I’m always looking for better ways to engage my students in the classroom because let’s be honest – using the same lessons year after year can get SO boring. The problem? Planning elaborate project-based learning activities is something that I most certainly did not have time for in the classroom.
Enter, Tract. Tract is a project-based learning website, where students can learn, create, share, and teach each other! With little-to-no extra prep time, you can empower your students to develop 21st Century skills through project-based, peer-to-peer learning, all in one place.
Sounds amazing, right? A teacher account is completely FREE if you sign up at teach.tract.app and use access code THEMEANINGFULTEACHER.
The Basics
Tract is designed to spark creativity and empower learners to develop critical thinking skills. It provides students with the opportunity to explore new interests and deepen existing passions through self-directed, project-based classes!
Tract has intertwined project-based learning best practices with content conventions from TikTok, SnapChat, and YouTube to create a fun, educational experience to empower students to become creators! They’ll start with researching and outlining, to scripting, recording, and finally presenting to their peers. Your students will love the opportunities for creativity and autonomy that Tract provides. Check out the video below for a more in-depth look at the platform.
Getting Started
First, you’ll want to create your free teacher account at teach.tract.app using access code THEMEANINGFULTEACHER. From there, you can create your classes, add students with a unique code, and decide how you want your students to use the platform.
Students can watch and engage with Learning Paths, which are project-based video classes made by students. They can complete learning paths chosen by you, or they can discover thousands of topics on their own through the search function.
If you really want to use Tract to its full capacity, have your students create their own learning paths! They can create their very own video lessons based on any topic. This feature is absolutely perfect for those students who want to be YouTube stars, or are obsessed with taking videos! Students can even earn coins and awards for their work.
By developing their own learning path on Tract, students of every level have the opportunity to select a topic of interest and create a dynamic learning experience around that content through a series of project-based learning activities designed to help them become effective creators. And, the final artifact – your students’ lesson – continues to live beyond the assignment, as students around the world can learn from it! How cool is that?
Ideas for Using Tract in Upper Elementary
- Genius Hour
- Research Project (combine a Tract learning path with a research paper!)
- Final unit project for science or social studies (have students create their learning path and present it to the class)
- Vocabulary practice (students use vocabulary words within their learning path)
- Procedural text (have students create a how-to video to accompany their writing)