Arts-Infused Project-Based Learning: Crafting Beautiful Work
Learn how to bring cross-curricular, arts-infused project-based learning into your classroom.
School 21 infuses the arts into a project-based learning model, emphasizing personalized learning and redrafting multiple revisions in the process of iteration. This London-based public school teaches students from Reception through Year 11 (approximately pre-K to 11th grade), and will ultimately serve through Year 13.
At the secondary level (Years 7 through 11), each PBL unit is co-taught by a core academic subject teacher and an arts teacher. School 21 believes that integrating the arts and PBL is a natural fit.
PBL process is one that mirrors the art form, adds Ahmet Ahmet, a drama teacher. "For me, project-based learning is putting on a performance."
Every student takes one co-curricular, arts-infused PBL course per 12- to 15-week term. "When we were doing immersive theatre," recalls Matilda, a Year 9 student, "it gave me a chance to put myself in the shoes of the people at the time and to experience history through their eyes. The history livens up the drama, and the drama livens up the history."
How It's Done
When Planning Your Project
At School 21, teachers plan their project in the term prior to teaching it. For feedback, they put their proposal through the tuning protocol -- a group critique among staff -- multiple times. "The first tuning is an ideas tuning -- from an early, nascent form, getting feedback on initial ideas and overall design," says Jess Hughes, an English teacher. "Later tunings are on the detailed plan and are used to interrogate practicalities, iron out concerns, and ensure academic rigour."
In the planning stages, her Romeo and Juliet project went through three tunings, taking a total of 80 minutes. In her post "Tuning Protocol: A Framework for Personalized Professional Development," she explains how to set up your tuning protocol norms and the six steps of the protocol itself. You can also follow School 21 to plan your project from the first to last tuning.