Grade 3 · Communities · §113.14 · Problem-Based Learning

Name the Library — Who Should We Honor?

A Problem-Based Learning unit. Students step into a town that is opening a new public library, take on a stakeholder's point of view, and solve a real, messy question — building from surface to deep to transfer learning. The teacher is a guide, not the answer key.

Driving question: Our town is opening a brand-new public library, and the community gets to choose whose name it will carry. Many people have made a difference — a scientist, a local hero, a beloved author, a civil-rights leader — but the library can only have one name. Whom should our community honor, and why?

The three-phase path (do them in order)

Problem-solving is a transfer move — it only works once students have knowledge to reason with. So the problem in Phase 3 is deliberately gated behind Phases 1 and 2.

① Surface

Build the knowledge

Honor words, a jigsaw on people who make a difference, and reading a short biography as a source. ~1–2 periods.

② Deep

Connect & organize

A contributions comparison chart, primary vs. secondary sources, and a first claim. ~1–2 periods.

③ Transfer

Solve the problem

Meet the problem, take a role, investigate, nominate a person, vote, and debrief. ~2–4 periods.

⛔ Gate: don't open the Phase 3 problem until students have finished the surface and deep activities. Meeting the problem too early turns inquiry into guessing.

Big idea & objectives

Big idea: Communities honor the people whose contributions shaped them. Choosing means learning what different people did and weighing their impact fairly, using evidence — that is the heart of good citizenship.

Know: how individuals, events, and ideas changed communities; who counts as a hero, a writer, an artist, a scientist, and a good citizen.
Understand: the same choice looks different from each stakeholder's point of view, and a fair choice rests on evidence, not just on who we like best.
Do: run the problem-solving process end to end — name a problem, gather information, weigh options, choose and implement a solution, and check it (§113.14(c)(16)(B)).

Standards this unit is aligned to (§113.14)

TEKS SE	Where it lives in the unit
(c)(1)(A–C)	How individuals, events & ideas changed communities; people who helped shape communities — Surface & Deep
(c)(9)(A,C,E)	Good citizenship, civic responsibility, voting — Transfer vote
(c)(11)(A–B)	Heroic deeds of state & national heroes and contemporary heroes — Surface jigsaw & Transfer
(c)(12)	Contributions of writers & artists to a community's cultural heritage — Surface & Transfer
(c)(13)	Individuals who created scientific breakthroughs & new technology — Surface & Transfer
(c)(14)(A–F) · (c)(15)	Gather & compare primary and secondary sources, cause & effect, claim + evidence, communicate — Deep & Transfer
(c)(16)(B)	The problem-solving process — the entire Transfer phase

Teacher prep & materials

Print the facilitator guide (teacher moves, map of possibilities, role cards, debrief prompts) and the assessment pack (rubric + individual-in-group).
Chart paper or a projected space for three shared columns: Hunches · Know · Need-to-Know (the KWHL chart).
A simple picture of the new library building with a blank sign over the door, plus paper ballots for the class vote.
Vetted sources for investigation (district-approved). Suggested free biography sources are listed in the facilitator guide.
No logins, no accounts — every page runs in the browser. Student writing and products live on paper or in tools your district already vets.

▶ Start Phase 1 — Surface 🧑‍🏫 Facilitator guide ✅ Assessment 📊 Correlation

Teacher supports: UDL · ELPS · PBL facilitation guide (7 languages)

Aligned to (not reproduced from) 19 TAC Ch.113 §113.14; effect sizes from Visible Learning MetaX. This scenario is a teaching fiction.