Last
week’s post (check it out here)
described protocols for digging into the mounds of data that will be waiting
when we return to school. Because it’s easy to jump to conclusions when
figuring out the causes behind those results, I try to slow down everyone’s
thinking as we examine the data. Here are a few ideas to help you do the same.
You
might laugh at this as a means of data analysis, but after doing the serious
work of figuring out what the data says (summarizing and looking for patterns),
we sometimes needed to lighten up – but stay on topic! So I ask everyone to take
a full sheet of paper and write one reason – a possible cause – for something
they’ve noticed in the data, be it good or bad. Once everyone has completed
this task, we go to a large open space, paper in hand, and line up in two
groups facing each other. Then I ask everyone to wad their paper up into a ball—and
we have a snowball fight!
After throwing your “snowball,” pick up one that has been lobbed your way, unwad
it, read it, wad it, and throw it again. Call a truce to the blizzard when you
start getting repeat snowballs. The snowball fight will get the thinking going,
considering multiple alternatives.
Another
way to open up the thinking is to do a fishbowl interview. You can select
someone in advance or ask for a volunteer. You’ll be “interviewing” your
teacher friend while everyone else silently listens in, taking notes about
interesting potential causes that are uncovered. The key to a successful
interview is asking the right questions. What intrigues you about the data?
What are you left wondering about? What do you have hunches about that you’d
like another perspective on? If you don’t ask the right questions, you don’t
get the right answers, so plan carefully if you decide to take this approach. “Only the inquiring mind solves
problems.” Sometimes it helps to
have a second interview, especially one that might offer a different point of
view. Then have small groups meet and chart their list of possible causes.
Comparing these lists as a whole group can also be helpful.
These
two protocols help to generate ideas, but moving from possible causes to
probably causes – really getting to the root of the matter—requires us to peel
back other layers. More about that next week.
This week, you might want to
take a look at:
Ice
breakers and warm-ups for the back to school faculty meeting (I like to tweak
them to have an education theme):
Ideas for creating non-fiction text
sets:
Thinking critically about practice through classroom observations:
Thoughts
about using novels as anchor texts:
Starting
the year in reading and writing workshop: Surveys and community building:
That’s it for this week. Happy
Coaching!
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