Coaching for Design Design Process

How We’ll Do Our Work Turn off cell phones. Begin and end on time. Ensure that every participant has ample opportunity to contribute his or her ideas. Present, when giving reports, the ideas from group work, not individual views. Use the rule of “No Repeats.” Ask questions when you have them. Work hard and have a good time.

Coaching for Design Background and Purpose History School and Classroom Standards Design Tool Need Uses With Schools With Districts With Design Teams At Conferences Connections Schlechty Center on Change Seismic Shifts

Coaching for Design is… is not… Facilitating Asking Questions Knowing Our Customers’ Needs and Interests Reflection Directing Giving Answers Self Improvement Action or Activities

The C4D Coach Listens more than talks by Being attentive as work design teams describe their thinking Affirming when appropriate Guiding the thinking of the team with thoughtful questions Asking other teams in the coaching circle to participate as colleagues by contributing to the thinking of the team being coached

The C4D Coach Does not tell teams/members what to think Does not criticize teams or individual team members Does not tell teams/members what to think Does not tell teams/members what to do Does not correct teams/members but through thoughtful questions will help the teams to think clearly and purposefully about their design

C4D Tool Options C4D Tool with Examples C4D Tool without Examples, on CD C4D Condensed Version for Experienced Designers C4D for Designing Engaging Experiences for Adult Learners

Coaching for Design Helpful Hints General Guidelines for Coaching Circles

Forming a Work Design Team A work design team should contain two or more members. All work design team members agree to give their attention and commitment to the design of a high-impact, engaging unit of work for students or adult learners. The work design team should designate a volunteer teacher to teach the unit or decide to design work that will be implemented by all members of the work design team.

Forming a Work Design Team Work design team members may or may not be from the same grade level. Work design team members may or may not be from the same content area. Work design team members may or may not be from the same school. Form teams and sit together.

Coaching for Design Process (Stop after each section for a coaching session.) 1 Prewriting 2 Content and Substance & Measures 3 Product Focus Organization of Knowledge Clear and Compelling Standards Protection from Adverse Consequences for Failure 4 Affiliation Affirmation Choice Novelty and Variety Authenticity

Step One: Prewriting Describing the Students/Learners Selecting Design Qualities to Emphasize

Prewriting Parts 1 and 2 Describing the students for whom the work is intended Think of the students for whom this work is intended. Identify their grade level(s) and unique abilities and challenges. Reflect on the types of school tasks that may speak to the motives they bring to school. What are their learning styles and specific interests? According to this description, what Design Qualities should be emphasized?

Example: Prewriting Description of students: sixth graders, heterogeneous group, one-third poverty, auditory learners, work best in groups, low tolerance for busywork, like some control over learning experiences Design Qualities to emphasize: Organization of Knowledge, Affiliation, Authenticity, Choice Soon you will be asked to complete your two boxes for prewriting by describing the students for whom the work is intended and to identify the Design Qualities to be emphasized.

Step One: Prewriting Exit prewriting by visiting the three essential questions. In planning this work have I consciously built in the qualities and attributes that these students are likely to find most engaging? What data will I seek to help determine the extent to which these students are engaged, and what methods will I use to acquire this data? If at any time during this unit students do not meet my expectations in the way they respond to the work, how will I determine what might be lacking in the work and what strategies will I employ to correct the situation?

Step One: Prewriting Audience Design Qualities

General Guidelines for Coaching Circles: One conversation at a time. Consider listening time to be learning time as opposed to “waiting time”. Take notes if you hear ideas you would like to remember. Offer feedback to help the other teams know what they have right and what they need to think deeply about. Do not critique or tell teams what to do. No side bar conversations.

Content and Substance Designing an Original Learning Experience Handout Do not recycle a lesson. Column One: Think of hard-to-teach, difficult-to- learn concepts. Column Two: Identify important content in which you want your students to work and achieve at higher levels than they are currently working and achieving. Column Three: Capture a sentence that expresses what students will know or be able to do as a result of this learning experience. Use at least one high-level verb. Column Four: Determine how and when achievement will be measured and analyzed.

Coaching for Design Process (Stop after each section for a coaching session.) 1 Prewriting 2 Content and Substance & Measures 3 Product Focus Organization of Knowledge Clear and Compelling Standards Protection from Adverse Consequences for Failure 4 Affiliation Affirmation Choice Novelty and Variety Authenticity

Content and Substance What do we want students to know and be able to do? What is the specific material we want students to deal with in order to learn these things? How can we state, in one concise sentence containing a high-level verb, how proficiency for this content will look?

Content and Substance Questions to Cause Reflection As a result of successfully performing this work, what will students know and be able to do that they do not know and cannot do at the present time? What subject(s), content, or skills will students need to master—and at what level—in order to do this work? How will we know that students have learned what we intended, and how will we know that what we know is so? How do students feel about these subjects and skills? Do they find them intrinsically valuable or are they disinterested or maybe even hostile toward the topics to be considered?

Content and Substance Sample and Content Sentence This unit addresses state standards for reading, language arts, and U.S. history for sixth grade. Concepts taught include structural features of literature, evaluation and revision, and U.S. history. Content Sentence: Students will be able to create accurate news articles depicting the year 1903. Soon you will be asked to complete your two boxes by listing your Content and Substance and forming your content sentence.

Measurement How and when will I seek feedback concerning how students responded to this work? What do I need to know and do in order to get accurate feedback from my students? What do my students need in order to give accurate feedback about this work? What will I do with the engagement data I gather concerning this unit and future units?

Measurements Revisit your “who.” Measuring Engagement Revisit your “who.” Determine when and how you will measure engagement through attention, persistence, and commitment.

Measurements Measuring Achievement How will you determine whether your students have met the goals that you have set for their learning? Will you produce a test? Will you use a product(s) to measure achievement? Will you use a combination of the two?

Sample: Measures of Engagement Every two days group checks will be done by having students write “engaged” or “not engaged” on a post-it and sticking the post-it on the door casing when leaving the room. A question concerning how the student is responding to the work will be included in the self-evaluation rubric and shared with the teacher during the student-teacher conference.

Sample: Measures of Engagement At the conclusion of this unit, each student will compose a letter to the teacher. In the letter, students will be invited to answer the following questions:   Which profile element best describes how you responded to this unit? What about this work caused you to respond this way? What did you find most engaging? What was not engaging? What suggestions do you have for improving the work for next year?

Sample: Measures of Achievement Group-produced newspaper articles will be evaluated by self, peers, and teacher. Student-produced summaries from a given newspaper article will be evaluated according to the rubric. A test will be given over the state standards emphasized in this unit. Soon you will be asked to complete your measures of engagement and achievement.

Coaching for Design Process (Stop after each section for a coaching session.) 1 Prewriting 2 Content and Substance & Measures 3 Product Focus Organization of Knowledge Clear and Compelling Standards Protection from Adverse Consequences for Failure 4 Affiliation Affirmation Choice Novelty and Variety Authenticity

Product Focus Is the work linked to a product, performance, or exhibition that students care about? Does the product or performance require that students use the knowledge and skills that they are to develop in ways that demonstrate mastery?

Product Focus Questions to Cause Reflection Is the nature of the product, performance, or exhibition that is to result from this work clear? If not, at what point will it become clear? Does working on this product call on students to work with information, skills, and processes in which they have a real interest? If not, what is the rationale for choosing this product? If the product is something the student needs to learn to produce even though the act of doing so is initially threatening and off-putting, are there ways to reduce the threat value? Is the work linked to a product, performance, or exhibition of value to the student? Are products personalized so that the different types of student interests are responded to even when students are working on the same product or activity. Will this work cause students to place a great deal of personal value on and take pride in the products and performances they are asked to produce?

Product Focus Sample Students choose to design a product of significance to them.

Organization of Knowledge What learning styles will be addressed, and what instructional strategies will be used (for example, problem solving, demonstration or guided practice)? What technologies will be employed, and how will this be done?

Organization of Knowledge Questions to Cause Reflection Given the content that is to be mastered and the skills to be developed, what are the resources that are available that bear on the subjects involved? For example, what does a Google search reveal about possible sources of instruction? Are there prepared programs that reveal sensitivity to the need to create materials and approaches that place emphasis on efforts to appeal to intrinsic motives—e.g., motives like Affirmation, Affiliation, and so on? Based on experience, what are the types of instructional approaches that are most valued by the students and how might these approaches be honored in the work to be designed? Given the nature of the products(s) to be created, what contextual features need to be specified? For example, is group learning to be valued or should much of the work be done by students operating relatively independently?  

Organization of Knowledge Questions to Cause Reflection Should all the work tasks be done by all these students, or should the tasks be differentiated and assigned to different students depending on such things as their interests in such tasks, their level of understanding of the content, and perhaps their need to develop requisite skills? Is a range of media and presentation formats employed to appeal to students with different learning styles and ways of thinking? Are students called on to conduct experiments, read primary source materials, and read books and articles that convey powerful ideas in powerful ways? Have serious efforts been made to cause students to use what they are learning to analyze problems, issues, and matters of concern to them? Are students encouraged to develop an interdisciplinary perspective to see how what they are learning in a history class, for example, might have relevance for what they are learning in mathematics, language arts, and other subjects?

Organization of Knowledge Sample Students will be given information about the process of creating individual newspaper articles and assembling newspapers as a whole. Students will have hard copies of reference materials as well as Wikipedia and other Internet resources. Students will be given graphic organizers containing a step-by-step overview for the identification of different types of news, parts of the newspaper, the production of a newspaper article, and a newspaper front page. Mini-lessons will be used for summarizing a newspaper article, writing a newspaper article and producing a front page of a newspaper. Use of an interdisciplinary perspective between language arts and U.S. history. Soon you will be asked to complete your box for Organization of Knowledge.

Clear and Compelling Standards Do students have rubrics, models and check lists to help them know what quality looks like?

Clear and Compelling Standards Questions to Cause Reflection Are the standards by which performances and products will be judged sufficiently clear that students can use them in evaluating their own performance as well as in evaluating progress toward producing the intended product? Will students find the standards compelling—that is, do the standards represent a level of achievement or accomplishment that the students truly aspire to and believe it is possible to attain? Do the standards, as they are stated and understood, serve to inspire mastery—getting better and better at something the student believes to be important—or do they inspire passive acceptance rather than commitment?  

Clear and Compelling Standards Questions to Cause Reflection Are students regularly encouraged to assess their own work in terms of the standards set? Are assessment conferences with individual students or small groups of students held where the qualities of student products are assessed? Is assessment used primarily as a tool to promote student success and only secondarily as a means to justify the distribution of rewards and grades? Is emphasis placed on the quality of student work products rather than on time schedules? Are peer evaluation and public discussions of performances, exhibitions, and products used?

Clear and Compelling Standards Sample Rubrics for each activity will be given to students and explained prior to students’ working on each activity. Teacher will model the summarizing and writing of a newspaper article. Teacher will design half of the final product (front page) rubric while students will design the other half of the rubric. Students will participate in a self-evaluation using the final product rubric prior to doing their final product. Soon you will be asked to complete your box for Clear and Compelling Standards.

Protection from Adverse Consequences for Failure Are students provided a supportive environment to practice and to learn–an environment where initial failure is viewed as just another try?

Protection from Adverse Consequences for Failure Questions to Cause Reflection Will students who fail be publicly humiliated by failure to perform up to standard or will failure be construed as just another try? Is the work designed to provide little successes along the way and to limit the prospect of big, high-stakes failures? When students fail, are they encouraged to seek support from peers as well as from their teachers, parents, and others? Are the standards sufficiently demanding to present a challenge to the highest performing students but at the same time sufficiently achievable by students who are less quick or sophisticated? When a student fails to meet the standards, but is making sincere efforts, are there ways to support the student and encourage him or her to see such failures as a normal part of the learning process?

Protection from Adverse Consequences for Failure Questions to Cause Reflection  If all students are expected to meet standards at some point, when they fail to do so, are there opportunities to work directly with the student to diagnose the cause of the failure and correct the situation? Are students provided with feedback on their performance on a regular basis, not just at the time that grades are distributed? Do teachers and students have access to the resources needed (time, people, space, information, and technology) to provide optimum opportunities for success? If a student, after numerous tries, fails to meet the standard, will advice be sought from colleagues, parents, and the student regarding things that would make success more likely?

Protection from Adverse Consequences for Failure Sample Students will be given a schedule and plan of all activities connected to the unit. Teacher will conduct regular checkpoints as scheduled in the plan students will be provided prior to the start of this unit. Teacher will check for student understanding of the purpose of the newspaper, types of news, information available in the newspaper, and procedures news reporters use for writing newspaper articles before students will create their own articles and newspaper front pages. Students will be provided a wide variety of resources to use in the production of their newspaper articles and newspaper front pages. A student-teacher conference will be held after the student self-evaluation and prior to the production of the final product. Students will be provided feedback and support as needed. The resource teacher will be teaming with the general education teacher for this unit design. Either teacher will be available to encourage and support students in small groups or individually. Soon you will be asked to complete your box for Protection from Adverse Consequences for Failure.

Coaching for Design Process (Stop after each section for a coaching session.) 1 Prewriting 2 Content and Substance & Measures 3 Product Focus Organization of Knowledge Clear and Compelling Standards Protection from Adverse Consequences for Failure 4 Affiliation Affirmation Choice Novelty and Variety Authenticity

Affiliation Do students work with peers, outside experts, parents or other adults to complete tasks? Does the group work assigned encourage interdependence and teamwork, or is it work that, given time, one person could do alone?

Affiliation Questions to Cause Reflection Do the students have the team skills and group skills that might be required if Affiliation became a key source of intrinsic motivation? Is it possible to design the work in such a way that if group activity is involved, each member of the group will see what he or she is doing as valuable to himself/herself and to other members of the group? What has been the prior experience of students with work that required collaboration, and how do they feel about this experience? For students who have had negative experiences with group work, what in their view made these experiences bad?

Affiliation Questions to Cause Reflection Does in-class and out-of-class work involve two or more students working together on a common product? Are students given work to do that requires the active involvement of parents and other adult members of the community, including senior citizens? Are tasks designed for students that require the use of the Internet and other forms of electronic communication to build cooperative networks among students, as well as between students and adult groups?

Affiliation Sample Students will form their own groups remembering that they will be evaluating their own performance as well as the performance of their peers within the group and that these evaluations will contribute to their grade for this activity. Students will work in groups as they explore newspapers, their parts and different types of news. Each group will be matched with another group. They will share their learning from comparing and contrasting articles from today’s newspaper with what was happening in 1903. Groups will use a simple protocol for sharing. Student self-formed groups will produce a newspaper front page from a newspaper in early December, 1903. Soon you will be asked to complete your box for Affiliation.

Affirmation Do students know that the work they are doing is valued by others? Are audiences provided to see or hear the work–for example, is student work displayed on a school website, or are student performances videotaped for parents?

Affirmation Questions to Cause Reflection Have the students been taught about group life and do they have the collaborative skills needed to benefit from and contribute to work in a group context? Do students participate in social networks? If so, what is the nature of these networks and how are they used? Are students knowledgeable about the way digital tools might be used to support collaborative activity and are they skilled in using these tools for work-related purposes? Are students involved in creating products that will be of use to other students, read by other students, or viewed by other students?

Questions to Cause Reflection Affirmation Questions to Cause Reflection Are parents and guardians involved in the standard- setting process, and do we encourage them to function as full partners in the evaluation of the student’s performance in school and in the classroom? Will work be displayed for other adults in the school and the community? Will student work be designed so that the student feels that what he or she is doing is of value to others as well as to him or herself? 

Affirmation Sample Students will present their article written about the first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to their group. The group will choose its favorite article to include in their newspaper front page. Newspaper front pages will be displayed on the hallway bulletin board. Soon you will be asked to complete your box for Affirmation.

Choice Are students given choices regarding how they go about doing their work and how they will demonstrate what they know, especially when they have no choice about what they are to study and what skills they are to master?

Choice Questions to Cause Reflection Do the students have sufficient mastery of the content to be studied or the skills to be refined that they can be expected to make informed choices regarding the way they should proceed? Does the nature of the product permit choices in the content to be studied, or is mastery of the content the primary intent? Are students encouraged to experiment with different means of presenting information and gaining access to information? Are students participating in decisions regarding the processes to be employed in assessing performance and determining the standards by which their performance will be evaluated?

Choice Questions to Cause Reflection Are students provided access to a wide range of technologies, from workbooks and text books to original source materials, sophisticated computer programs, presentation technologies, laptop publishing, and so on? Are computers and other forms of instructional technology used? Are the experiences provided students likely to make a difference in the level and type of engagement students will display?

Choice Sample Students will be able to form their own groups for work on the newspaper front page. Student groups will be able to choose which article will be included on their newspaper front page. Student groups will be able to choose the additional information and materials that will make up the front page of the newspaper. Soon you will be asked to complete your box for Choice.

Novelty and Variety Do the tasks assigned call on students to use a variety of skills, styles, and approaches to do quality work?

Novelty and Variety Questions to Cause Reflection Have the involved students developed to the point that they can maintain intellectual work for sustained periods of time? Do the involved students generally get excited about the pursuit of ideas or do they need to be attracted by unique or novel packaging of the ideas—for example, video games, skits, plays, student-made video productions? Based on prior experience with the students involved, what kinds of activities are likely to bore them and therefore cause them to seek diversion and distraction?

Questions to Cause Reflection Novelty and Variety Questions to Cause Reflection  Are students provided with a wide range and varied modes of presentation? Are students provided opportunities to lead others, and are they also provided assistance in carrying out leadership functions when they have difficulty? When possible, will this work encourage students to participate in educational activities and programs sponsored by groups and organizations outside the school?

Novelty and Variety Sample Rather than simply studying the history of the Wright brothers’ first flight and the procedure used by newspaper reporters to write a newspaper article, students will put themselves into history as newspaper reporters and write the article themselves. Furthermore, they will extend this walk into history by creating the front page of the newspaper as well as investigating the history related to this particular event. Soon you will be asked to complete your box for Novelty and Variety.

Authenticity Does the task or assignment address the present realities of students? Is participation in the task or activity a source of pride for most students? Do students feel a sense of personal satisfaction and accomplishment when the work has been completed successfully?

Authenticity Questions to Cause Reflection What are the qualities and characteristics of those students to whom other students look for leadership and approval? Are they, for example, social stars, star athletes, or outstanding academic performers? What is the posture of parents toward the school? Do parents consistently enforce the pursuit of high performance standards for their children and are they attentive to reports regarding that performance? Are the students participants in non-school organizations and groups that either reinforce or undermine student engagement in schoolwork?

Authenticity Questions to Cause Reflection How will students see a link between the quality of products, performances, and exhibitions they produce and consequences that they consider to be personally important? Will students believe that they can do the work given them if they invest the effort, and most of the time be willing to invest the effort required to do the work assigned? Is the work designed in ways that increase student ownership for the quality of the results? Are the consequences of meeting standards or failing to meet standards clear to students, and do they understand that meeting these standards is important to their current circumstances as well as to their future prospects?

Authenticity Questions to Cause Reflection Is the work assigned to students designed and evaluated in such a way that success of one student does not have a negative impact on the success of another student? Is the work designed in such a way that students have a positive stake in and care about the success of other students?

Authenticity Sample Students will put themselves into the history of their country by becoming reporters from the year 1903. Students will write an article about the Wright brothers’ first flight knowing that their group will be choosing an article for evaluation and inclusion on the front page of their newspaper. Students will investigate the life and times of the Wright brothers and compare that to the life and times in which they live. Investigation may include articles, advertisements and people who were featured in newspapers as contemporaries of the Wright brothers, as well as famous individuals featured in newspapers today. Soon you will be asked to complete your box for Authenticity.

Coaching for Design Process (Stop after each section for a coaching session.) 1 Prewriting 2 Content and Substance & Measures 3 Product Focus Organization of Knowledge Clear and Compelling Standards Protection from Adverse Consequences for Failure 4 Affiliation Affirmation Choice Novelty and Variety Authenticity