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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