The Facilitator's Book of Questions

This book is an essential tool for facilitators of groups using protocols, or structured conversations, to collaboratively review student and teacher work. A follow-up to Looking Together at Student Work and Assessing Student Learning, this resource considers the purposes for engaging in collaborative review and provides some of the most effective strategies for using protocols to support successful group work.

Features:

• Guidance for using protocols for collaborative assessment of student learning.
• Frameworks to support facilitators in playing their unique role within the group, including a set of “thinking dispositions” and a range of “moves” facilitators can make at different points in the conversation.
• An extended discussion of the challenges facilitators face in protocol-guided conversations, such as time constraints, large groups, and participants who are reluctant to engage in protocols.
• Activities that novice and experienced facilitators can use, individually or in groups, to apply the frameworks and resources provided in this book.

David Allen is a researcher at the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching (NCREST), Teachers College, Columbia University. Tina Blythe is a researcher with Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and teaches in the faculty development program of the Boston Architectural Center.

“In reading this book, facilitators will expand their repertoire and walk away with ideas and tips for responding to the wide range of facilitation issues that invariably come up in protocols.”
¾From the Foreword by Gene Thompson-Grove

“Insightful and immediately useful, Allen and Blythe's book is a must read for teachers and administrators committed to professional collaboration.”
Katherine Simon, Coalition of Essential Schools, author of Moral Questions in the Classroom

“A deep and artful book for educators of all kinds.”
David Perkins, Harvard Graduate School of Education, author of King Arthur's Round Table and Smart Schools

“I plan to use this book to guide our faculty in having the kind of conversations about teaching and learning that will ultimately benefit student achievement.”
—Judi Aronson, School Principal, Brooklyn, New York

Table of Contents

Foreword by Gene Thompson-Grove

Acknowledgments

Introduction
   Why a Book of Questions for Facilitators?
   Why a Book of Questions for Facilitators of Protocols?
   What Do We Mean by Student Work and Teacher Work?
   Who Is This Book For?
   How Is This Book Organized?
   What Doesn't This Book Do?
   How Might This Book Be Used?

Chapter 1: What Are Protocols and How Do They Work?
   What Is a Protocol?
   The Purposes of a Protocol
   The Anatomy of a Protocol
   The Spirit ofa Protocol
   The Authority of a Protocol
   Beyond the Protocol

Chapter 2. How Are Protocols Different from Other Kinds of Professional Development?
   What's So Special About Protocols?
   What Does This Mean for the Facilitator's Role in a Protocol

Chapter 3. What Do Facilitators Do? The Big Picture
   Facilitating Learning, Logistics, and Longevity
   Facilitators' "Thinking Dispositions":Reading, Responding, and Reflecting

Chapter 4: What Do Facilitators Do in a Protocol?
   Getting a Protocol (and Each Individual Step of the Protocol) Started
   Moving Through the Protocol
   Debriefing the Protocol
   An Example: Moves in the Context of a Protocol
   Summing Up

Chapter 5: What Kinds of Questions Get Asked in a Protocol
   Focusing Questions
   Clarifying Questions
   Probing Questions

Chapter 6: What Happens Before and After Protocols?
   Before the Meeting
   After the Meeting

Chapter 7: How Do Facilitators Choose, Adapt, and Create Protocols?
   Choosing an Appropriate Protocol
   Making Adjustments, Adapting Protocols, and Creating New Protocols

Chapter 8: What Are the Challenges of Facilitating Protocols?
   Time Is Running Out
   The Group Is Too Big
   Participants Have a Hard Time Sticking With the Protocol
   Participants Rush to Evaluate or Judge the Work Being Presented
   Participants Seem Reluctant to Offer Challenging Feedback
   The Presenting Teacher's Presentation Wanders or Expands
   The Presenting Teacher Uses Her Response Time for Something Other than Response
   Participants Turn to Other Participants, or to the Facilitator, as an Expert on the Content
   The Facilitator Is Uncertain Whether to Participate in the Content of the Conversation or Stick to Facilitating the Process
   The Facilitator Feels a Bit Hesitant or Unsure of Her Skills
   One or More Participants Deliberately Resist Participating in the Protocol

Chapter 9: How Do Facilitators Get Better?
   Observing and Emulating
   Experimenting
   Asking for Feedback
   Reflecting
   Documenting

Appendix A: Additional Resources

Appendix B: Activities

References

About the Authors