5 Trade Secrets for Creating Student Projects

Projects are great, am I right?  It’s always so much fun to see what students can do.  Give them some guidelines with room to be creative and let them go. 
 
But do you ever find they are full of questions?  Every single step of the way there seems to be someone with a question?  No matter how well you explain the directions, there either seems to be questions or students running out of time.

​I definitely felt the struggle with students and projects in my first few years of teaching 6th grade.  Until I started to recognize what students needed to find success.
 
I realized that when I provided certain information, it helped students stay on track and actually get their projects done.
 
In this post, you’ll learn the 5 secrets to creating a successful student project. When you follow these strategies, you’ll find less stress and more project completion.


​​Creating a Project
When you put together a project for students to complete, it makes the most sense that you consider three major things:
 
1. Project Requirements
2. Materials
3. Grading Rubric
 
But in order for your students to find success, they need to you put together one more vital document, a Project Guide.
 
Now, a Project Guide is different from giving students the rubric you will use to grade them, or listing their requirements.  A Project Guide can include those things… but it is so much more.
 
A Project Guide not only provides the steps students need to take, but also incorporates a timeline. 
 
It is the timeline that is key.
 
We all know how Middle School students can really struggle with time management.  They need your help in guiding them, making sure they have enough time to complete the project and they aren’t spending too much time on a given step. 
 
When you’re working on a multi-day project, time management becomes a huge issue. 
 
Enter your solution:  the Project Guide!
 
My Project Guides include 5 key components, the secret to creating successful student projects.

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5 Key Components of the Project Guide
#1 – A Title and a brief description of what the project is they are being asked to create and how many points it’s worth.
 
#2 – A list of required components for the completed project. (include your rubric here if you choose)
 
#3 – Resources available to help them with the project.
 
#4 – A Timeline of the days they have to work, and what should be completed on each day.  Also include here if students are expected to do any homework related to the project and on which days.
 
#5 – The due date for the project.
 
Give your students the tools they need to be successful on their own!  Give them a Project Guide so expectations are clear to ALL students for what should be completed when.
Ready to Roll Materials
I have used this strategy for many, many projects and have seen a great deal of success from it.  Building in “extra time” by allowing sections to be completed as homework on specific nights can really benefit students. But this only works if you are giving them guidance as to what parts should be completed and by when.
 
Now you have everything you need to create your own successful student projects with your very own Project Guide.  If you are looking to save a little time, you might consider my Project Guide Template.
 
Using the template will ensure you don’t forget any of the essential pieces.  You can also utilize my sample Project Guide, which is included with the template. It shows you my exact Project Guide for my Greek mythology project.



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I’m Hillary Midgley, and I help teachers move students from academic struggle to total confidence with a 9-week study skills framework that actually works. New here? Start with the Framework.