Summary
The Leading Educators in Authentic Development (LEAD) workshop is a series of professional learning sessions that develop teachers’ skills in leading professional development at their school sites. This workshop features four sessions over a two-day period. This first session, Leading Educators in Authentic Development: Authenticity, focuses on developing a foundational understanding of Authenticity, the goals of the professional learning series, and the purpose of the LEAD program. Participants will get to know each other, explore the Components of Authenticity, and reflect on college and career readiness skills. Finally, participants will reflect on strategies used and consider how to use them at their schools.
Essential Question
How do the components of authentic instruction support meaningful learning and college and career readiness?
Learning Goal
Recognize and understand the role of Authenticity in student learning and postsecondary readiness.
Snapshot
Engage
Participants are introduced to the workshop goals and discuss the benefits of shared leadership.
Explore
Participants complete a Color, Symbol, Image poster in groups to discuss the importance of the Components of Authenticity.
Explain
Participants generate a Collaborative Word Cloud to determine the skills students need to be successful in their career or college.
Extend
Participants create an Elevator Speech that connects authentic instruction to students developing college and career readiness skills.
Evaluate
Participants reflect on the strategies used during the session and how they can apply them at their schools.
Materials List
Session Slides (attached)
Access to Google Slides, PowerPoint, etc., for an optional activity
Candy for Sweet Talk (a variety that includes at least three kinds of candy; at least one piece of candy per participant)
Components of Authenticity reading (attached; one per participant)
Agenda (attached; one per table/group)
Instructional Strategy Note Catcher sheet (attached; one per participant)
Authenticity Anchor Chart template (attached and linked; one copy per participant)
Sticky notes (at least two per participant)
Pens/pencils
Chart paper and tape (at least four sheets)
Markers
Recruitment and Application
Leading Educators in Authentic Development (LEAD) is designed for educators interested in facilitating authentic professional development and mentoring other educators in their school. This program is best suited for district-level, or broader, professional learning.
We encourage you to require an application, review, and approval process to ensure you recruit educators with the following qualifications:
At least 3 years teaching any subject at any grade level
Able to provide professional learning experiences throughout the year
Is well respected by the faculty within the school
Expertise in their field and sound pedagogy
Desire to share ideas and approaches with other teachers
May or may not currently be in a leadership position within the school
Prework
To make the most of your time together, provide the following prework for participants to complete prior to beginning this session. Alternatively, have participants complete this activity at the start of the session.
Provide each participant a copy of the Components of Authenticity reading. Let participants know they can open the document in Google, Word, or print off a paper copy if they prefer.
Ask participants to use the Why-Lighting strategy to highlight and explain words and phrases important to them in the text. Those choosing to use Google Docs or Word can use the comment feature for their explanations.
After completing the reading and why-lighting, participants use the Anchor Chart strategy and the Authenticity Anchor Chart template for two of the four Components of Authenticity. For each of the two chosen components, they write a summary, insert an image, and share an instructional strategy that supports student learning.
Provide participants a link to a digital folder in OneDrive or Google Drive. Ask participants to add their Why-lighted Components of Authenticity and Authenticity Anchor Chart to the folder, or print off their documents and bring them to the first session.
Engage
65 Minute(s)
Display slide 2 and greet participants as they enter the room. Instruct participants to fill out a sticky note for each instructional strategy from their Why-lighting prework and place it on the bottom part of the poster that best reflects the purpose of that strategy within the Authenticity Framework.
Briefly mention the agenda and the Instructional Strategy Note Sheet. Inform participants they may see some unfamiliar instructional strategies on the note sheet. These new strategies will be introduced to them throughout the sessions. These strategies are tools to support higher-order thinking in authentic ways. Encourage participants to use their note sheet to jot down ideas for how they would personalize the strategies for the specific needs of professional learning they facilitate. Within the presentation, time is allotted to allow participants to reflect on the strategies.
Display slide 3 and introduce yourselves, then provide time for participants to introduce themselves. Next, display slide 4 and provide background information on the GEAR UP grants. Transition to slide 5. If your district is not a GEAR UP grant recipient, you can still benefit from the GEAR UP grant goals, which include:
Goal 1—Increase the percentage of students who are academically prepared for postsecondary education upon graduation.
Goal 2—Increase the high school graduation rate and postsecondary education enrollment rates.
Goal 3—Increase expectations and students’ and families’ knowledge of postsecondary education options, preparation, and financing.
Transition to slide 6 and share what the research says about shared leadership. Facilitate a brief discussion that addresses the questions “What is shared leadership?” and “Why do we use shared leadership in LEAD?” Transition to slide 7 and play the LEAD: Leading Educators in Authentic Development video to share what others have to say about this workshop.
Transition to slide 8 and pass out candy to introduce participants to the Sweet Talk strategy. Allow participants to take one candy each, and then instruct them to find a partner; someone they don’t know who has the same piece of candy. Move to slide 9. Be sure to update slide 9 with the types of candy you have available. Participants will discuss their assigned candy question with their partners. Allow at least three minutes for discussion. After the discussion has ended, instruct participants to find a different partner with a different type of candy. After finding their new partner, participants will discuss the questions tied to their candies.
Share the Essential Question and Learning Objective on slides 10 and 11.
Explore
65 Minute(s)
Ask participants to get their Components of Authenticity with the why-lighting and find a partner. Move to slide 12 and share the instructions for Think-Pair-Share: “Use your why-lighting to summarize Authenticity in your own words and to discuss how Authenticity supports student learning.”
Transition to slide 13 and direct participants to select one of the two Components of Authenticity they chose for their anchor chart. Ask them to move to the corresponding Four Corners poster for that component. Request that participants form groups of no more than six. After participants have chosen a poster, ask groups to discuss the importance of their Authenticity component.
Display slide 14 as you provide instructions for how to create the Color, Symbol, Image (CSI) poster. On labeled (titled) chart paper, each group will complete three tasks.
First, above the title on the poster, participants must summarize their component of Authenticity and how it supports student learning.
Next, participants must choose a color they feel represents their component, draw a symbol that represents their component, and craft an image to illustrate an image or scene that relates to the component of Authenticity.
Finally, below the title, participants must select an instructional strategy that reflects this element of Authenticity.
Transition to slide 15. Go through the strategies as a group. Strategies reviewed in this activity include Why-Lighting, Anchor Chart, Sweet Talk, Think-Pair-Share, Four Corners, and CSI. Quickly discuss each strategy individually. Help participants write down what each strategy is and how they might apply it in their classrooms. Share out something you heard from another participant that you thought was a great idea of how to implement.
This is a good place to take a break. Transition to slide 16 and give participants a short break.
Explain
30 Minute(s)
Display slide 17 and ask participants to think with their table and generate a list of as many skills that students need to be successful in their career or college as possible.
Display slide 18 and have each table add four or five phrases from their list on Mentimeter to generate a Collaborative Word Cloud. Allow each group a few minutes to decide which phrases to share, and to contribute their post to the word cloud.
Extend
55 Minute(s)
Next, transition to slide 19. Ask participants to examine the skills they previously identified in the Mentimeter word cloud. Have them compare these skills to the key elements of Authenticity. Remind everyone that the essential question for this session is: “How do the components of authentic instruction support meaningful learning and college and career readiness?”
Divide participants into pairs, and instruct the pairs to stand up and find a quieter place in the room. Transition to slide 20.
Instruct each pair to select one Component of Authenticity.
Ask partners to craft a 60-second Elevator Speech that describes their chosen element of authentic instruction and its role in fostering college and career readiness.
Once prepared, one partner delivers the speech while the other listens critically to provide feedback.
Teams debrief using the Two Stars and a Wish instructional strategy. Transition to slide 21 for participant reference during reflection.
Partners switch roles to repeat the process.
If time allows, change partners for an additional round of speeches and feedback.
Evaluate
25 Minute(s)
Transition to slide 22. Go through the strategies in the Instructional Strategy Note Sheet as a group and help participants write down what each strategy is and how they might apply it with their colleagues. Quickly discuss each strategy and tool individually. Share out something you heard from a participant that you thought was a great idea of how to implement. Strategies reviewed in this activity include Collective Brain Dump, Mentimeter, QR Codes, Collaborative Word Cloud, Table Talk, Elevator Speech, and Two Stars and a Wish.
Follow-Up Activities
Continue to the next session, Leading Educators in Authentic Development: Adult Learning Theory, to learn about how a professional learning experience aligns to Adult Learning Theory.
Research Rationale
GEAR UP programs will use a professional development approach to help teachers translate research findings into pedagogy, allowing them to focus on student-centered learning by engaging students in authentic, complex tasks guided through inquiry and discourse (Jeter et al., 2018; Stroukoff et al., 2018). Student-centered learning emphasizes learning strategies and instructional sequencing, providing deeper conceptual understanding (Tornwall, 2017) and increasing the likelihood of transfer to real-world situations (White et al., 2017).
Resources
Cobanoglu, N. (2020). Investigation of shared leadership and organizational commitment in primary and secondary schools: Malatya case. International Journal of Educational Methodology, 6(3), 613–629. https://doi.org/10.12973/ijem.6.3.613
Grice, C. (2019). 007 Spies, surveillance and pedagogical middle leadership: For the good of the Empire of Education. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 51(2), 165–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2019.1583173
K20 Center. (n.d.). Anchor charts. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/58
K20 Center. (n.d.). Collaborative word clouds. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/103
K20 Center. (n.d.). Collective brain dump. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/111
K20 Center. (n.d.). Color, symbol, image. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/161
K20 Center. (n.d.). Elevator speech. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/57
K20 Center. (n.d.). Four corners. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/138
K20 Center. (n.d.). LEAD: Leading Educators in Authentic Development [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Br35tZsaApI?si=0n93sqLL5KZa1b27
K20 Center. (n.d.). Mentimeter. Tech Tools. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/645
K20 Center. (n.d.). QR Codes. Tech Tools. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/2449
K20 Center. (n.d.). Sweet Talk. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/4137
K20 Center. (n.d.). Think-pair-share. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/139
K20 Center. (n.d.). Two stars and a wish. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/83
K20 Center. (n.d.). Why-lighting. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/128
Torres, A. C., Bulkley, K., & Kim, T. (2020). Shared leadership for learning in Denver’s portfolio management model. Educational Administration Quarterly, 56(5), 819–855.