- Describe one helpful thing you learned from facilitating the discussion of student work at our last meeting OR from The Power of Protocols pp. 11-16.
- Respond to another post.
- Discuss a protocol from The Power of Protocols Ch. 4-6 that you’d like to try with other teachers at your school (or in the District).
- Respond to another post.
Monday, April 3, 2017
Discussion Thread #1 "The Power of Protocols and Facilitating Teacher Groups"
Please respond to the following post FOUR times addressing one of the prompts below each week.
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I really liked pages 11-16 of The Power of Protocols because it helped me see why sometimes I have been successful leading groups of educators in reflecting on their practice and other times I have not. I think that the challenge of building trust is a big one, even though (as the chapters says) the trust can be "situational" - limited to the group. I think sometimes educators, myself included, feel as if weaknesses in student writing or academic work are OUR weaknesses and thus it can be hard not to be defensive. So I think that it's important that each member of the group trusts that he/she is not being judged by other educators in the group. Also, I think that everyone has to trust the process of the protocol. That is why I think that the step of "introducing" the protocol is so important; if its rationale is not clear, then educators will not trust it to illuminate new things about student learning. I also really liked the "closing" reflective questions of "what?" "So what?" and "Now what?" They are so succinct and yet so meaningful for summing up one's own learning and thinking towards next steps.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that educators sometimes believe that student weaknesses are their weaknesses, especially with so much pressure for students to be "proficient." I think that is why it is so easy to get defensive when it comes to these discussions, but I also think that the protocol helped to alleviate that. It was interesting to see how my group became more trusting of one another as we worked through essays and facilitators. For example, the conversations were not as rich when we walked through the first essay; however, by the time we made it to the final facilitator, our discussion was really digging into the writing, as well as the process behind it.
DeleteYes! I definitely think that trust has to be built in a group that is looking at student work and so having more than one of the same type of discussion is really helpful.
Delete"The Power of Protocols" mentions that one aspect that should never be overlooked when working with a group of colleagues is the ice breaker. When I read that, the author lost instant credibility because I HATE icebreakers. As I continued reading, I saw the author's point. Even if we are facilitating a group of colleagues who are familiar to us, the author reminds us that setting the parameters of the task and addressing the immediate issue of he task can put people at ease. The author reminded me that not all of my colleagues are as comfortable with ambiguity and new situations as I am. I will now take the author's advice to always build in an activity to guage the group's affect toward the task through an initial activity. This is especially important for teachers who are fearful of being judged.
DeleteHey Christine!
DeleteThanks for being so honest. I-on the other hand-LOVE icebreakers so it was interesting hearing your perspective. I always try to do "hard" icebreakers--ones that are directly connected to the content covered--so that I'm able to make them more relevant to my learning. Do you prefer "hard" icebreakers over "soft" ones, or do you just dislike the idea in general? I'm wondering how I could accommodate for learners like you in my future sessions.:)
I thought it was very useful and enlightening to act as facilitator for the discussion of student work. I also liked having the opportunity to work with teachers I hadn't had as much contact with in past sessions. I think my challenge in facilitating the protocol is not to be so artificial. Maybe with more practice, I can make it move more organically with a minimum of stage-iness. I appreciated the feedback that I got from my group and started using it the next day.
ReplyDeleteNicole, I too thought is was useful and immediately applied it in further questioning my students during classroom discussions. I would ask follow up questions like "Can you tell me more about that?" It was also very useful to keep my quiet students more engaged and participating in the day's discussions. I really like having the feedback from professionals to give constructive criticism and make the facilitating practical and tangible for classroom use.
DeleteAfter reading pages 11-16 of The Power of Protocols, I was reminded of the importance of the opening. As an educator, it is easy to think that I can ‘wing’ a discussion, but the opening is critical to getting everyone on the same page. It is important to explain the protocol and get everyone talking from the beginning of it. By doing so, the participants are more inclined to contribute to the discussion. More importantly, giving everyone some type of ownership into the discussion will alleviate the awkwardness that can come with the process. The more I thought about it, the more connections I was able to make to my own classroom. It is important to ‘hook’ the students from the beginning of the lesson. By doing so, they will feel like they are a part of the discussion and more willingly contribute to it. As I move forward, I will never forget the importance of the opening again, as it is critical to the success of the protocol.
ReplyDeleteYes, and even though I follow my students from junior to senior English, the opening is still so crucial. Every time I try to "save time" by skimping, it ends up multiplying the time I have to spend winning them back.
DeleteI find this with my preservice-teacher/students, too. If I'm not clear about the purpose of the activity or topic we're focusing on (usually, like you Nicole, trying to save time), I can tell that the students don't get as much out of the activity or see the point.
DeleteOne of the most profound and enlightening comments I received as a facilitator was my persistent need to examine the mistakes and work that needed amelioration. This ah ha moment led me to recognize my proclivity towards the negative, or what is not working with a student's writing, rather than gravitating towards the positive, or what is successful in a student's work. Working with professionals in a reciprocal and respectful environment elucidated that prescient moment and tendency.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is hard sometimes to get the energy to both praise and prod. I find if I limit my comments mostly to areas we have worked on in class, I am better at it.
DeleteHi, Marc. I consider myself a positive, optimistic person, but as a teacher, I must periodically reign in my exacting editor's pen and celebrate the gains and achievements my students make in their writing. Most recently, after I returned a draft to a student, he read my comments and asked, "But did you like it, Ms. Patrick?" I've found that if I'm specific with my compliments, commenting on what students do well in their writing creates valuable feedback to help them grow as writers.
DeleteIn our research on peer review (and comparing teacher and student feedback on papers) we've found like you that compliments are effective when they are specific. We've been trying to teach students to be more specific in their compliments during peer review!
DeleteI would agree...research also suggests that comments be given before grades--once students receive a grade they don't worry about the feedback. So think about how you can get them to focus on your feedback and still meet the requirements for your "gradebook."
DeleteThe “Collaborative Assessment Conference” protocol is presented in chapter 5 of The Power of Protocols. This protocol has several purposes, but the one that interested me is to “encourage depth of perception by demonstrating all that can be seen in a single student’s work” (76). As the end of the year approaches, I think this would be helpful to assess student work through the Student Learning Objective (SLO) process. I would love to sit down with a few of my colleagues to examine a body of work from some of my students throughout the course of the year. The discussion and feedback can be exceptionally helpful to me as I prepare for upcoming lessons, OR it can help my colleagues to determine areas in which a particular student needs help in the coming school year. Moreover, my colleagues can see strengths and weaknesses of student writing, which can help them see what skills need to be taught within their classrooms. This protocol can lead to consistency as we work to teach writing, and it can also lead to personalized lessons that meet students where they are.
ReplyDeleteHi, Danielle. I thought about writing about this protocol, as it would be incredibly helpful in analyzing student work in order to improve my instruction. If we could make the time to engage in this type of protocol and use these conversations to influence our instruction, we'd see significant improvement in student learning.
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DeleteThis is a great idea! Do you two think you could start the collaborative assessment conference in your schools, perhaps even with just one or two like-minded colleagues?
DeleteDanielle, I had this one flagged, too. I like that it focuses on one student at a time and, if you are part of PRC, it would allow you to think about how you could push those students next year. I would be great to share during a PRC team meeting across contents, too...Other teachers might enjoy seeing how particular students function in other classes.
DeleteAfter facilitating a round of student work discussion, I learned that participation and hands-on experience are the best teachers for this type of work. Although I had done the reading before class, I was hesitant to facilitate at first because I had never facilitated before and had not seen this process in action in the context of our class (I was absent from our previous session). However, after participating in the first couple rounds I realized, "I can do this." Like Nicole, I would like to become a more natural facilitator, but I think I was able to guide the conversation and encourage participation from everyone in our group. This experience also helped me realize that a successful group discussion requires equal investment from all participants. My job as facilitator was so easy because my group members came prepared with work to discuss, open minds, and a motivation to help each other improve our teaching practice.
ReplyDeleteI love that you pushed yourself! I don't know that are any "natural" facilitators--it takes practice! Just like anything else! I'm sure the more you do it, the more "natural" the process is going to feel to you. You're right about investment from participants, too. Have you thought about what you might do if you have a group that isn't "self-motivated?"
DeleteI would like to try the “Standards in Practice” protocol (51-54) with teachers in my school. This protocol aims to “increase the rigor of teachers’ assignments by aligning them with standards, and pressing toward increased student learning” (51-52). Teams of six to eight teachers meet to discuss an assignment, assess its learning goals, develop a scoring guide that aligns to standards, and then assess student work in order to plan improvements to the assignment. The process takes 90 minutes. Lately, my English colleagues have been wondering what we can do to vertically align our curriculum to ensure that each grade level is doing its part to prepare students for the Keystone exams and the academic and career demands they will face after high school. This protocol would provide a framework to discuss and evaluate what we are already doing with our students, evaluate our assessments according to state standards and International Baccalaureate goals and criteria (We’re an IB school.), and make changes to benefit our students’ learning.
ReplyDeleteI agree that getting teachers involved in the process is an integral part in helping the students become better. My department did something similar to this during PD this school year, and it helped us to see similarities and differences with respect to our processes. It helped us to create a schedule of focal points for each grade level with respect to writing, and we are planning to implement it next year.
DeleteI think this is the perfect protocol for what you are seeking to accomplish. I especially like step four. The questions it asks you to consider really have teachers dig into "How do we know if students got it?" and "How do we know if students don't?" This really pushes teachers to think about true differentiation. This was SO hard for me in PSP classes that were so diverse. I would have enjoyed hearing from my colleagues about ways to provide more entry points for my students.
DeleteSo I really enjoyed Chapter six, "Working Toward Equity." We've been having some discussion at Central Office around how to continue the work of Beyond Diversity. These "rounds" seem like concrete tools which would spark conversation around how equity is showing up in classrooms; some of them would connect well with the Emdin and Singleton texts, too.
ReplyDeleteI thought the equity tool was really valuable, too. At first, I had a hard time picturing the datasets and "focus questions" that would center the discussions, but on page 109, they gave a few examples of the questions, such as "How are our lower income readers doing in comparison to higher income readers across grade levels and other demographic factors?" Some data in response to a question like this are readily available (such as Keystone scores), but it seems like more detailed data, such as text-specific samples of student work, would be even more helpful for a group of teachers.
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