Project-Based Summer School Program (K-8)
An affordable summer school solution that saves teachers time (and sanity).
Summer school is crucial to helping students advance and become prepared for the upcoming school year. But it doesn’t have to be all about remediation and testing. Bring summer school to life in your district with project-based learning!
Why PBL for Summer School?
Project-Based Learning provides an authentic context for learning, motivating students and teachers alike, and allowing teachers to tackle more content standards in a shorter amount of time. Project-based learning units ensure students experience:
- Sustained Inquiry
- Intrinsic Engagement
- Thoughtful Collaboration
- Real-World Application
- Iterative Thinking
- Cross-Curricular Connections
- Authentic Audiences
- Student Choice
How We Can Help
We know Summer School teachers don’t have the time or bandwidth to create robust PBL units and match them to core content curriculum. That’s where we come in. With highly engaging projects and customized professional development support, we can:
- Select projects that your summer school students will find engaging and meaningful
- Align identified instructional gaps and/or standards to projects
- Save your teachers time by customizing projects and preparing them to meet your specific summer school needs!
1. PBL Projects
Blue Apple projects are fully developed PBL learning experiences that teachers can implement easily. Teachers can choose from 10 highly engaging projects all designed to engage students in making the world a better place. They’ll receive practical project plans and physical supplies so they can focus on what they do best — teach!
2. Professional Development
Blue Apple has worked with hundreds of summer school teachers and has developed a professional development plan that helps ensure your summer programming is a success. We recommend the following supports to help your teachers flourish all summer long!
1-Hour Project Selection Session
Make sure your afterschool teachers have projects they love, and that they have access to all their online plans and physical supplies. Ideally, we would conduct this at least one week before your programming begins.
3-Hour Blue Apple Implementation Workshop
Discover the extensive resources and supports that Blue Apple offers, and learn how to implement projects in a way that meets your unique goals.
Office Hour Check-Ins
Make sure your teachers get support as the year goes on by scheduling Office Hour Check-Ins; this is a great way to provide your staff with ongoing support. We recommend 2-8 hours of check-ins throughout the school year.
Optional: 3-Hour Introduction to PBL Workshop
If you’re interested in helping your afterschool staff understand Project-Based Learning so that they can use this powerful practice throughout the year, we recommend this engaging half-day professional development opportunity to help them deepen their understanding (and gain practical tips and tricks!).
Optional: 1-Hour Customized Content Sessions
Choose from Blue Apple’s wide variety of Professional Development offerings to hone in on specific areas you’d like to address.
Topics include:
- Collaboration
- Real-World Expert Connections
- Integrating Content
- Managing PBL
- Assessment in PBL
- Public Products
- Social-Emotional Learning and PBL
Are you ready to reimagine summer school programming at your school?
At Van Andel Institute for Education, our mission is to create classrooms where curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking thrive. We NEVER want cost to be a prohibiting factor in quality education for students or teachers. If price ever becomes an issue, please let us know. We may be able to help!
