The Art of Facilitating

Here are 5 things to consider as an educational facilitator to ensure success with your team:

1. Physical -  The tone of the discussion and mood in the room is first set by the greeting you give and the level of eye contact used. Your posture and seating position matters, as it shows how 'available' you are to the group. Never turn your back on your group and only try to use positive body language with a comfortable, relaxed stance. Be open and non-combative. Avoid confrontational questions and comments (unless you NEED to address the elephants - or other animals - in the room). The tone, volume, pace and cadence of your voice can be butter to their ears or nails on the chalkboard. Practice these things aloud to a trusted colleague or partner, and ask them how you sound. Use active listening strategies and always try to soak in more from the group's answers than you are giving them to ponder. By waiting at least 3-4 seconds to respond to a comment or question (giving yourself time to reflect and formulate), you will be more able to avoid snap comments and emotional rebuttles should they arise.

2. Social - It is essential to forge a positive relationship in the group to move anything in a forward direction AND ensure actual future results. The "quid pro quo" approach can be used to achieve a balance and parity in what is being shared and how much time each voice is being given. Even if some comments seem trivial or cursory, use these times as opportunities to 'mine for the gold in the comment.' We do this all the time with students....Can anyone explain what strategy Jason used to solve the problem? Cue student response that is not on point with the question....."Hmmm....I really like how you thought about that and took the risk to tell us all your idea....but I think we need to dig deeper on this one. Who else has an idea?"

Embrace the silence between questions. The awkwardness you may be feeling will push the group members to feel it too and push their own comfort in responding and elicit more personal investment on their part to advance the conversation. Try to begin with personal anecdotes (if they are relevant and do not completely undermine your value and future contribution to the group). This sharing will spark transparency and break down personal barriers that guard us from others and create an "us" and "them" structure in the group.

3. Cognitive - Draw on higher order thinking skills and intelligently-designed questions. The time and preparation put in to the structure of your meeting and plan for everyone's time WILL STRONGLY AFFECT THE BUY-IN FROM YOUR PARTICIPANTS. Avoid absolute yes or no answers that can marginalize people and divide the group. Open questions will evoke thought and reflection, and guide subsequent questions with the layers of their possibility.

4. Emotional - KEEP STUDENTS AS THE FOCUS! Continually remind your group about the value and purpose for your discussion. We want to better student learning and support student achievement. We are building good human beings that can be self-sustaining, empathetic people and contribute positively to our society. Use student interests in discussions to keep a human face on the people that your educational planning and conversations will impact. Refer to parents and caregivers when you can to remind just how many people are invested in the focus of these learning conversations. By focusing on the different stakeholders in play and the many lenses we can use, there will be a heightened sense of empathy and noble purpose, which will keep a "human" perspective on conversation. This will help to avoid fixations on how we, as educators, have "not enough time" or how this focus is  "just a new fad in education" to skirt the issue and dodge meaningful plans of action.

5. Inspirational - Everyone in the conversation needs to be inspired. They may not know it or be willing to admit it - but it's true. We want to be entertained and improved by the nature and quality of days we lived. As a facilitator, we're always hoping for an epiphany by our group members. But, at the very least, we should be looking for the "spark" and identifying when a participant is "working it out" in their minds and envisioning what change in practice they are willing to undertake. Start by playing music. Think carefully about the room or venue that you are meeting in and the connotations or mood that resonate from it. Draw on the interests and talents of the group whenever possible. Make it cerebral and emotive. The more sense stimulation you can muster, the better for your buy-in and ability to 'hook' their full attention and curiosity.

By the end of the session, your goal is to have all participants invested in the conversation, idea-generation and goal setting. Most importantly, every single session should result in an action based on change. As a facilitator, the same is true for you. Each time you facilitate, you need to reflect and create a goal for your next session that is based on an actionable change.

You want to be the ship that throws no one overboard (and also avoids people jumping overboard themselves).

Facilitation is an art form; and with the right tools and strategies on your palette - you can strive to create a collaborative educational masterpiece with your team.

How Student Self-Evaluation Makes All the Difference

"Here you go. I'm done and reading for you to mark it," the smiling grade 8 student says as they hold a completed assignment in front of me with a big smile.

"Ok," I reply. "Let's have a look first."

The student's smile changes to a grin and then slowly fades away. "For what?" they say, "It's done, right?"

Now the fun begins....time to find out the true value and merit of their work. 

My first question will frame the whole conversation. "What mark would you give it?"

Now, before you start thinking about all the students who would freeze up, shrug their shoulders and stand there looking puzzled without being able to articulate an answer - I can tell you that they are not just capable of marking their own work - they are highly accurate and reflective when given the right tools to do so. 

"I don't know......I'm not good at this...." the student tries to evade the question.

"Yes. You are. Who else - but you - knows how much effort you put into completing this assignment?"

"Now let's try it again. Think about what the expectations were for the task. Think about how hard you worked on it. Think about the strengths you've shown in the work. Now, think about the advice I might give you about how to improve what you've done. What next steps would other students in the class identify if we all looked at it together?"

The student now knows that the shoulder shrug and "I don't know" won't cut it today. I've already shown that this conversation demands an answer. Ok. Time to think...

"Ummm...a 3-???" the student offers and watches my reaction to gauge if that was an acceptable response."

You see - the student is not just evaluating their own work. They are being asked to somehow predict how their teacher will mark it. By the time, they have become intermediate students, they have been trained into thinking that teacher is the one who holds the magic red pen that 'brands' each student assignment with a grade, based on the careful calculation of the success criteria, and sometimes, secret-hidden things that only teachers know. 

This has to change. 

As the teacher, I have learned to accept the student-suggested mark and not try to raise or lower it initially. But, rather, to ask questions like, "Are you happy with a 3-?" "Does that mark reflect the effort you put into it and learning shown in your work?" 

My personal favourite has become, "Why not a 4+? What could you change or add to make it a 4+?"

And here's where the real reflection and purpose of assessment takes place...

It's a win-win. If the student knows that it is not their best effort or can identify things to improve their work, they have no choice but to take the assignment back and use my feedback (which is really their own self-reflective feedback) and make improvements. 

"The primary purpose of assessment is to improve student learning"

Before this school year I would have allowed the student to hand the assignment in and resolve myself to marking it as it was. Now, I use these student conferences as an opportunity to improve student work and make the assessment process more transparent and attainable. 

I don't really care about the leveled mark I write on a student piece of work. I care about the learning that is taking place and the ability of the student to develop the skills necessary to reach their full potential and grow as a self-directed learner. 

How many individual marks on assignments would you remember from your grade eight year? In fact, how many actual learning activities and assignments would you remember from grade eight as a whole?

Allow the students to mark their own work. Frame their reflective capacity with purposeful questions. Demand that they are accountable for both their first draft and the improvements that they already know could be made (as they try to hand it in).

Improve student learning at the core. It shouldn't be a magic trick to earn a 4+. It should be an attainable target when students have an awareness of what is required. 

Waiting is the Hardest (and Best) Part - @Edutopia article

Waiting is the Hardest (and Best) Part: Enhance your teaching and students' learning by waiting for student responses, waiting for mastery, waiting for the 'spark,' waiting for conflict resolution, and waiting for individual struggle. How do you use 'waiting' in the classroom to further the learning and development of your students?