Still
facing piles of assessment data that could help to guide instruction? This is
the fourth and final in the series, “What do we do with all this assessment
data!?!” Previous posts offered ideas for understanding the problem, getting to
root cause, and narrowing the focus,
Because there are no quick fixes, when we move from data to decision, I try to
slow down everyone’s thinking so we can make a plan that matters. Here are a
few ideas to help you do the same.
If you’ve already spent some time doing the serious work of digging into data,
you might want to start the next meeting with something that stays on topic but
lightens the mood – a snowball fight! 😊 I ask everyone to take a
full sheet of paper and write one thing: a possible solution for something
they’ve noticed in the data. 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 possible solutions.
To get focus, you could next use the affinity mapping protocol (described in the previous post) or just list on the chalkboard solutions that teachers want to elevate from the snowball fight. If you’ve got a long list and a lot of teachers (whole faculty or a large team), you can shorten the list of potential solutions using dot voting. I give everyone 3-4 small stickers (I use the blank garage-sale price tag kind); the longer the list, the more stickers you should give each teacher). Teachers place their dots next to the solutions they think will be most effective; they can load up their favorite with all their stickers or spread the wealth among ideas.
Once you have a short list of solutions, you can use a fishbowl
interview to discuss the top options. You’ll “interview” a volunteer
teacher about a potential solution while everyone else silently listens in,
taking notes about interesting ideas that are uncovered. The key to a
successful interview is asking the right questions. What intrigues you about
this possible solution? 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 think carefully if you decide
to take this approach. If you’re in a large group, each group of three teachers
can do their own interview about the solutions that haven’t yet been discussed,
with one interviewer, one interviewee, and one note-taker. If you’re a small
group, these succeeding interviews can also be fishbowl interviews, with
different teachers as interviewees. Now narrow to one solution, either using
the dot-voting method or a consensus discussion. Be sure to
consider any necessary funding (and can you get it?) and the time that might be
required.
Once you’ve reached a decision about which solution to move forward with (or if
you’re having trouble deciding between two), it could be helpful to have a
second fishbowl interview, especially one that might offer a different point of
view. Finally, invite commitment. Ask participants to write about the
difference they believe they can make, then share. Set a date to reconvene and
report back.
Over these four posts, I’ve introduced many protocols:
*Protocol
for examining data
*Fishbone
analysis
*5
Whys
*Chalk
Talk
*Realms
of Influence
*Peeling
the Onion
*Wagon
Wheels
*Affinity
Mapping
*Dot voting
*Fishbowl interview
*Consensus discussion
Of course, you won’t use all of these with all groups, but you’ll probably use
more than one to help you get to the best options for instruction and
intervention. Pick and choose those protocols that best fit your context. Which
of these protocols could help your team turn data into meaningful action?
Yes, these data analysis processes take time – but you’ll be sticking with the
solution for weeks and impacting many students. Time you invest up front in
determining the best solutions reduces time wasted in
unfruitful change. Choosing the best solutions from the start is more efficient
and effective than chasing changes without results.
You want to make sure everyone feels confident about the chosen path. And,
since teachers have conscientiously selected the path, they’ll have more buy-in
for following it. When teachers are invested in the process, they’re invested
in the solution.
This week, you might want to take a look at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dsnl7tezKg&feature=youtu.be
Wow students with positive messages about their upcoming learning:
https://barkleypd.com/blog/beginning-of-the-school-year-messages/
Anchor charts as a student-centered teaching tool:
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/the-power-of-an-anchor-chart-in-a-digital-world/
The Frayer model for learning vocabulary (great for content-area learning):
http://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool/frayer-model
Print beats digital for early literacy development:
https://phys.org/news/2025-08-digital-preschoolers.html
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
Want more coaching tips? Check out my book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner, available from Teachers College Press! I’m so excited to share it with you! You can use the code: FDNF25 for 15% off. Click here and I’ll email you the free Book Group Study Guide that includes questions, prompts, and activities you can use as you share the book with colleagues. I hope you’ll love this book as much as I loved making it for you!
