Rubrics are a must have when doing Project-based learning, but a Progress Assessment Tool can really place the experience in the hands of the students. While digging deeper into an Umbrella Question (driving question), students can write their own learning targets by a teacher giving them standards.

Steve Martinez has used this method to align the content standards, literacy, standards, CTE standards, or general skills that he wanted students to work on. Students write learning targets that will be used throughout the PBL unit, document how each learning target will be hit or mastered, and then have a column for feedback and reflection (self-reflection, peer-to-peer reflection, and/or teacher to student feedback).

Feel free to use as many or as little learning targets for the PBL unit of your choice. Steve would use this document to conference with students 1:1 or in small groups through the duration of a PBL unit. This document was inspired by the work of Ross Cooper and Erin Murphy.