I say it my ed classes, I say it to student teachers, I say to myself: if I can’t answer why we have to do something in a convincing, thoughtful way that shows that I have a solid rationale then we shouldn’t be doing it in class. I also think that you have to return to this conversation over and over again. Over and over.

With so many independent projects, I have a pretty basic requirement for each week: 50 pages of reading and 500 words of prose. Sometimes the students find the readings, sometimes I do; they can design their own deliverables, build on my recommendations, or have me design it for them.

Today we spent five minutes writing about why our school has this requirement for projects. Here are three of the answers: