Here is a free and awesome resource that I have yet to fully read.

http://www.innovationunit.org/sites/default/files/Teacher's%20Guide%20to%20Project-based%20Learning.pdf

Pg. 58 has the tuning protocol. I would foresee taking our 3-Acts and turning them into projects, rather than lessons. I.E. my pop box dimensions turning that into students creating now pop cans and boxes etc.

In my PD, FWIW, the first hour is spent doing a three-act task. The second hour is spent creating a script of teacher moves. Here’s the current example from El Paso, where I am this very second. It’s possible to speak generally about good things that happen in act two but it is impossible to script as far as I’m concerned.

One Pro-D I would love to do is an anyqs tweaking session, especially which focuses on questioning. I don’t know how many people are familiar with High Tech High’s project tweaking protocol but it would be amazing to take some 3-Act lessons and collaboratively tweak.

For example, in the Ticket to Ride – for students struggling to ask for the proper dimensions, or struggling to correctly calculate the area of the ticket, I always say “what would happen to the ticket roll if each ticket was very thick? (make hand gesture for how thick you’re talking about) Ok, now what would happen if each ticket was very very thin? (make hand jesture about how thin you’re talking about). So what is going to be an important dimension for how many tickets are in a roll?”

I well defined script helps.

I hear ya man. When I did my first 3 Act lesson, I was expecting all my classes to be engaged like no other (that was naive). It took some adjusting and some reevaluating, but I learned from that first lesson to improve for the second. I learned that delivery, enthusiasm, and my interest are all important ingredients. I could show them a video of the most amazing thing in the world, but if I get too involved, they quickly abandon their excitement or motivation. If I fault them for not having the same interest as me, I’ve lost them. I found leaving little gaps of silence after the video, or playing dumb when asked a question antagonized the students just enough to want to know more and find out. I challenge the students to find an easy way to the solution because I think my solution is too long, laborious, or difficult and they can do it better. I found that getting really enthused about a student’s “first question” can help ignite others to share their question.

Graphic Organizer: I prepared a graphic organizer to accompany the learning, keeping students on task, and seeing how they structured their work.

Yes, the dynamic of classes is insane. One section struggled asking questions, but could do the necessary math in Act 2. However, one section asked the best questions all day for Act 1 and listed the necessary information, but sucked at the math solution part. It varies, and I LOVE that. it keeps me on my game. If it was the same reaction every class, or the same level of motivation every class, I’d get bored too. I would lose my motivation to help students learn.

Not sure I’m offering a simple fix, because I wonder the same questions you do. It’s an ongoing challenge that I welcome. My fix is to continue going in, learning from my students. I ask them as much as possible to explain what made this learning experience good/bad, boring/engaging, easy/difficult, fun/challenging, etc. They see that I am interested in their learning and their best interests. You can’t always win, but that’s not my goal. My goal is that they understand we’re in this together to learn from each other, and we’re always trying to improve (both teacher and student).

Am I not selling it right?

Am I not scaffolding it right?

Or am I not preparing my class to be motivated right?

Or is it all of the above?

How do I fix this?

I have also noticed entire classes can have a totally different mindset. My homeroom loves this stuff, but the other class I have are not very engaged (they like rote processes and textbook work). I feel I have the prep down, but I still can’t teach this well.

I had a class of non academic 10th graders absolutely riveted on the answer video to that one. Wish I had filmed them.