As an educator who has been teaching for some time, I have assigned projects for my students on various occasions. Many of the finished products were absolutely amazing, showing that they were extremely creative and capable of thinking critically. Looking back, I realized how well students did on the projects I assigned despite my limited knowledge of how to use the project to take their learning experiences to the next level. Back then, my main focus was the project itself, not creating teams to do the work. Because most groups were in sync and communicated well, these were things that I worked through with students on an as-needed basis. Looking back, I realize how managing the groups more carefully could have improved their productivity and provided clarity so that students could determine how they could each contribute.   

            Developing an understanding of what Project-Based Learning is and how it could benefit students has enlightened me in many ways. Now that I am teaching ELLs, I see how group management tips can make their experience with completing a project so much smoother. Reducing stressors that come with group collaboration is a way to improve the probability of there being miscommunication or conflict. ELLs are capable of doing the work, but could benefit from additional supports as they learn how to complete projects with numerous steps. As I continue unpacking the essentials of Project-Based Learning in my doctoral course, I thought that I would share some of the ways that I have learned to manage group collaboration. There are 3 management tips that I plan to use in the future as students work collaboratively on projects. Each of them are ways that will help my students to stay organized, have clarity on how to complete project tasks, and do their best work.

1. Project Calendar: I plan to create a project calendar with regular and frequent-even daily-checkpoints and formative deliverables. I have never used a project calendar before, but I feel that doing so will make things easier for my students and I. In the past, I have scaffolded project tasks, but a calendar could help me to do this so much more effectively. When students are able to determine exactly what they must do upon arriving to class, there is less confusion about what is expected of them. Three to four tasks for each day on the calendar to prevent overwhelm, but still keep them on track to finishing in a timely manner.
2. Project Management Logs: Project Management Logs allow students to track their daily progress as they work to complete the project. They are logs that can actually work hand-in-hand with a project calendar. Once students know what tasks they are to complete, they can document what they have actually done each day. For example, they can list the tasks needed to be done, the group member(s) responsible for each task, when it is dues, and whether or not it was actually done. I love this idea because it holds students accountable for their assigned role.
3. Provide necessary resources: It is a good idea to provide all resources needed from the beginning. This is so that students don’t waste time or get frustrated. I recently learned how important this is when I recently assigned a biome project to my 7^th grade language learners. None of them had ever done a project before, so they needed lots of support. Websites, reading material, and even vocabulary lists can help ELLs as they work on a project. Providing these resources mean that they do not have to worry about finding them on their own. Experience has taught me that giving them the responsibility of locating necessary resources may be a handful for them, especially if they have never done a project before. They could end up spending too much time trying to find resources and not have enough time to complete the project itself.

Moving forward, I am excited to use these management tips so that groups are more productive as they work on their projects. My next step is learning how to use these tips with groups that are working virtually…..