album on my Facebook page.

While this site is being completed, you can access an archived version of the old Project Approach website here. There is also an archived version of the Project Approach Online Course here, but please note that you cannot actually take the course, only view it.

The site you are on right now will be finished by the end of this year, at which time, there'll be an official site launch. Valuable online resources will be available in the Online Store, the free study guide will be available for download for free, many other great resources will be available through the main part of the site, and the blog will become a hive of activity for teachers come 2010. Many good things happening soon. Be sure to come back soon!

Welcome to the eventual home of the Project Approach. This is a brand new site, and over the next few weeks, a lot of useful information will be appearing here. For now, the site is a work in progress as we gradually add content and resolve all technical issues. The Online Store should be stocked in a couple of weeks, and an official site launch will be announced at that time. For now, don't try and make any purchases, no matter how tempting those online resources might be!

Thanks for your patience. A link to the old site will be appearing in this space soon, so that teachers and others can continue to access the Project Approach resources.

Details are being added and edited as we go... stay tuned!