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, which builds on four previous workshops, features two sessions over a one-day period. This first session, Leading Educators in Authentic Development: Reflecting on PD, focuses on how PD reflection supports the PD Cycle. Participants will participate in a model PD that explores a number of resources and demonstrates several instructional strategies, and then they will reflect.
Essential Questions
How can LEARN support teaching and learning practices?
How can teacher leaders effectively use reflection to strengthen professional development and create lasting impact at their school sites?
Session Objective
Determine how PD reflection supports the PD Cycle.
Snapshot
Engage
Participants are introduced to the workshop goals and, through the Fold the Line strategy, discuss their successes and struggles in facilitating professional learning experiences.
Explore
Participants experience the Lessons LEARNed professional learning session.
Explain
Participants work with their partner to reflect on the professional learning experience using the SCORE strategy and the LEAD PD Cycle Debrief questionnaire.
Extend
Participants analyze how the PD Cycle and reflection strategies support professional learning.
Evaluate
Participants synthesize their experiences with professional learning at their site and expand on how they can support professional learning initiatives using the Mirror, Microscope, Binoculars strategy.
Materials List
Presentation slides
Cardstock for name tents
Markers
Microphone / Qball
Chart paper
Tape
Sticky notes
Pens and/or pencils
Window Notes 3-2-1 handout (attached; one per participant)
SCORE Reflections handout (attached; one per participant)
PD Planner and Debrief handout (attached; one per participant)
PD Checklist and Cycle (attached; one per participant)
Instructional Strategy Note Catcher handout (attached; one per participant)
Engage
45 Minute(s)
Display slide 2 with instructions for participants to make their name tents as they settle in. In each corner of their name tent, they will write a response to one of the four prompts on the screen. Feel free to customize these for your audience.
Subject you teach
School where you teach
Your favorite fall treat
Something you're looking forward to
Move to slide 3 and Introduce the facilitators. Then, ask participants to introduce themselves by sharing a corner of their name tent. Pass a microphone if necessary.
Share slides 4 and 5 to introduce the essential questions and session objective for this session.
Next, introduce the Fold the Line strategy on slides 6–7. Have participants consider how many professional developments (PDs) they have facilitated and then arrange themselves into a line from least to most facilitated PDs. Once the line has been constructed, fold it so that each participant is facing another participant from the opposite end of the line. Then have them introduce themselves to their partner.
Use the questions on slide 7 to prompt conversation between partners and monitor participation and interest. Remember to tell the group about how much time they will have to respond to each question.
Do you prefer spontaneous trips or planned vacations?
About how many PDs have you facilitated?
Digital or paper planner?
What is your favorite part of leading PD?
What’s your favorite event to go to (movies, concerts, sporting events, etc.)?
How has the LEAD program helped you grow so far?
Debrief the process with participants.
Then ask participants to sit with their Fold the Line partners and review slide 8.
Explore
120 Minute(s)
Next, introduce the title of the PD you will be modeling for them today: Lessons LEARNed on slide 9. Then move to slide 10, “Guess the Acronym.” Ask participants to come up with the words that LEARN stands for. Wrong answers only! Allow 3–4 minutes, and then ask participants to share their (wrong answers only) in Menti.com.
Ask them to use Menti to vote on their favorite fake LEARN acronym.
Introduce slides 11 and 12 to present the essential question,”How can LEARN support teaching and learning practices?” and then the session objective, “Identify LEARN resources that can enhance and support current lessons and instructional practices.”
Then, provide the actual answer for the LEARN acronym, “Lessons and Engaging Activities Repository Network,” on slide 13.
Move on to slide 14 and share that K20’s LEARN site holds hundreds of lessons, professional learning activities, strategies, and tech tools to support the Authentic Learning Framework. Briefly describe each of the four components.
Then, display slide 15 and ask participants to navigate to the LEARN website. Provide a few minutes to make sure everyone has found the site, and then briefly explain the LEARN home page. As you show each tab, explain that we will practice using these to find resources (a strategy, a lesson, a PD, a game, etc.) on this site through a sort of scavenger-hunting activity.
Pass out the Window Notes 3-2-1 handout and use slide 16 to introduce the LEARN search. Have participants use this handout and explore four different instructional strategies:
One that starts with their middle initial
One published in their birth month
One that’s their favorite color
One they have never heard of before
After about five minutes, check in to see how the exploration process is going. Give more time as needed. Once everyone has found their four, have them share out their favorite one of the four they found at their table group.
As they listen to others share, they can note any other strategies they hear about that they want to try out for themselves later.
Next, display slide 17 and have teachers turn their Window Notes paper over for their next activity, 3-2-1. Demonstrate how to go to the “Lessons” tab and find a lesson in their content area. Once they find a lesson, they will read through the narrative and materials and answer the following prompts:
Three things I noticed
2 things I found effective
1 question I have
Set a timer for 15 minutes. After everyone has found their lesson, they can share out at their table again. Remind teachers to use the “Interesting Notes” section of their handouts to jot down the best ideas from the share-outs.
Display slide 18 and demonstrate how to find the “Games” tab. Have participants search for a game that covers a topic in their content area. Once they have one, have them discuss what they found with an elbow partner.
Then, move to slide 19 and have participants choose any other tab on LEARN (Tech Tools, Collections, Student Resources, etc.) and find a resource that would be helpful to their students. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Then, invite participants to share their best discoveries at their table.
Introduce the Rose, Bud, and Thorn strategy on slide 20 and hand out sticky notes. Have participants reflect on all the resources they’ve seen on LEARN today so far and respond to the prompts below on their sticky notes, then post them on the chart paper posters labeled Rose, Bud, and Thorn:
Rose: What new strategies, lessons or games from this session would you like to try in your class?
Bud: What adjustments or additions could you make to integrate the concepts from the session into your curriculum?
Thorn: What barriers are still in the way of implementing new strategies or lessons?
Distribute copies of the Instructional Strategy Note Catcher handout. Ask participants to look back on the strategies that have been used to explore LEARN and reflect on them using slide 21 and the Instructional Strategy Note Catcher. Invite discussion on what barriers may still be in the way of using these in their classrooms.
Explain
40 Minute(s)
Take a break for about 10 minutes (slide 22). Next, move on to slide 23 and pass out the SCORE Reflection handout. Have participants look at their Window Notes handouts and choose one of the four strategies they recorded earlier in the Explore section. They should pretend they used this in a class and use the SCORE handout to practice having a reflective conversation over how it went.
The teacher who had the lower number in the initial Fold the Line strategy will role play as a teacher who facilitated a strategy in their classroom, and their partner will role play as the LEAD teacher facilitating a SCORE reflection (the sharing teacher won’t write). Set a timer for 5 minutes and allow role-play conversations to commence. When 5 minutes have elapsed, switch roles, set another 5-minute timer and reflect.
Distribute the PD Checklist and Cycle handout. Have participants make I Notice, I Wonder connections between SCORE and the PD Cycle (slide 24).
Then, pass out the PD Planner and Debrief handout and ask partners to find another set of partners to form a group of four. (Ideally, they should be sitting with participants from other school systems.) Continue to slide 25, set a timer for 10 minutes, and allow groups to debrief using the PD Cycle Debrief questions to reflect on the PD they just experienced (Lessons LEARNed—in other words, everything after the Menti activity through the Rose, Bud, and Thorn strategy).
Extend
45 Minute(s)
Display slide 26 and hand out chart paper, tape, and markers to each group. Instruct them to tape their chart paper on the wall and draw T-Charts on their chart paper. One column of the T-Chart is labeled SCORE Reflection and the other LEAD PD Cycle Debrief. Have each group discuss the results of their “SCORE” and “Debrief Questions.” Set a timer for 10 minutes and encourage focused conversation using the PD Checklist and Cycle handout as a support structure.
Present slide 27 as part of the reflection, noting:
You are a support structure for growth.
You can follow up with teachers to help foster continual learning.
Remember to invite teachers to watch “new” strategies or technology you are using with your students.
Evaluate
20 Minute(s)
Facilitate seating same- or like-school groups together, if possible. Display slide 28 and make sure groups have three sticky notes. Introduce the Mirror, Microscope, Binoculars strategy prompts on the slide:
Mirror: What does PD currently look like at your school?
Microscope: What specifically is going well with PD at your school?
Binoculars: How can you influence or improve PD at your school?
Provide time for participants to write down their responses. Then, hold a reflection conversation, using the information on the sticky notes and their Instructional Strategy Note Catcher handout to drive the conversation.
Continue to slide 29, LEARN Strategy Reflection, and share out. Ask, “How would you use that in the next PD or in your classroom?”
Follow-Up Activities
Follow this session with Leading Educators in Authentic Development: Dynamic Delivery of Professional Development (Session 2 of 2)
Research Rationale
Another key pillar of effective professional development is to include input, testing, and reflection phases along with instructional coaching and feedback. These phases further expand teacher competencies over long-term, process-centered training, resulting in the further professionalization of teacher leaders (Behr et al., 2020; Curry et al., 2018). These teacher leaders can then offer training to peers and help further disseminate knowledge and develop skills across the organization, ensuring a sustainable professional development model that supports sustained whole-school growth (Behr et al., 2020; Curry et al., 2018). At this stage, the original trainers move into the role of instructional coaches and advisors who support the teacher leaders by answering questions and working through challenges they are facing with training their peers. Instructional coaches also protect the integrity of the training during this phase of implementation. This cycle repeats multiple times to develop a horizontal structure, which results in everyday actions occurring inside the classroom that reflect training and skill development, with support from teacher leaders who are supported by instructional coaches throughout the process (Behr et al., 2020).
Resources
K20 Center. (n.d.). 3-2-1. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/117
K20 Center. (n.d.). Fold the line. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/171
K20 Center. (n.d.). I notice, I wonder. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/180
K20 Center. (n.d.). Mentimeter. Tech Tools. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/645
K20 Center. (n.d.). Mirror, microscope, binoculars. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/3020
K20 Center. (n.d.). Rose, bud, and thorn. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/2224
K20 Center. (n.d.). SCORE reflection. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/3694
K20 Center. (n.d.). T-chart. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/86
K20 Center. (n.d.). Timer [Webapp]. https://timer.k20center.ou.edu/
K20 Center. (n.d.). Window notes. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/189
Behr, J., Leidig, T., & Hennemann, T. (2020). Train-the-trainer. Professionalization for inclusion. Journal für Psychologie 27(2), 6–28. https://doi.org/10.30820/0942-2285-2019-2-6
Curry, K. A., Mania-Singer, J., Harris, E., & Richardson, S. (2018). Teacher collaborative action research. Journal of School Leadership, 28(2), 173–201. https://doi.org/10.1177/105268461802800202